Our dogs find muffins yummy as much as we do. With their great sense of smell and desperate quick feet, most dogs will lay their paws on any muffins left unattended. All you need to do is simply take your eyes away. Unfortunately, our smart flurry friends are yet to figure out how to differentiate muffins from their wraps.
Dogs love muffins and as a dog owner, you always get worried if you find your dog eating a muffin along with its wrapper. This article will guide you on what you need to do if your dog ate a muffin wrapper, the effects of eating a muffin wrapper and how to handle it.
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What Should You Do If Your Dog Ate a Muffin Wrapper?
In many cases, when dogs eat muffins together with their wraps, their bodies naturally handle it. But things get messy sometimes, and you are faced with a sick dog.
In every case, it is fine to get antsy when your dog ingests a muffin wrapper. However, there are a few questions you need to answer to help you out:
- How many muffins were consumed?
- Do they contain any toxic ingredients?
- What are the muffin materials made of?
These investigations will prove helpful in dealing with any unpleasant symptoms your dog may later experience. Your veterinarian may also need this information for diagnosis. You should also block your dog’s access to the muffin wrappers to avoid more ingestion.
As a quick aid, give your dog some Pepto Bismol or Imodium A-D to help it feel better. The recommended dosage is one teaspoon, or 1/3 tablet, of Pepto Bismol every 8 hours. You can also try 1/4 of a 2mg Imodium A-D tablet every 12 hours.
Here are answers to some of the questions that will likely burden your mind when your dog is in this situation.
Are Muffin Wrappers Bad For Dogs?
Muffin wrappers are not food supplements or drugs, so they are not good for your dogs in any way. However, they usually aren’t toxic either.
There are different types of wrappers for muffins. They include silicon, aluminum foil, and paper wrappers. These food-grade materials are generally chemical-free and non-toxic to you or your dog. Notwithstanding, these materials could give your dog a stomach upset and could even lead to gastrointestinal blockage in severe cases.
Gastrointestinal tract blockage is quite a dangerous occurrence and shouldn’t be left untreated. This is because it could lead to perforation of the gut and leakage of the gut contents into the abdomen.
Such perforation or leakage could further result in a life-threatening infection known as septic peritonitis. Septic Peritonitis is an inflammatory condition of the peritoneum that occurs secondary to microbial contamination.
Your dog will likely pass out swallowed paper wrappers of muffins, especially if it had masticated it into tiny bits together with the muffin before swallowing. Silicon and aluminum foil wrappers are more likely to pose health hazards to your dog. This is due to their likelihood of causing a blockage in the gastrointestinal tract if they don’t pass through.
Nevertheless, swallowed wrappers are not the only danger that an eaten muffin will pose to a dog. The ingredients a muffin contains can also be harmful to dogs. Dogs find common ingredients like baking chocolate, coffee grounds, macadamia nuts, artificial sweeteners containing xylitol, and raisins toxic.
It is therefore advisable to contact your veterinarian immediately if your dog consumed muffins containing these ingredients in large quantities. If the muffin was just plain with none of these ingredients, then this particularly wouldn’t cause any issue.
Are Muffin Wrappers Digestible?
Generally, a dog’s stomach can digest paper muffin wrappers. The stomach acid could easily dissolve them and eventually pass them out in the dog’s feces. Silicon and aluminum foil muffin wrappers present a more serious situation for dogs.
These materials are not digestible, so dogs usually vomit or pass them out in feces, usually between 48 and 72 hours of ingestion.
However, these materials could get stuck in your dog’s throat, gut or even block the passage between its stomach and the small intestine. This is a very dicey situation that requires the attention of a professional veterinarian.
So, if your dog ate a muffin together with their silicon or aluminum foil wrappers, contact your veterinarian pronto. They may tell you what to do at the moment, or you may have to book an appointment for a physical examination.
What Happens if Your Dog ate a Muffin Wrapper?
Silicon wrappers, an eco-friendly alternative to baking paper and foil, have become popular today because they are reusable. However, dogs cannot digest them when swallowed. This is also true of aluminum foil wrappers and waxed paper wrappers.
Paper muffin wrappers can be digested and passed out of the digestive tract with little or no harm to your dog. But that is not possible for silicon, aluminum foil, or waxed paper wrappers. The possible outcome to expect when your dog swallows these other wrappers is for him to throw up food and water and get them out by doing so.
Aluminum foil muffin wrappers are particularly dangerous as they can cut and graze the intestine. The most obvious sign of this will be the presence of blood in the dog’s stool. Little traces of blood are not immediately dangerous, as small cuts can repair themselves.
However, if there is a lot of blood in the stool, that is a cause for alarm. If the wrap ate was an aluminum foil wrapper, you should feed him a slice of whole-grain bread to help cushion the rough edges of the aluminum foil wrapper and mitigate serious injuries along the intestinal tract.
Monitor your dog closely for the swallowed wrapper in its feces or vomit. If you fail to find this and you are concerned it could be stuck inside him, contact your veterinarian, and follow his instructions.
Can My Dog Get Sick After Eating a Muffin Wrapper?
Yes, your dog can get sick after eating a muffin wrapper. However, the size of your dog could be a determining factor.
Larger dogs could easily swallow and eventually throw up eaten muffin wrappers. They could even avoid getting too sick after eating muffins containing some quantities of unpleasant ingredients. Large pieces of food, bones, and objects can easily make their way through a large dog’s expansive throat.
On the other hand, muffin wrappers can easily get stuck in the throat of small terriers and puppies due to the size of their esophagus. This is a serious situation and could result in fatal damages. The small sizes of these dogs also mean that they could easily be intoxicated if the muffin contains ingredients toxic to dogs.
Irrespective of the dog’s size, there are possible symptoms to look out for if your dog ate a muffin wrapper. These include diarrhea and severe vomiting, low appetite, unusual quiet behavior, bloating, blood in stool, lethargy, and difficulty in defecating. Contact your vet immediately if your dog shows any of these signs.
Laxatives may be administered to your dog to help it throw up the muffin wrappers if possible. Other relief drugs can also be given. More so, your veterinarian may want to place your dog on a special diet that could help him settle his stomach upset. The new (bland) diet could make your dog’s stool appear darker, so do not mistake it for blood.
Can Muffin Wrapper Cause Blockage in the Dog’s Gastrointestinal Tract?
Yes, a muffin wrapper can cause blockage in the dog’s gastrointestinal tract. This is the most adverse possible outcome when a dog swallows a muffin wrapper. If the muffin wrapper fails to pass through the digestive system and gets stuck inside your dog instead, it could result in a blockage.
This is not a good situation, particularly if you cannot tell that your dog is experiencing a blockage. Here is how to find out if a muffin wrapper or even wrappers are stuck in your dog’s GI tract.
Dogs could communicate in ambiguous manners, making it difficult for us to understand their plights sometimes. If your dog swallows a muffin wrapper and begins to show signs other than a guilty face, then you should take it to the vet.
Your veterinarian may have to perform x-rays, ultrasound examination, blood work, and a fecal test for a diagnosis. If there is a blockage, he will discuss surgical options with you to remove it under anesthesia.
Dogs love muffins. But to avoid seeing them get sick from eating muffins together with the wrappers, we have to be proactive. Ensure that muffins and their wrappers are not kept at paws’ reach.
Take away muffins from coffee tables and countertops, no matter how high they may be. If you are hosting a home party, keep your dog in the room if it cannot handle the sight of food. Don’t forget to watch kids when they eat around him, so they don’t feed him.
Endeavor to take away trash cans containing muffin wrappers and leftovers. However, if your dog does eat and ingest muffin wrappers, it is best to seek professional help as soon as possible.
