Foods That Are Toxic to Dogs and Cats
Several foods that are ordinary for people are toxic to dogs and cats, and a few are dangerous in surprisingly small amounts. This is worth learning once properly rather than looking up in a panic.
General information, not veterinary advice. If your pet has eaten something on this list, call your vet or an animal poison line straight away — do not wait for symptoms, and do not try to make the animal vomit unless you are told to.
Xylitol is the one people have not heard of
Xylitol — also sold as birch sugar — is a sweetener in sugar-free gum, mints, some peanut butters, baked goods, and various supplements and dental products. In dogs it triggers a rapid insulin release, causing a dangerous drop in blood sugar within an hour, and larger doses can cause liver failure.
It is dangerous at small quantities and it is in far more products than people expect. Checking the label of any sugar-free item before it goes in a bag a dog can reach is a habit worth forming, and peanut butter is the specific one to check, because it is so often used to hide tablets.
Chocolate: it depends which kind
The toxic component is theobromine, and the concentration varies enormously. Dark and baking chocolate and cocoa powder carry far more than milk chocolate; white chocolate has negligible amounts.
Because the dose depends on the type, the amount, and the size of the dog, this is a call-the-vet situation rather than a judgement call. Have the wrapper to hand: the percentage of cocoa solids and the weight eaten are exactly what they will ask for.
Grapes and raisins
Grapes, raisins, sultanas and currants can cause acute kidney injury in dogs, and the alarming thing about them is that no reliable safe dose is known — some dogs are affected by a very small quantity and others are not. Because susceptibility is unpredictable, any ingestion is treated as significant.
Raisins are the practical risk, being concentrated and present in a great many baked goods, cereal bars and Christmas foods.
Onions, garlic, leeks and chives
All members of the allium family damage red blood cells and can cause anaemia, in dogs and more severely in cats. Cooking does not remove the risk, which makes leftovers, gravy, stock and onion powder the usual culprits rather than raw onion.
The effect is cumulative and often delayed by days, so a pet that seems fine that evening is not evidence that nothing happened.
The rest of the list
- Macadamia nuts — weakness, tremors and hind-limb problems in dogs
- Alcohol and raw bread dough, which ferments in a warm stomach
- Cooked bones — they splinter; raw feeding is a separate debate but cooked bones are agreed on
- Lilies — not a food, but any part of a true lily can cause fatal kidney failure in cats, including pollen brushed onto fur
- Antifreeze — sweet-tasting, rapidly fatal, and a genuine emergency at any quantity
What to do, in order
Remove whatever is left so no more is eaten. Work out what it was, how much, and when — packaging is ideal. Call the vet or a poison line with those three facts and the animal's weight.
Do not induce vomiting on your own initiative. For some substances it helps and for others it makes things considerably worse, and that decision belongs to someone who knows which.
Why "how much" is the wrong question
For several of these there is no established safe amount, the toxic dose varies with the individual animal, and the relevant quantity depends on body weight — a bite that is trivial for a 40 kg dog can be significant for a 5 kg one.
So the useful response to "my pet ate some" is never to look up a threshold. It is to call a vet or a poison line with the substance, the rough quantity and the animal's weight, and let someone qualified decide whether it matters.
What to have ready when you call
The packaging, or a photograph of it. What was eaten and roughly how much. When. Your pet's weight and age. Anything you have already done.
Keep the packaging even after the fact — an ingredient list frequently contains the thing that actually matters, and some sweeteners in particular are present in products nobody expects them in.
Prevention is mostly storage
Height is not a strategy for cats. Closed doors and sealed containers are.
Bins with lids that latch, because bin-raiding accounts for a large share of these incidents.
Handbags on hooks. A visitor's bag is a common and completely unanticipated route to a dog eating something it should not.
Tell guests. Most incidents involving food start with someone being kind.
The seasonal pattern
Incidents cluster around holidays, and predictably so: more food in the house, more visitors, more unattended plates, and several of the commonest problem foods are seasonal treats.
It is worth a specific conversation before those weeks rather than a general intention, and worth knowing your out-of-hours clinic's holiday arrangements before you need them.
If you are not sure whether it matters
Call anyway. Clinics would far rather answer a question about something harmless than see an animal several hours later, and no vet has ever thought worse of an owner for checking.
The two numbers to have to hand
Your vet's number and your pet's weight. Between them they cover most of what anyone will ask you in the first minute of a call, and neither is findable in a hurry unless it was saved in advance.
Save both now, in your phone, under a name you will find while panicking. It is a two-minute job that pays off exactly once and enormously.
This is general information, not veterinary advice. Every figure here is a starting point for a conversation with your own vet, who knows the animal in front of them. Anything sudden, painful, or getting worse is a call to a clinic rather than a calculation.