The Swiss Miss Disaster

After work on Wednesday, June 30th, Adam and I were greeted at the backdoor, as usual, by two frisky labs ready for dinner.  We were also greeted by a mysterious and pungent sweet smell.  Whenever there is an unusual smell at the house, nothing good ever comes from it.  You lab owners know what I am talking about.

We fed the dogs and went about our business.  After all, it wasn't a foul smell. Adam went back into the bedroom to change clothes.  That's when we discovered the source of the smell.

"Hey Katie," he called from the bedroom.  "Did you forget to put up the hot chocolate you took out last night?"

Oops.  I guess so. 

There, on Cocoa's bed, were the remains of a completely cleaned out and mutilated Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate container.  There were also several dark spots surrounding her bed.  Great!  Our dog had consumed a half dozen or more ounces of what is essentially poison to her.

Although I am never lucky with these sorts of things, I thought I would at least try and call the emergency vet in Greenville (they are approximately one million times better than the one in Spartanburg for all you animal lovers in the area.  If you can make it there, it's worth it.).  In my experience, emergency vets are going to try to get you to come in regardless of need to cover their own... I knew that calling the ASPCA animal poison control line would cost me over $60 (thank you Cocoa and the Peace Lily episode from last year), so it was worth the try.  The lady who answered the phone had never heard of a dog consuming hot chocolate.  But, she told me for a dog of Cocoa's size (70 lbs.), it would take approximately 65 ounces of chocolate to do significant damage.  More than likely, Cocoa would just have an upset stomach. Yay! The container only held 13.8 ounces and was not completely full.  Thankfully, I had not purchased the sugar free variety.  There is a chemical called xylotol that makes stuff taste sweet when it isn't which can be VERY dangerous for dogs.  Crisis averted.  

Upon further inspection, Riley was not entirely innocent.  Both he and Cocoa had very sweet breath for a couple days.  Cocoa on the other hand had crystallized chocolate all over her snout as evidence!

This is what guilty looks like.  

You can even see the little chocolate crystals on her snout!