Author Archive for Cathe'

How Much Cocoa Bean Mulch Can Poison Dogs?

How Much Cocoa Bean Mulch Can Poi­son Dogs? 

The Full Story

Cocoa bean mulch smells like choco­late — to humans and to dogs. The mulch does indeed come from cocoa beans, from which we get choco­late. (The mulch is made from the shells.) Most dog own­ers know that choco­late is poi­so­nous to dogs. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, cocoa bean mulch can be poi­so­nous, too.

 

Choco­late con­tains theo­bromine and caf­feine. The same sub­stances are found in cocoa bean mulch. Dogs that swal­low too much can have vom­it­ing, diar­rhea, a very fast heart rate, tremors, and seizures. Death is uncom­mon but has happened.

 

How much cocoa bean mulch is too much? It’s hard to know. It depends on how much theo­bromine is in the mulch, and there’s no way for a pet own­er or gar­den­er to tell. The dog’s weight mat­ters, too; the small­er the dog, the greater the dan­ger. Also, the more mulch a dog eats, the greater the risk.

 

It’s best if dogs are kept away from ALL sources of choco­late, includ­ing mulch made from the dis­card­ed cocoa bean shells. Con­sult your vet­eri­nar­i­an.  If a dog does eat cocoa bean mulch, giv­ing hydro­gen per­ox­ide to cause vom­it­ing might be the first treat­ment. If a lot of mulch was eat­en, or if the dog is very small, the vet might want to give acti­vat­ed char­coal. Of course, any dog with symp­toms needs to go to the vet right away.

 

There are a lot of mulch choic­es. If you have pets, you may want to leave the cocoa mulch behind in the gar­den cen­ter and choose an alter­nate. If you have ques­tions about cocoa bean mulch, theo­bromine, caf­feine, or choco­late you can call the poi­son spe­cial­ists any time. The 24-hour num­ber is 1–800-222‑1222.

 

Rose Ann Gould Soloway, RN, BSN, MSEd, DABAT emeri­ta
Clin­i­cal Toxicologist


For More Information

Cocoa Bean Mulch as a Cause of Methylx­an­thine Tox­i­co­sis in Dogs”  (ASPCA Ani­mal Poi­son Con­trol Center)


References

Abstract: Hansen, S., Tram­mel, H., Dunay­er, E., Gwalt­ney, S., Farb­man, D., and Khan, S. Cocoa bean mulch as a cause of methylx­an­thine tox­i­co­sis in dogs. Jour­nal of tox­i­col­o­gy Clin­i­cal tox­i­col­o­gy. 2003;41: 720.

Poisoned?

CALL 1–800-222‑1222

Prevention Tips

  • Train your dog to avoid cocoa mulched areas.
  • Avoid using cocoa bean mulch around your home.

This Really Happened

The ASPCA Ani­mal Poi­son Con­trol Cen­ter stud­ied 16 cas­es of cocoa bean mulch inges­tion by dogs man­aged between Jan­u­ary 2002 and April 2003. Of these, 6 cas­es were ana­lyzed since the final out­come was known, the inges­tion had been observed and the man­ag­ing vet­eri­nar­i­an strong­ly linked the dog’s symp­toms to cocoa bean mulch inges­tion. In 50% of the dogs vom­it­ing was report­ed, 33% of the dogs devel­oped tremors, and in 17% fast heart rate, hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty or diar­rhea was report­ed. In 33% of the cas­es, no clin­i­cal signs devel­oped.  In dogs in which tremors were observed, the amount of cocoa bean mulch ingest­ed was described as large or significant.

Hansen, S., Tram­mel, H., Dunay­er, E., Gwalt­ney, S., Farb­man, D., & Khan, S. (2003, Sep­tem­ber). Cocoa bean mulch as a cause of methylx­an­thine tox­i­co­sis in dogs. Poster pre­sent­ed at the annu­al meet­ing of the North Amer­i­can Con­gress of Clin­i­cal Tox­i­col­o­gy, Chica­go, IL.

https://www.poison.org/articles/2012-jun/cocoa-bean-mulch-can-poison-dogs

 

 

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