1177. A Schnauzer ate a big bar of Toberlone chocolates

Saturday Jan 24, 2015

Home dogs cannot talk but they are opportunistic. This Schnauzer saw two bars of the Swiss chocolate Toberlone and quickly swallowed one bar and a bit of the other before the owner spotted him. That was around 2 hours ago.

"The maid had put salt into his mouth but he would not vomit out the chocolates," the young lady said.

"Salt is a natural way to induce vomiting," I tried to place some salt on my forefinger and stick it at the back of his tongue as my assistant opened his mouth. No vomitng. I tried again another 3 times. Nothing happened. I had syringed in 2 ml of water and he had swallowed. But no vomiting. The dog must be salty by now. .

"Isn't there an injection to make him vomit?" the lady asked.
"Salt does work and is the natural way as compared to an injection."

After 10 minutes of no vomiting, I gave this dog 0.6 ml of 2% xylazine IM.  Xylazine injections often induces vomting depending on the dosage and sometimes it does not work.  

I asked Intern Ng to continue with her own work as I placed the dog inside the kennel. Within 5 minutes he vomited out all the melted chocolate and water. Evidence is there. We were all very happy

I gave the dog an IV drip to flush out any chocolate products inside the blood. The dog went home to a happy family. No food for one day to let the stomach settle down.
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