Name your poison

Hi,

Thanks to your raisin awareness campaign before Christmas I now know not to feed raisins and grapes to my dog. I didn’t know before.

You say that vine fruits are poisonous to dogs, so does this include tomatoes?

I’d be interested to know what other foods I should keep my girl away from.

Thanking you in advance,

Rachel Miner, London



Nicola Bates, Information Scientist, Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS), advises...

Dear Rachel,

Thank you for your enquiry about tomatoes and dogs. There is very little information on the toxicity of tomatoes to dogs and only a very small number of cases have been reported to the Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS); half the dogs remained well and the other half developed gastrointestinal signs with vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. We would therefore not recommend giving tomatoes to dogs.

Other foodstuffs that should be kept out of reach of dogs includes chocolate, coffee, onions (and garlic and leeks), the artificial sweetener xyliol (found in some sugar-free chewing gums and sweets, but also available as a product for baking), macadamia nuts, alcohol (dogs can get drunk too) and salt.  If you are unsure whether a particular food is safe for your dog always discuss with your vet first.