Top 10 Household Toxins to Dogs and Cats

 Top 10 Household Toxins to Dogs and Cats  

Written by Ashley Forti, BVMS, MRCVS 

1. Chocolate, coffee and caffeine

These products contain theobromine (a methylxanthine) found in cocoa seeds, coffee beans and some nuts. Toxic side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, rapid heart rate, panting, hyperactivity, increased thirst and urination, tremors, seizures and death. Dark chocolate, baking chocolate and cocoa powder have higher levels of methylxanthines than milk or white chocolates.

2. Raisins and grapes

These fruits have the potential to cause kidney failure, but the toxic substance is unknown and not dose-related. Some dogs can eat them and be just fine, but other dogs may be more sensitive and develop clinical signs after ingesting a small amount. It is best to avoid feeding these to your pets due to the potentially lethal effects.

3. Over the counter medications (Aspirin, Aleve, Advil, Tylenol, etc.)

It may be tempting to try to treat your pet’s pain at home; however administering these common pain relievers can be deadly. Symptoms include gastrointestinal irritation, ulceration, perforation leading to sepsis and death. They can also cause acute kidney failure and neurological disease. There are other veterinary pain medications that are specifically formulated for dogs and cats, and are much safer to use than the human versions.

4. Lilies (Lilium and Hemerocallis species)

Lily toxicity has mainly been reported in cats. The target organ is the kidneys, and clinical signs include vomiting, anorexia, lethargy and acute kidney failure. All parts of the plant are toxic and clinical signs are usually seen between six-12 hours after ingestion.

5. Garlic, onions and chives

These plants can cause gastrointestinal upset and red blood cell damage in dogs and especially cats. If they ingest toxic doses, they can develop a condition in which red blood cells are destroyed called Heinz Body Anemia.

6. Xylitol

This is an artificial sweetener used in many candies, sugar-free gum, baked goods and toothpaste. It can cause insulin release, low-blood sugar and leads to liver failure. Initial signs include vomiting, lethargy, loss of coordination and seizures. Prompt treatment may be effective but liver failure can be seen within days of ingestion; if this occurs prognosis is poor.

7. Hops

Home brewing has become very popular and veterinarians are seeing an increase in the number of dogs that have ingested hops. Hops are used in the beer-making process and are toxic to dogs. It can cause a dangerously high body temperature, panting, elevated heart rate, anxiety, vomiting and even death. Effects can be seen very quickly and death can occur after only six hours.

8. Raw bread dough/yeast

Yeast can cause your pet’s stomach to painfully swell, bloat with gas and potentially twist,

which is a life-threatening emergency. The yeast undergoes a reaction in the stomach

and one of the byproducts of this reaction is ethanol. Ethanol (alcohol) created in the

stomach causes your pet to become drunk and other symptoms of a twisted gut may become apparent.

9. Albuterol inhaler

Biting or chewing these inhalers can cause severe issues including arrhythmias, changes in blood pressure, anxiety, restlessness, tremors, weakness and electrolyte

abnormalities. With prompt veterinary care, prognosis is generally good.

10. Recreational substances

These substances can be consumed by accident and cause severe symptoms. Alcohol causes depression, lethargy, sedation, wobbliness and metabolic acidosis. IV fl uid therapy and other treatments may be warranted if your pet is experiencing these symptoms. Marijuana causes vomiting, changes in heart rate and body temperature, vocalizing, urinary incontinence, hyperactivity, seizures, weakness, depression and coma. Dogs often eat brownies or cookies that contain this substance, but they can also eat the marijuana by itself.

 There are hundreds of other household toxins that are toxic to our pets. For a complete list please visit  www.aspcapro.org/poison. The most important part of treating any toxin exposure is rapid decontanmination, so it is important to seek veterinary care as soon as possible. If you are at all concerned that your pet may have ingested any of these toxins, please contact Veterinary Specialists & Emergency Services at (585) 424-1277 or ASPCA poison control at (888) 426-4435. 

Dr. Ashley Forti is a staff doctor at Veterinary Specialists & Emergency Services. She graduated from the University of Glasgow School of Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland in 2015. Dr. Forti's professional interests include small animal surgery and exotic pets. She has a four-year-old Russian Tortoise named Boris.

What is an LVT?

Veterinary Specialists & Emergency Services is a 24 hour veterinary emergency and specialty referral facility. We are the only hospital like this in our city--the next closet being 100 miles away and over an hour's drive. This means that we are always busy and require staff around the clock! Our staff is like no other. We are so honored to have such devoted, hard working, and compassionate employees in our facility who work hard for the patients every day.

This is why we are finding ways to say thank you to our staff this week during our annual Staff Appreciation week. We're going to be doing all kinds of fun things to show the staff how much we appreciate what they do every day. It just so happens that this week is also National Veterinary Technician Week! Although we value our technicians and the rest of the staff every day of the year, we like to use this week to honor them for the high-quality veterinary care they execute.

You might want to know what a Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT), or "Vet Tech", does; well, that can vary depending upon the type of hospital and where the hospital is located. We were lucky enough to get some insider information from one of our vet techs at VSES. Jen has 14 years of experience in the field, and has been a technician with VSES for half of those years! We asked her what it is like to be a technician at an emergency/specialty hospital and her is what she had to say!

 Emergency LVTs working on an IV catheter for this patient.

 You never know what the day will bring when you are an LVT in an emergency/specialty practice. Our emergency technicians generally see and care for some of the most severely ill and injured patients in our area. This means that they have some advanced skills that are not seen in general veterinary practices--such as placing jugular catheters, arterial catheters, urinary catheters (in both male adn female dogs), and excellent venipuncture skills. 

Along with these skills, our technicians are typically working during some very sad and stressful situations because of the nature of the cases that come through our front doors. Patients that have been hit by a car, bloat, urinary obstruction, and dog fights are just a few of the types that we see on a regular basis. The LVTs are then expected to perform all of their tasks--such as drawing blood, placing intravenous catheters, administering medications, taking radiographs, and monitoring breathing and patient comfort--during very critical and chaotic situations. Once patients are stabilized, our technicians get to follow up with after care treatments like monitoring vitals, administering medications, blood transfusions, and general husbandry care. 

Surgery LVTs helping a patient recover after surgical repair of wounds from
a dog fight.

The specialty technicians can have their own similar challenges. In many cases, a critical patient may be transferred to a specialty department for a more advanced look into the problem. In these instances, the staff is typically moving quickly to try and coordinate many of the treatments and procedures between departments in the most efficient way possible so that appropriate care can begin immediately. For general specialty patients that come in on appointments, the cases tend to be extremely complex. This is because patients are typically referred to us by their primary care veterinarian when their doctor feels that the pet requires a board-certified specialist with increased knowledge and experience in a specific area such as surgery, internal medicine, diagnostic imaging, ophthalmology, neurology, or dermatology. 


Simply put, any technician at an emergency/specialty hospital has to know their basic LVT skills and knowledge plus the skills and knowledge needed to work with complex and critical cases. One thing remains equal across all veterinary technicians (and all other staff members) in any field of veterinary medicine: no matter where they work, they all have the same goal to care for and keep patients as comfortable as possible. People in veterinary medicine work for animals. At VSES, we do that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. So, we thank all of our staff (and all veterinary staff) for all that they do around the clock to provide care to the animals of the world!