I got an email the other day about the following story:

“Last Friday evening, I arrived home from work, fed Chloe, our 24 Lb.
dachshund, just as I normally do. Ten minutes later I walked into the
den just in time to see her head inside the pocket of Katie’s friend’s
purse. S he had a guilty look on her face so I looked closer and saw a
small package of sugar-free gum. It contained xylitol. I remembered
that I had recently read that sugar-free gum can be deadly for dogs so
I jumped on line and looked to see if xylitol was the ingredient. I20
found the first website below and it was the one.

Next, I called our vet. S he said to bring her in immediately.
Unfortunately, it was still rush hour and it took me almost 1/2 hour
to get there. Meanwhile, since this was her first case, our vet found
another website to figure out the treatment. S he took Chloe and said
they would induce her to vomit, give her a charcoal drink to absorb
the toxin (even though they don’t think it works) then they would
start an iv with dextrose The xylitol causes dogs to secrete insulin
so their blood sugar drops very quickly.

The second thing that happens is liver failure. If that happens, even
with aggressive treatment, it can be difficult to save them. S he told
us she would call us.

Almost two hours later, the vet called and said that contents of her
stomach contained 2-3 gum wrappers and that her blood sugar had
dropped from 90 to 59 in 30 minutes. S he wanted us to take Chloe to
another hospital that has a critical care unit operating around the
clock. We picked her up and took her there. They had us call the A S
PCA poison control for a case number and for a donation, their doctors
would direct Chloe’s doctor on treatment. They would continue the iv,
monitor her blood every other hour and then in 2 days test her liver
function. She ended up with a central line in her jugular vein since
the one in her leg collapsed, just as our regular vet had feared.

Chloe spent almost the entire weekend in the critical care hospital.
After her blood sugar was stabilized, she came home yesterday. They
ran all the tests again before they released her and so far, no sign
of liver damage. Had I not seen her head in the purse, she probably
would have died and we wouldn’t even had known why.

Three vets told me this weekend, that they were amazed that I even
knew about it since they are first learning about it too. Please tell
everyone you TALK TO about xylitol and dogs. It may save another life.”

So I went and checked the story out on snopes.com- because I always check out stories like this before passing them on.  And it turns out that it is true.  Sugar Alcohol Xylitol can be deadly for our dogs.  So, be sure to keep your gum where the dogs can not reach it.  And if they do get into it- remember it is an emergency situation.  See snopes.com for the full answer.

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