Caution: sugar-free gum can be fatal to dogs!

I got this e-mail from a friend. Anyone who owns a dog should be very careful with sugar-free products that contain Xylitol. It can be fatal to dogs if ingested.

Snopes article about Xylitol

After you read what is there, below is another incident.


Last Friday evening, I arrived home from work, fed Chloe,
our 24 Lb. Dachshund, just as I normally do. Ten minutes later I
walked into the den just in time to see her head inside the pocket of
Katie's friend's purse. She had a guilty look on her face so I looked
closer and saw a small package of sugar-free gum. It contained
xylitol. I remembered that I had recently read that sugar-free gum can
be deadly for dogs so I jumped on line and looked to see if xylitol
was the ingredient. I found the first website below and it was the one.


Next, I called our vet. She said to bring her in immediately.


Unfortunately, it was still rush hour and it took me
almost 1/2 hour to get there. Meanwhile, since this was her first
case, our vet found another website to figure out the treatment. She
took Chloe and said they would induce her to vomit, give her a
charcoal drink to absorb the toxin (even though they don't think it
works) then they would start an IV with dextrose. The xylitol causes
dogs to secrete insulin so their blood sugar drops very quickly. The
second thing that happens is liver failure. If that happens, even with
aggressive treatment, it can be difficult to save them. The vet told
us she would call us.


Almost two hours later, the vet called and said that
contents of her stomach contained 2-3 gum wrappers and that her blood
sugar had dropped from 90 to 59 in 30 minutes. She wanted us to take
Chloe to another hospital that has a critical care unit operating
around the clock. We picked her up and took her there. They had us
call the ASPCA poison control for a case number and for a donation,
their doctors would direct Chloe's doctor on treatment. They would
continue the IV, monitor her blood every other hour and then in 2 days
test her liver function. She ended up with a central line in her
jugular vein since the one in her leg collapsed, just as our regular
vet had feared.

Chloe spent almost the entire weekend in the critical
care hospital. After her blood sugar was stabilized, she came home
yesterday. They ran all the tests again before they released her and
so far, no sign of liver damage. Had I not seen her head in the purse,
she probably would have died and we wouldn't even have known why.

Three vets told me this weekend, that they were amazed
that I even knew about it since they are first learning about it too.
Please tell everyone you know about xylitol and dogs. It may save
another life.

Please take the time to pass this information on to
anyone you know who has a dog.


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From Wikipedia


Dogs ingesting foods containing high doses of xylitol (greater
than 100 milligram of xylitol consumed per kilogram of bodyweight)
have presented with low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) which can be
life-threatening. Low blood sugar can manifest as loss of
coordination, depression, collapse and seizures as soon as 30 minutes
after ingestion. Intake of very high doses of xylitol (greater than
500 - 1000 mg/kg bwt) has also been implicated in liver failure in 8
dogs, which can be fatal.

I'll keep that in mind.