Valentine Cautions

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| Print | By | February 14, 2008 5:00 PM

If your Valentine’s Day includes furry loves, take care that chocolate indulgence doesn’t turn your celebration to feline calamity.

Chocolate contains theobromine, a stimulant related to caffeine. Eating too much shifts your cat’s heart into overdrive. Milk chocolate won’t cause life-threatening problems because it takes nearly two pounds of milk chocolate to poison a seven-pound kitty. Despite cartoon cats to the contrary, felines tend to be more discriminating than dogs and rarely overindulge.

But if they do, your cat will get an upset stomach with pet eruptions (from either end!) that rival Mount Vesuvius. The tasty treat recycled in this fashion won’t do your carpets any good, either.

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Baker’s chocolate, though, can be deadly because it has ten times as much theobromine as milk chocolate. A seven-pound pet only needs to eat two ounces to be poisoned. Licking chocolate frosting, lapping up cocoa mix, or gulping truffles—a very rich dark chocolate treat—causes vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, seizures, coma, and even death.

If you catch Kitty snacking on your Valentine yummies, induce vomiting to get rid of the poison. First, feed her a small meal to dilute the poison and delay digestion. Then give her 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, one to two teaspoons for every ten pounds she weighs. Squirt to the back of the pet’s tongue with an eyedropper, needless syringe, or turkey baster. The taste and foaming prompts vomiting within five minutes. If it doesn’t, call your veterinarian.

For some very odd reasons, cats that easily hurl hairballs are incredibly difficult to make vomit when you want them to.

Forget about the chocolate for Kitty this Valentine’s day. Show your pets how much you love them in other ways. Snuggle with your cat, play with a feather toy, share a tidbit of your yogurt. But keep tasty poison out of reach--or better, don’t bring it into the house. Your waistline--and carpets--will thank you.