In the United States, chocolate is one of five common items that cause pet dog poisoning, along with car antifreeze, marijuana, and rat poisoning. medicines and pesticides.

Chocolate's addictive secret lies in the theobromine it contains. Theobromine can excite the central nervous system, relax muscles, and improve heart rate. No wonder eating chocolate can make people feel like falling in love. Theobromine also has two famous brothers belonging to the methylxanthine family: caffeine and theophylline.

Just seeing the names of these people may make you realize that cocoa, coffee, and tea can be the three major beverages, and they have common characteristics. If you taste it carefully, whether it is coffee, cocoa, tea or cola, there is a hint of bitterness. This is also due to methylxanthine substances, and their pure products are very bitter.

These substances are toxic to most animals, but this trick doesn't work well for primates where humans are. We have a high metabolic rate for such substances, which means that these toxins in the body are quickly detoxified by the liver and excreted by the kidneys.

Unfortunately, dogs are not primates and do not efficiently excrete methylxanthines from their bodies. It takes about 20 hours to excrete half of the methylxanthines ingested from the body.

For a Pomeranian weighing 3 kg, eat 3-4 grams of dark chocolate at a time You can be poisoned, it's just a sip; eat 10 grams of dark chocolate at a time and you may experience severe vomiting and cramps; eat 60 grams of dark chocolate at a time and you may ask for it because of tachycardia and muscle stiffness It's just the weight of a slab of chocolate.

For a dog who doesn't know how hungry it is, it's obviously not too difficult to swallow a plate of chocolate. The famous Merck Veterinary Manual recommends that a dog who eats more than 1.3 grams of dark chocolate per kilogram of body weight should be taken to an animal hospital for treatment.