24/7 Emergency
What does a one-ounce box of raisins represent? A quick snack for a diet-conscious muncher. A healthy addition to a first-grader’s lunchbox. A trip to the emergency room for canines. That’s the danger with grape and raisin toxicity in dogs.
Grapes, raisins and certain kinds of currants can be extremely toxic to dogs. These don’t seem to have the same effects on cats and other small animals, who are too smart to eat them anyway. But dogs tend to be omnivorous, consuming anything from antifreeze to underwear. And this family of fruits poses a serious threat to long-term health.
Why Are Grapes and Raisins So Toxic?
The culprit is tartaric acid, found in all kinds of foods from tamarinds to cream of tartar but most concentrated in grapes and raisins. Toxicity varies with the size of the animal and the amount consumed. A lone grape picked off the floor shouldn’t cause a problem, but a bunch of grapes snarfed off a counter definitely will. Raisins, which are grapes in concentrated form, are worse.
Raw fruit is the big danger: Grape juice and jelly don’t seem to be as problematic. Though it’s bad for dogs to eat baked goods or granola in any case, the number of raisins in a small portion probably won’t cause much harm.
What If My Dog Eats Grapes or Raisins?
You can call the ASPCA’s animal poison control center 24 hours a day at (888) 426-4435 and ask for advice. Vets at CARE don’t recommend giving hydrogen peroxide, once thought to be a good treatment, because it can cause a bad case of esophagitis and may delay you taking the animal to an emergency room.
If you didn’t see the animal eating and don’t know how much it consumed, a vet is likely to guess the high end of the concentration range and treat accordingly. (It varies from .35 percent to 2 percent.) A trip to your primary care vet or the CARE emergency room is smart in any event.
Looking for Symptoms of Grape and Raisin Toxicity
If you didn’t see the dog eat the fruit, you may not notice symptoms right away. Then you’ll observe the first signs of kidney disease: excessive drinking, urinating a lot more (or, in rare instances, a lot less), vomiting, unwillingness to eat. Urine may have a different smell or a clear color.
Acute kidney injury can occur within a day, especially with an animal who’s older and/or has borderline kidney function, though it usually takes longer. If your animal ate only a small portion of fruit and seems fine two to three days later, you probably won’t face complications.
Diagnosing and Treating Poisoning from Grape and Raisin Toxicity
The emergency room will induce vomiting if less than two hours have passed, because that’s how long things stay in the stomach. Doctors will look for grape skins, undigested raisins or a color change in the vomit.
If nothing comes out, they’ll take urine and blood samples and test for indicators of kidney issues. A urine specific gravity test is the most reliable indicator, because renal values can be normal or nearly so in an animal that still has one unaffected kidney.
Animals can have dialysis like humans, where their blood runs through a machine and gets cleansed, but some can’t tolerate the process. Fluid dialysis is more common; vets flush out the kidneys and keep patients on anti-nausea medication, checking lab work every 24 hours.
Kidneys tend to bounce back in otherwise healthy animals, and pets can live for years with reduced kidney function. But a handful of dogs may have long-term insufficiency, especially if treatment has been delayed, and dogs who get no treatment may go into fatal kidney failure.
Other Dangerously Toxic Foods for Dogs
Sadly, chocolate appeals to dogs in all forms. Dark chocolate is worse than milk chocolate, and baker’s chocolate is worst of all. (Rule of thumb: The less sweet, the worse for dogs.) Chocolate can cause high blood pressure, vomiting, diarrhea, even seizures. Longer-term, it can lead to pancreatitis or affect the central nervous system and gastrointestinal system.
Xylitol, a natural sugar alcohol found in plants, is often used as a sweetener and must be avoided. It’s hard to recognize by looking at a label – it can also be listed as birch sugar or other ingredients – but it can cause acute liver failure and has to be treated aggressively.
You should also keep your dog away from onions and garlic. Those can be toxic in large amounts, though a dog that snatches an onion-topped burger off a picnic plate may not do himself too much harm.
Charlotte Animal Referral and Emergency treats pets the way a medical center for humans treats people. CARE runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; it provides all types of treatment, from emergency attention to board-certified specialty work, once you get a referral from a primary care veterinarian. Please take a visual tour of the practice at carecharlotte.com/tour.
