I don't blame you for worrying!!! If I were closer, I would go check on him for you!! I'm sure he will be OK...But, if you know how much and what type of choc. he ate, you can also call the ASPCA poison hotline and they maybe can reassure you. I know the hours till you get home will be torture. TRY not to worry. Maybe you can go home at little early? Let us know how he's doing when you get home. We all love beautiful Drake! And you're a wonderful furmom. These things just happen sometimes, no matter how hard we try to "child proof" their surroundings. Maybe this clip from a veterinary "site" might make you feel better. These dogs are TINY compared to Drake and ate a lot more chocolate!

Q: Dr. Mike, My friend has three Shih Tzus (one adult male, one adult female, and a 3 month old male) and they just managed to gobble up one and a half chocolate bars while we weren't watching. My friend is pretty worried and claims that chocolate will kill them. I've never heard this before. Assuming they live, can you tell me how serious this could be if they do it again, and what actions can we take to help them? Mike

A: Mike- I'm sure the dogs are fine by now. Milk chocolate rarely contains enough chocolate to pose a serious threat to dogs from chocolate toxicity. A lot of dogs get pretty good cases of diarrhea after eating chocolate treats in large quantities, though. Baker's chocolate is concentrated enough to pose a threat to dogs and they can die from chocolate toxicity. So your friend is right about the possibility of chocolate toxicity but it is just not likely with milk chocolate ingestion, except in very large quantities.

Mike Richards, DVM

[ November 06, 2001: Message edited by: tatsxxx11 ]