Xylitol

Maxy24

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#1
Does anyone else think that xylitol doesn't get enough attention? I mean everyone on planet Earth knows that chocolate is bad for dogs, my aunt freaks out if a chocolate chip falls on the ground. But chocolate isn't even that bad. Xylitol, from what I've read, is super bad and by the time you notice something's wrong your dog is in liver failure. I have not met anybody, outside of forums of course, who has ever heard of xylitol. Today I was talking to my mom and she informed me that Tucker ate a sleeve of her sugar free cookies today. Xylitol was the first thing that popped into my head and I asked her to check the ingredients, luckily there was some other sweetener instead. But my mom didn't know what on Earth I was talking about and didn't really want to check the label, she figured if he isn't vomitting there isn't a problem. If he had been vomitting she probably would have just assumed it was an upset stomach from eating so much. I don't think she understood how toxic it was, especially for a dog of his size.

I feel like xylitol needs some news attention or something. Especially now when everyone is on a diet and there are so many diabetics who are all eating sugar free stuff. But I don't think most people would know to check for it.

This is mostly of a rant/reaction to me being scared about mom leaving sleeves of poison cookies around the house for my dog to eat.
 
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#2
up until recently xylitol hasn't been used in much. I still don't think it's all that mainstream in use. probably why not many people know much about it. until a couple years ago, I hadn't seen it in anything but a nasal rinse that was being pushed by some dentists and recently in some gum. But not a lot.
 

Saeleofu

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#3
I agree that it needs more attention. The biggest place I see it is in gum like Trident, and has been for years. It's also starting to be in OTC meds, and possibly more dangerous than whatever the drug is if the dog gets a hold of it. .
 

Southpaw

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#5
Agreed. Everybody gets a little worried when the dog eats a chocolate chip cookie. No one knows about xylitol.... my nephews were eating some fruity flavored candy mint things, the dogs were super interested in them and one of them ended up eating one that got dropped on the ground. I checked the ingredients to make sure there was no xylitol in them and my mom had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.
 

StarryNY

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#7
It's not quite as common as other things like Chocolate, although more prominent in gum (which, I don't see many dogs going after). I'm remembering a brief account my supervisor had on his dog eating a bunch of expensive chocolates that he mananged to get into. Fortunately, there was no issue with that but egads. Chocolate happens to be in the house more so than xylitol..that and it's an odd sounding name that's harder to remember than chocolate. o_O
 

Kat09Tails

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#8
Well right now statistically one of the most common things that poisons dogs in the home is tic tacs according to ASPCA poison control. So I think yes, it probably needs more attention as the fatal dosage for a dog is mindshatteringly low.
 

elegy

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#9
Oh absolutely.

Several months ago a friend of mine who is reasonably dog-savvy posted on Facebook that her dog had eaten a whole pack of gum out of her purse. She thought it was funny and her dog would have fresh minty breath. She had no idea that it could be potentially disastrous!

The gum *did* have Xylitol in it, though not as much as some have. She made the dog vomit and the dog didn't require further treatment. But it could have been scary.

We've had a couple dogs with Xylitol toxicity at work. They've all been chewing gum eaters.
 

Sweet72947

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#10
My sister actually has a bag of Xylitol that she used to leave next to her coffee maker on the counter. Well, one day Daisy went counter surfing and ate some of the bag. This wasn't discovered until my mom got home from work at 5:00pm, and we didn't know when Daisy got into the Xylitol. We were all so worried, but all that happened to Daisy was a bit of a tummy ache, and then she was back to normal. This is the dog that has in the past gorged herself on chocolate and other sundry things, and never had anything worse happen to her than a little diarrhea. I swear she has a Stomach of Steel. My sister keeps her Xylitol in the cabinet now. That stuff is NOT anything to mess around with, even in humans, it can give humans a pretty bad case of the runs if they eat too much of it!
 

Kayota

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#11
I warn people about it when I get the chance. One time a package of sugarfree gum went missing and I found it a month later... Torn up and completely empty under my bed! I was SO glad Roxie was okay and now I make sure I never leave gum in Chihuahua-reach. She hadn't even had symptoms... I got very lucky.
 

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