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Xylitol (sugar substitute in sugar-free gum) can be DEADLY for your pets!

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Dover Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-31-08 12:53 AM
Original message
Xylitol (sugar substitute in sugar-free gum) can be DEADLY for your pets!
Edited on Thu Jul-31-08 01:44 AM by Dover
This may be old news. It's new to me, though.
Don't know if this subject has already been covered in this forum or not but
this was forwarded to me in an email from a friend and thought I'd pass it along.
Quite serious by the sounds of it.

Dog and Ferret Owners Heads Up!


Warning to all dog owners - pass this on to everyone you can. 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. She 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.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

USA TODAY article:
By Sharon L. Peters, Special for USA TODAY

A sugar substitute found in a variety of sugar-free and dietetic cookies, mints and chewing gum is proving highly toxic, even fatal, to snack-snatching dogs.
Xylitol, popular in Europe for decades but a relative newcomer to the U.S. alternative-sweeteners market, can be "very, very serious" to dogs when ingested, says Dana Farbman, spokeswoman for the Animal Poison Control Center of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"It doesn't take a whole lot (of xylitol), and the effects are so rapid that the window of opportunity to treat the dog is extremely small," Farbman says.

The ASPCA sent an advisory to veterinarians last August warning them about the potential for serious harm or death. Veterinarians have used a variety of means to get the word out, including posting signs in their offices and making copies of the bulletin for clients to augment the caution the ASPCA has posted on its website.

Concerned that millions of people are still unaware of the risk, veterinarians with forums for widespread public announcements are spreading the word that way as well. Among them: Miami veterinarian Patty Khuly wrote about the problem on her doolittler.com blog, and Colorado Springs veterinarian Anne Pierce devoted her entire weekly newspaper column a week ago to xylitol.

Within 30 minutes of consuming a small amount of a xylitol-sweetened product, the ASPCA says, dogs can experience a dramatic drop in blood sugar, and they usually begin vomiting, become lethargic and can have difficulty standing or walking. Some have seizures, develop internal hemorrhaging and lesions and suffer liver failure. As few as two or three sticks of xylitol gum could be toxic to a 20-pound dog, the ASPCA says.

Immediate and aggressive veterinary treatment, which includes glucose drips and IV fluids, has proved effective in many cases...cont'd

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-03-18-xylitol-sweetener_N.htm




More Info:

Cases of xylitol poisoning in dogs rise
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/oct06/061001b.asp

Pet Nutrition
http://petnutritioninfo.com/xylitol_pet_dog.htm

Xylitol Dangerous to Dogs and Possibly Ferrets
http://vetmedicine.about.com/b/2008/05/02/xylitol-dangerous-to-dogs-and-possibly-ferrets.htm



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tabatha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-31-08 01:12 AM
Response to Original message
1. According to wiki
"One teaspoon (5 mL) of xylitol contains 9.6 calories, as compared to one teaspoon of sugar, which has 15 calories. Xylitol contains zero net effective carbohydrates, whereas sugar contains 4 grams per 5 mL. Xylitol has virtually no aftertaste, and is advertised as "safe for diabetics and individuals with hyperglycemia". This is because sugar-alcohols have less impact on a person's blood sugar than regular sugars.<4>"

Other sugar alcohols are used in human food - mannitol, sorbitol, erythritol, maltitol, lactitol.

Often animals cannot eat what humans can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol

Too much xylitol can cause diarrhea in humans.
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Dover Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-31-08 01:50 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Thanks
I removed my line about concerns for humans after reading your post, so as not to
cause confusion.
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