It didn't hit that it was Christmas until this morning. We got some presents, went to my cousins' house for the day, and came back.

I have two dogs. We got gum for Christmas (along with Reese's and a few other little things). We came home to find two or three of the chocolates eaten by one of the dogs. We also found an entire box of gum gone. Now this isn't your regular twelve pack of gum. This is one of those cups with 40 pieces in it. Now the first ingredient in this gum is Xylitol. And why is that important you ask? Because even a small amount of Xylitol can cause low blood sugar that leads to death in dogs. We also don't know which dog ate it yet.

So we called the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center and they asked for $65 for advice that could turn out to be useless. We called the vet and got an Animal Hospital number from their answering machine. The hospital we called said we could give them Hydrogen Peroxide to induce vomiting.

2 teaspoons would be enough and they would throw up within 15 minutes. Now we've given them at least 2 1/2 doses (of 2 teaspoons, 15 minutes apart) and it's been nearly an hour and they still won't puke.

The hospital vet insisted that if 40 pieces of gum was in their system for around 6 hours, then it has already been absorbed and there's nothing we can do at home. They also insisted that we should bring them in immediately, but they wouldn't say what they would do if we bring them in (if anything).

So, we're waiting to get them to puke so we can tell which one ate the gum. After that we can go to the vets who are behaving like scam artists or just wait for them to die.

I had to say all of this somewhere and Vizzed seemed like a nice place. Facebook would be too soon at this point.

Anyone with dog knowledge have any other advice or a good site (other than the worthless ASPCA people), feel free to share.

P.S. So this isn't 100% bitter, Merry Christmas to those who are enjoying it.

EDIT: The old fat dog ate the gum. The younger one doesn't seem to have had any. How can we tell? The young one's vomit smelled like vomit. The old one's vomit was minty fresh.

Turns out that vet is definitely more of a scam. They give the worst diagnosis possible so they can get as much money as possible. There are reviews online that testify to that. If I wasn't concerned with getting banned from the site, half of what I said would be profanity.

EDIT 2: A different animal hospital said that the sick dog may have a chance. We just have to feed him normally and hope for the best.

How about feeding him sweet foods once in awhile. Bake caramel cakes or buy one. Just be sure not to feed them more than a half slice or it will turn into something worse because sweets aren't really dog's food. Also, avoid cocoa.

But the point really isn't feed them sweets, it's how to get it out of their system once they ingest. Never know about the Xylitol thing, but I know that if it were a lot of chocolate instead of gum they'd be in a bit of trouble. But thanks for sharing the story. If I decide to get a dog I'll definitely keep the gum thing in mind.

He's actually looking better this morning. He did take 3 or 4 doses of Hydrogen Peroxide when he should have needed one so he's more resilient than we realized. He's also gotten some of his energy back which is good. There's still no guarantee yet. According to the online info on ASPCA, they could go for a few hours or even a few days without any symptoms.

Juliet :
We asked about that and one of the vets along with a family friend who is a vet said we should not give him extra sugar. Just keep feeding him normally and let him drink as much water as he wants because it may dilute the Xylitol in his blood stream.

Cyro Xero : My impression from the vets is that Xylitol is just as bad as Chocolate.

i mean yeah the gum is bad but i dont think id be just worried about the gum....you should also worry about the chocolate that was eaten,bc chocolate has something we call theobromine in it and see dogs lack a specific enzyme and can't metabolize theobromine. Consumption of theobromine by animals can lead to seizures, convulsions, toxicity and even death in some animals. sorry this happened hope you had a good christmas either way

LYNDZ88 :
It's not all gum that can cause trouble. Sugar free gum contains the artificial sweetener, Xylitol. Xylitol causes low blood sugar that can lead to all sorts of bad things.

http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/toxicology/qt/xylitol_tox.htm

A different source with a list of foods that are dangerous to dogs (also mentions chocolate and salt) said that 2 or 3 pieces can be enough to kill a dog. My dog ate 40 pieces. And when he puked, there was no sign of gum other than the minty freshness. That means he absorbed all 40 pieces into his blood stream.

He didn't have very much chocolate so we're not as worried about that. I do know about how bad chocolate is, but I didn't know about the chemical. Thanks for that.

Wow, that sucks. I hope your dogs get better soon.

I'm sorry to hear that I hope they get better soon. I hope you had a good christmas

BNuge : Oh my Gosh, I hope that none of your dogs are hurt! I don't know what I would do if my dog did that!
One time my cousins dog ate 3 whole boxes of chocolates that were under the tree while they weren't there, Thank God he wasn't hurt. He was a weenie dog( I have no idea for the technical term).

Thats depressing.....but that doesn't completly make your chrismas bad, right? at least there ok.

Between the family friend, all of my cousins, and the local dog officer who is also a personal friend, no one has a clue how this dog survived. Somehow he's alive and acting like nothing ever happened. It's been over a week so we're starting to calm down about it.

Juliet :
Cyro Xero :
LYNDZ88 :
jmc1097 :
M!cH@3l 001 :
pi0x :
pieman9 :

Thanks for the messages. Considering he turned out fine, I decided to add a picture of him.








Image upload: 3264x2448 totaling 199 KB's.

Ok thats good to here man and that a cool looking dog by the way

So, what's the crazy dog's name? And the thing about it is that he doesn't it was the chocolate that made him sick.