Mikhail Blacer
Dogs love to beg, and most owners are usually happy to oblige, not knowing that the morsels of food they dish out will pose numerous problems. Limit your pets' diets strictly to dog food and treats. Why? Well, here's a short list of human food which are dog poisons and how they can negatively affect your pets' health.
We all know that we should never feed our dogs with chocolate, but most of us don't actually know the reason why. This ambrosia is toxic to dogs mainly because of two compounds: caffeine and theobromine (the latter is also found in coffee). These causes dogs to become more agitated and hyperactive, along with complications such as an irregular heartbeat, restlessness, tremors, seizures, vomiting and ultimately, death.
Other than the ones found on boxes, chocolate-derived products like cocoa mulch, cocoa powder, baker's chocolate, along with candy are extremely hazardous to dogs.
Although generally healthy to humans and cats, dogs will have appetite problems if fed with too much fish. The seafood can cause a thiamine deficiency (a type of vitamin B) which can lead to appetite loss and seizures.
Canned seafood is also a big no-no, considering that it contains too much sodium and fat, leading to kidney problems and an excess of sodium.
Although dishing out morsels of tasty bread is all right, a dog who ingested dough should be brought to an animal hospital immediately.
A dog's stomach is provides an ideal environment for bread dough to rise, and as it expands, it can cause a severe decrease of blood flow into your pet's stomach. This in turn can cause the tissues to die. As it expands, it can also block the diaphragm, causing breathing difficulties.
The yeast in the bread may also produce alcohol, which may cause your pet to become intoxicated - this will cause them to vomit, be dehydrated and have seizures.
It's uncommon to see a dog - or a cat - gorging on a piece of onion, considering the fact that it tastes horrible when raw. This popular kitchen spice may be a good addition to your stir fried dishes and soups, but it can do harm to your pets. By the way, this encompasses onion powders, mixes, along with dishes which have them.
Onions, along with related spices like garlic, shallots and scallions, can damage your pets' red blood cells, causing toxicosis. Their effects do not become apparent immediately, as the effects manifest themselves after a few days.
A pet who has ingested vast amounts of onions needs to be treated by a veterinarian right away.
Usually, dogs and cats shy away from coffee since they find the smell and taste of it unappealing (note: this makes coffee grounds ideal for repelling pets away from gardens).
However, both dogs and cats may find sweet coffees, particularly those topped with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate a joy to drink. This popular beverage is poison to pets thanks to caffeine, the drug responsible for keeping us all awake at school and our work desks. If ingested by your pet, it can cause agitation, irregular heartbeat and the inability to control the bowels.
Although the association between grapes, raisins and kidney failure in both cats and dogs remains unclear, it is known that the fruit makes them develop life threatening problems. Within 12-24 hours of ingestion, dogs will end up vomiting, and become lethargic and dehydrated. Kidney problems will become evident in the next few days, and death will occur afterwards if left untreated.
Although giving pets lean meat is ok, giving them ones with a high fat content,, like ham and its fat trimmings, is a big no-no. Meat with high fat content can easily cause pancreatitis and liver problems, not to mention hypertension and cholesterol problems (yes, dogs experience these types of problems).
