Death by chocolate
Every checkout aisle at the supermarket is lined with child magnets as you approach the ‘‘bleep bleep’’. Yes – chocolate, in whatever shape or packaging you want.
These boxes are placed at waist height so small children will grab them and then persistently whine and plead – making you look mean in front of everyone – until you put it on the little conveyor to your cheque account.
And every household will have at least one box of ‘‘Favourites’’ chocolates at this time of year. But there is another side to chocolate that makes this a messy time for us at the hospital.
‘‘Ding’’ – we get some good names – is the classic 10-foot-tall bandy-legged male jack russell terrier, with an awesome nature, apart from when he greets another dog.
On Saturday morning, he was running around as usual looking for the cat to annoy when he spied a large block of chocolate lonely on the coffee table left by the Christmas guests.
By the time his owner Chris returned a short time later, he found Ding happily finishing off the last bits of chocolate surrounded by shredded bits of foil on the back lawn.
So what is the problem with eating chocolate? Chocolate contains, among other things, high levels of fat and also high levels of caffeine and another drug called theobromine.
The last two are stimulants that can, at high levels, cause: Hyperactivity, muscle twitching, increased urination, panting, seizures, even death, if at high enough levels. Also the high levels of fat in chocolate can cause diarrhoea and vomiting.
Back to Ding. He arrived at the hospital a short time after Chris got home. We gave him a little injection and five minutes later all the fruit and nut block miraculously reappeared.
Luckily for Ding, Chris had come home early and brought him straight to us. The next day Ding was back looking for the cat and chocolate was off the menu.