Not many joys of life beat that of having a dog. Your furry friend makes a perfect friend who will be on your side, even when no one else seems to. And what other way is there to replicate that other than showing your dog love?
So you’ve been doing that— offering healthy foods, regular exercise, training, and making your pup feel part of the family. However, your dog just landed a bag of mini snickers and feasted on it without minding the repercussions! Well, like you, your dog loves tasty treats.
However, not all treats work best for them. A case in point is a bag of mini snickers. Keep reading to know what action to take if your dog ate a bag of mini snickers.
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What Should You Do If Your Dog Ate a Bag of Mini Snickers?
After your dog eats a bag of mini snickers, the best thing you can do is contact the vet immediately. Where necessary, the dog doctor will tell you what emergency action to take before they can show up in person. Alternatively, you can call the Pet Poison Helpline (855-764-7661) also for quick advice.
Mini snickers, or milk chocolate if you like, contain some ingredients that can trigger adverse effects in dogs, especially when taken in large amounts.
While it may not be the most toxic form of chocolate, the fact remains that milk chocolate in mini snickers can still trouble your dog, and that’s why you should not wait until your dog begins to show signs of poisoning before you can take action.
If you’ve visited a few internet forums, you may have noticed a mix of opinions on whether or not mini snickers can harm dogs. Sure, it may not cause any visible side effects in some dogs, especially when taken in small quantities. Nevertheless, always keep in mind that no two dogs are the same. As such, what may not harm their dogs could even kill yours.
It’s undoubtedly true that chocolate is toxic to dogs, and that means mini snickers can as well be poisonous to your furry friend. In fact, we recommend that you view them from that angle, even before we sink deeper to see what makes them dangerous.
Mini snickers, just like any other chocolate, contain theobromine. Theobromine is an alkaloid chemical that naturally occurs in cacao plants. When ingested, it works much more like caffeine. In other words, it’s a stimulant that can cause issues with your dog’s central nervous system.
However, according to the American Kennel Club, the form of chocolate you find in mini snickers contains the least amount of this compound. Nevertheless, it still has traces of the substance, so it’s potentially harmful.
Again, most chocolates contain caffeine. Typically, you can tell how much caffeine is in chocolate by looking at how dark it is. The darker the chocolate, the higher the caffeine content. Milk chocolate in mini snickers has 9 mg of caffeine in every 1.55 oz.
When your dog eats something containing caffeine, miniature snickers, for instance, it may cause caffeine poisoning. And as aforementioned, how your dog’s system will respond to caffeine ingestion is much more similar to how it does to theobromine.
So yes, always keep mini snickers away from your pet. But your dog already ate a bag of these tasty treats? What is likely to happen? How do their bodies respond to it? Let’s find out!
What Happens If My Dog Eats a Bag of Mini Snickers?
If your dog eats a bag of mini snickers, it may cause a few health issues depending on the level of toxicity. Again, whether or not mini snickers will harm your dog depends on the dog’s weight and the amount taken.
Canines weighing more will take a larger quantity of toxin for signs of poisoning to show. I mean, the number of mini snickers that may not harm your German shepherd could kill your Chihuahua or any other smaller dog. So yes, canines dogs are more responsive to poisoning!
On the amount taken, obviously, more intakes will cause more trouble. And that doesn’t only happen in mini snickers. Hence, the greater the number of mini snickers, the more severe the consequences.
Theobromine and caffeine are the main threats in mini snickers. The milk content may also cause issues since most dogs are lactose intolerant. But milk poisoning is not very likely. Actually, it would take about an ounce of milk content per every pound of your dog’s weight for it to kill your dog, an amount that’s almost impossible to get from mini snickers.
So yes, the two stimulants are the real cause of concern when your dog feeds on a bag of mini snickers. Your four-pawed friend can’t metabolize these two compounds as well as you can, and that’s where the issue emanates.
Theobromine primarily affects the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and respiratory system. And for mini snickers, theobromine is the main toxin.
Can A Dog Die From Eating Snickers?
Your dog isn’t going to die from eating snickers. Sure, theobromine and caffeine poisoning can be lethal. However, considering their low concentrations in these treats, it’s almost impossible that your dog will die after eating them.
To bring you into perspective, it takes about 115 mg of milk chocolate for every kilogram of your canine’s body weight for it to cause death. However, signs may show after the concentration level of theobromine reaches 9mg per 50 pounds of weight.
But again, it’s not all about the stimulants in mini snickers. Those tasty treats you’ve been eating contain lots of sugar and other ingredients that can harm your dog. The high sugar content, for instance, can cause pancreatitis and stomach upsets, especially for pups with super-sensitive digestive systems.
What that means is, it may take much fewer mini snickers to affect your dog. That’s why no matter how small the amount appears, always ensure that you contact the vet immediately you know that your dog ate these human treats.
Symptoms To Check Out If Your Dog Ate a Bag of Mini Snickers
After your dog eats mini snickers, you may notice a few of the following signs;
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Stomach upset
- Restlessness
- Hyperactivity
- Increased urination
- Increased thirst
- Hypertension
- Abnormal heart rhythms
- Seizures
- Collapsing
- Tachycardia (elevated heart rate)
Actually, most of the symptoms your dog may exhibit are those of caffeine and theobromine poisoning.
Again, it’s good to remember that the above list of symptoms isn’t in any way exhaustive. Therefore, should you notice any of those signs accompanied by others, not on the list, know that it could still indicate poisoning.
However, as said, it takes large consumption if any of the above signs have to manifest. So, if you suspect that your dog just ate a bag of mini snickers but can’t exhibit any of the above, that doesn’t mean your pup didn’t eat it.
Sometimes it will take quite long for any of the signs to show. How soon you will notice will depend on the toxicity level. The higher the concentration of the toxins, the sooner you are likely to see it manifest through signs.
The symptoms can appear in minutes, but it can also take 12 hours before the effects begin to show. The sooner they manifest, the more severe they are, so for such a case, act with much speed.
We recommend that you avoid waiting for the signs to show before contacting your vet. Hesitation will only make the condition more difficult to manage after the symptoms appear.
After showing, it can take up to about 72 hours for the symptoms to cease depending on the medical care your dog receives. However, it usually takes longer for your dog to come back to its normal healthy state.
Are Snickers Toxic To Dogs?
With everything said so far, it’s clear that snickers are toxic to dogs. A few of them may not cause enough toxicity to kill your pet, but the fact remains they still have the potential to cause your dog a plethora of health issues.
These mouth-watering human treats contain white chocolate, sugar, artificial flavor, and other ingredients. All these constituents and others not mentioned will negatively affect your pet. With that said, you can’t risk having your dog taste even a small piece of mini snicker.
While dogs are different, they somewhat respond the same to toxicity caused by snickers. If you aren’t sure whether the amount your dog took will make them sick, you can think about using this toxicity calculator.
With the above calculator, you will need to enter the type of chocolate (choose milk chocolate), the weight of your dog, the eaten amount, and other fine details surrounding the whole thing.
No matter the figures you get, whether or not accompanied by signs, ensure that you still make a trip to the vet. That’s the only way you can be sure that your dog won’t suffer from eating a bag of mini snickers afterward.
Conclusion: Can Dog Eat Mini Snickers?
A bag of mini snickers may not cost the life of your pet. Nevertheless, it may cost their well-being. Fortunately, it’s possible to prevent any harm from happening, especially when you report the issue to the respective persons promptly.
Again, just in case you come to learn about it later on after you begin to see the signs, the condition can still be manageable, albeit with more patience and more money.
