Chocolate Poisoning in Dog (Case)

Chocolate Poisoning in Dog 

Question

A 2-year old female neutered Crossbreed dog is presented 90 minutes after ingesting 2 pieces of luxury dark chocolate.
At presentation the dog is bright and alert and physical examination is unremarkable. How would you proceed to manage this case?

Answer:
Although she has only eaten 2 pieces of chocolate, the theobromine concentration of luxury dark chocolates can be very high so consult appropriate resources to work out what the risk is here.
Further evaluation suggests that the amount of theobromine consumed by this patient is very close to the toxic dose for dogs and you should proceed with gastrointestinal decontamination.
There are no contraindications for inducing emesis in this patient at this time so this should be done, ideally using apomorphine, and followed up with multidose activated charcoal. The patient should be fine to go home once she has recovered adequately from having emesis induced. Administering metoclopramide once sufficient emesis has occurred can be a nice patient-friendly thing to do!