Dark Chocolate – please help!

[MyBestLittleFriendSnowball]

Hi everyone,
Have just come home to find (what seems to be) a nibbled piece of dark chocolate on the floor. We’re still not 100% sure he’s digested any, but knowing how toxic it can be is driving us mental. The chocolate doesn’t have the percentage of cocoa listed in the ingredients either. He’s acting completely normal but we’re also unsure of when exactly in the day this happened. It’s evening in England so the local vet is closed, our emergency one is about 30 mins away. What should we do??
Any advice would be great appreciated, thank you.

P. S. If it makes any difference, it’s dark mint chocolate.

[Deleted User]

hmmm. kind of a tough call if you don’t know that it was ingested. you can’t see any bunny teeth marks in it? I’d be concerned because dark chocolates have higher cocoa content

[Muchelle]

Get him to eat and drink plenty (a serving of his fave veggies can fix that), so that if he ate any, it will pass through quickly and be diluted with the other foods. Keep an eye on him for any signs of discomfort (hunched position, teeth grinding, sudden aggressiveness, etc).

You could call the emergency vet anyways and ask them by phone what they think, if that makes you feel better!

[Sirius&Luna]

I don’t want to be dramatic, but my Sirius died from chocolate poisoning. He ate about 4 chocolates, so it doesn’t take a lot to be serious. When you say nibbled, how much did he eat? Dark chocolate is worse because of the high chocolate content.

In the UK there’s a pet poisoning hotline that my vets called to work out of the amount he had eaten would be poisonous to him. You have to pay for the service, but it’s probably worth trying to find and call them.

[Sirius&Luna]

https://www.animalpoisonline.co.uk

I’m not sure if this is the one my vets called, but it looks like it does the same thing.

[sarahthegemini]

I’d get him to a vet, like NOW.

[MyBestLittleFriendSnowball]

Thank you for all your responses

Found out that it also has xylitol in it. So I’m wondering how he’s still alive, really.

We’ll most likely take him in to the 24 hour, but he’s still not exhibiting any symptoms (even did a little binky?!)

Any suggestions?

Thanks again xx

[sarahthegemini]

With something that could actually be poison, I personally wouldn’t wait for symptoms to appear. I’d go right now.

[Deleted User]

I thought you weren’t sure if he had eaten it? I said its a “tough call” but I only meant in the sense that you have to weigh the risk/benefit.

Dark chocolate specifically is higher in the percentage of cocoa it contains. Some dark chocolates could be 50% cocoa while others can be as high as 80-90% …… honestly, if I were you then I would take bun to the emergency vet. Toxicity is an acute illness, so onset of symptoms will be rapid and by then you likely won’t be able to reverse it.

Ultimately, you have to recognize that a life is hanging in the balance. Better safe than sorry.

[Deleted User]

I think what BN meant is that bunnies often present no symptoms until its often times fatal, and at that point too late. Especially with something like toxicity they could be dead within hours. No one likes to pay an enormous amount of vet costs, believe me, but when you’ve been in situations when a bunny could’ve died because you had the choice to do something ASAP or let it ride, it’s worth it. I had a situation with Bombur. He wasn’t excited about one of his feedings months ago, and I took him into the vet right there. It was a $2,000 visit, which I don’t readily have as a full time grad student, but it ended up saving his life. He had enterotoxemia, and if I hadn’t brought him into the vet right then he would have died while I was out for the day. With a bunny and how fragile they are, you really can’t be too careful.

[Bam]

MBLFS, how is your bun doing now?

It is our responsibility to provide a safe environment for our buns, but accidents do happen. Chocolate can be deadly toxic to buns, depending on amount ingested, percentage of cocoa in the chocolate and the bunny’s weight. Xylitol is also poisonous to rabbits, although the toxic effect could depend on what else the bun has eaten at the time.

It’s wise to call an emergency vet, although they might just tell you to observe the bun if you don’t know if the bun has eaten any chocolate at all or if the amount was minute.

[sarahthegemini]

How is Snowball now???

[sarahthegemini]

A qualified vet can administer something to counteract the potential toxins. It wouldn’t be harmful if it turns out to have not been needed, but could save the rabbit’s life if bun was poisoned. There is no need to wait for symptoms of toxicity to present themselves because as already explained – by then, it may be too late.

[MyBestLittleFriendSnowball]

Your replies have been an enormous help, thank you all so much

@BunNoob I completely understand the outrage, his life comes before anything else – money not excluded- hence his insurance We’ve been to the vet every time something’s been a little off, so this incident was an exception as there was literally zero change in his behaviour.

We’re very paranoid as it is so any symptoms would’ve sent Snowy straight to the vet. But last night we decided to keep a hawk’s eye on him, and he looks to be doing great! He’s been eating, drinking, pooing and peeing as normal – and as responsive as ever. It’s almost been 24 hours so we’ve figured that he must not have had enough to reach toxicity levels, thankfully <3

@Q8bunny, I hope the above has put your mind to rest

And we’ve eradicted any traces of chocolate in the 1 million mile radius for the future, these guys really can’t be trusted

@Sirius&Luna, thank you for sharing your heart breaking experience, hoping Sirius is joyfully hopping over on the Rainbow Bridge <3

[Bam]

Snowball, so happy to hear Snowball is fine!!! 24 hours would be enough time for any symptoms to manifest. Thank you for the update 

I’m locking the thread for now.

[BB Administrator]

I unlocked this thread and deleted the posts that started and/or engaged in arguing that broke the rules. Some posts were deleted because once the argument was deleted, the responses to them, while okay, made less sense without the argument for reference. This goes to show how easily a thread can be derailed by one snarky comment and then the reactions to follow would be expected. I am now locking the thread again to give a breather now that we know Snowball is okay. MyBestLittleFriendSnowball – If there are any further updates on this that need immediate attention, please start a new thread. And thank you MyBestLittleFriendSnowball for responding respectfully to everyone.

Helloworld!!

[LBJ10]

I’m glad to hear your bunny is OK. I agree with Bam. If there are no symptoms now, you’re likely in the clear.

I did want to point out that Xylitol is apparently highly toxic to dogs, but it seems to be not as toxic to rabbits. It takes a much larger dose to be lethal according to studies. So, for me, the chocolate would have been a greater concern. It sounds like your bunny consumed very little (if any). This has happened other times on BB and the bunny had no ill effects. It’s still something to be wary of though, as S&L’s tragic story demonstrates.

[Sirius&Luna]

Yes, thanks LBJ10 – in case anyone searches for this in the future – my vet said it was likely the sugar and fat overdose that threw his whole GI tract off, and made it very inflamed and unfortunately they couldn’t get him out of stasis, poor baby. It wasn’t necessarily the xylitol in the chocolate, but the fat and sugar content in chocolate should be considered in these situations too.

Anyway, I’m delighted to hear that snowball had no ill effects

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