Sunday 30 November 2008

dogs are in danger if they eat Xylitol sugar substitute

Reading Dolittler's blog today I was surprised to learn the extent of the danger the sugar-substitute Xylitol presents to dogs.

Since I read her previous posts on the danger of this product I've been been warning my friends not to feed anything with artificial sweeteners - but I didn't realise that Xylitol is used now in Rescue Remedy and in some multivitamins.

Dolittler (a practising vet in the US) says that more dogs are poisoned by TicTacs than by any other product, partly because they have such a high level of Xylitol and partly because they are so ubiquitous.

An online article by Sherrill Sellman says that the Finns rediscovered Xylitol during a sugar shortage in World War Two, making it from birch bark. It had been first manufactured in 1891 by a German chemist.

Snopes.com has an account of a nearly fatal accidnet where a dog ate a couple of pieces of chewing gum.

I guess the message is, don't feed your dog anything produced for humans, unless you research the ingredients first.

4 comments:

Amber-Mae said...

Yeah, read many stories about dogs dying or getting really sick after eating xylitol sweets. My Mommy used to give us candies but none of them had xylitol in them.

Butt wiggles,
Solid Gold Dancer

Slavenka said...

I researched through the internet and how things stand Xylitol
is the most dangerous just for dogs. Only 3 grams can kill a 65- pound
dog.

Molly the Airedale said...

This is sure scary stuff! We can never be too careful!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

parlance said...

Amber-Mae, Slavenka and Maggie and Mitch, I'm glad that we're all on the internet so we can share what we all know about dangers like this.