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How long does Xylitol or Sorbitol stay in a dogs body?  My dog has had some of the symptoms described in the posts.   I am now thinking she might have got gum out of the trash can?

My dog consumed 8 sticks of Orbit gum 2 months ago.  It was a horrible experience!!  He spent 6 days in intensive care and $3000.00 dollars later.  Praise the Lord that he made it through, however, another dog that was brought in on the same day as my dog died.  I contacted the Wrigley corporation and their response was disgusting.  Their spokesperson simply said "The product has not killed enough animals for us to keep track of it."  Two of the local news stations actually came over to my house and filmed myself and my dog.  The local paper also put him on the front page.  It has been my mission ever since this happened to get the information out to as many people as possible.  Please, please keep human food items away from your animals.

Well I came into the kitchen and noticed my boston terrier chewing something she shouldn't.  I told her to drop it and I would give her a cookie.  I always do this when I want her to drop what's in her mouth.  She did and I was so scared to see she had a piece of my chewed up xylitol gum!!  I guessed I missed the garbage and she got it off the floor.  I immediately gave her a treat and called the poison hotline at aspca.  I was put through to a vet and she told me the amount probably wouldn't do any damage but she gave me instructions and told me what to look for.  They were a lifesaver and calmed me down.  I didn't have a car so I couldn't rush her to the vet.  It was worth the $55 consultation fee a thousand times over!

Yesterday my 13-week old puppy ate two ice breakers accidentally dropped on the floor by my 7-year-old daughter.  There is no xylitol in Ice breakers, but there is sorbitol, aspartame, and most of the ingredient listed by Sprocket's mom.  My puppy began vomitting about 12 hours after ingestion, several times, and has little energy since.  Since the puppy weighs only 5 pounds, I do wonder if this was enough to be a problem.  I am calling my vet now after reading these stories.

Maybe sorbitol and the other sweeteners are not as toxic, but also not good for dogs?

I think this may have been what caused the death of my sweet border collie, Sprocket. Dr. Khuly, can you tell me if Sorbitol has the same effects as Xylitol? Sprocket ate a 1/2 pack of Extra brand sugar free gum, which contains: Sorbitol, Glycerol, Mannitol, Maltitol, Aspartame, Acesulfame K, BHT, and phenylalanine.

You dont let your children eat or drink things that can kill them do you? You work to keep these things from them or put them up out of their reach. Then why not for dogs. You put poisonous things where they cant find them or get to them and just do the same for your dogs. If you DO consider them members of the family, then taking the same precautions should be automatic. How hard is it to put the gum on the top shelf hmmmm?

My point is that if you excorcise the same care with the puppy as you do for a small child, you will no doubt do what is nessessary to put the poisonous things out of reach by design. Though there is no fault of a person who does not know about xylitol, you are now empowered with knowlege. Use it and make the adaptation. Dont go on a sue happy spree because of lack of diligance on your part. Educate others by all means. This will prevent useless loss of life. As the other poster said, dont ban cars just because you let your dog roam and it got hit. Excorcise proper care, the same care you would for a child and make it a point to learn what you can to protect their lives.

Just seems like common sense to me. I have an austrailian sheperd and a boxer mix and I am very carefull about what things could potentialy hurt them. Same rules as a child. Dogs will teach you patience :)

I think pet owners should know about this, but lets put this into perspective that there are a lot of foods that are fine for humans and bad or poisonous for dogs.  If we ban foods that are bad for dogs then forget about chocolate, grapes, raisins, onions, garlic, coffee, tea, alcoholic drinks, iron supplements, hops (no beer), macadamia nuts, persimmons and uncooked bread dough.  You want your grocery store free of those things because maybe a dog might eat it sometime?

The reason that xylitol is becoming more popular is that it has few side-effects for humans, is good for diabetics and others that have blood sugar problems, and has been used for over 60 years (starting in Finland during WWII) and has shown very few problems over that time period--when many other low-calorie sugar alternatives have shown to be much less safe than xylitol is for humans.  It also does not promote tooth decay and actually inhibits it.  That is why it appears more and more in gums and toothpastes intended for humans.

Please spread the word for dog owners about this so they can take care of their pooches, but let humans live their lives, too.  I guess it means you'll have to look at the ingredients  of low-calorie human treats and not leave them out for your dogs to eat.

I feel bad for the dogs, but some "dog problems" (like my upstairs-neighbor's lonely dog barking all day or getting into things they shouldn't) are really owner-problems, not dog problems or "evil-corporation" problems.

Xylitol will cause hypoglycemia in dogs at 100mg/kg and liver damage at 500mg/kg. Small amounts do nothing but unfortunately many human products like gum can contain as much as 400-1000mg per stick. There are oral health products on the pet market that are totally safe as the levels of xylitol are low, such as toothpastes, oral rinses. Xylitol is added to chewing gum for its bacteria killing properties and its ability to reduce plaque on teeth, thus better oral health

Just thought I’d leave a note about raspberries and xylitol. Apparently, xylitol is naturally occurring in raspberries so they may pose a possible danger to your animals. I am not sure if it was a coincidence but my cat ate a small amount of raspberry jam that was left out in the kitchen. She was already being given sub-q fluids for renal failure and had been diagnosed with CHF but she'd been doing very well up to that point. The next day she could barely breathe and her lab tests indicated she had entered the terminal stage of renal failure, she died in a matter of days. The raspberry jam incident could have been a coincidence but I have a nagging feeling it may have pushed her over the edge.

Ban it?  No.  Issue warnings, since it is a new product and not everyone knows that it's dangerous?  Yes.   Many people assume that human-quality products are safe for dogs, safer than animal-quality products--bu what's safe for people isn't always safe for dogs, and since Xylitol is so new, a lot of people have no idea that a drop of it can kill their pets dead.

ESPECIALLY companies need to issue warnings when changing ingredients from sugar to xylitol, instead of just acting as if nothing has changed. 

What a rant. So let's ban chocolate? In my opinion if you have a pet it is your

responsibility to know what NOT to allow your pet to have (or leave laying about).

Xylitol is an excellent sweetener with 40% of the calories of other sugars, no

cariogenicity and promotes healthy gums by destroying harmful mouth bacteria.

The big bad world is full of evil things preying on our pets but the #1 killer is our

own inept attitude like banning autos because they run over a dog that was left 

to run on his own. I love my dog of 13 years and do the work to keep him safe

and happy instead of blaming the world at large for producing "nasty" substances.

Do we really need the FDA to take up the slack for our own lack of awareness?

Jerrin.... If there is any way possible, I would really like to be kept informed on how your border collie is doing. I am so very sorry that you have gone thru this. I know how awful the experience has been. I hope that it is a blessing that in the end that your baby is still alive. Please keep me posted. I wish you well.

my dog got into my daughters gum

by the time i got her to the vet she had no blood pressure

when we figured it out she was almost dead

she was in the hostital for 5 days

when we brought her home she was a very different dog

we wont know the full effects for another 3 weeks

but it looks like we may have a special needs dog from here on out

shes only 3 1/2 years old boarder collie very sad indeed

It has been over a year now since we lost Brandi to xylitol poisoning and I still get angry when I see other dogs suffering the same way for the same reason she did. Since she passed, we have found xylitol used in more and more sugar free foods, human dental products like toothpaste, and even in dental additives for dogs to help keep their teeth clean. How rediculous can it get. Add a poison to a product that we are going to give to our dogs. The bottom line here is WE have to watch the ingredients in everything that our pets put in their mouths.

Unfortunately for tucker, our beloved dachsund this information came to late. I had no idea that there was an ingredient in gum that would have such an effect on dogs. Somehow my Tucker had gotten into some without me knowing it and by the time I found him he was seizing. We eventually had to put him down because he wasn't going to make it.

I am so glad I learned of this because my Chihuahua loves gum and my husband gives it to him all the time but he chews it first. I don't know why he hasn't got sick unless due to my husband chewing it first removes enough of the toxin. We will never give him gum again. I am so glad he hasn't got sick, I will take him for a complete check-up to see if he has any side affects.

I had an incident last night with my 12 week old puppy. She went absolutely nuts (out of control and angry) after eating a gnawhide disc that is part of the nylabone toy I purchased at Target. It started 20-30 minutes after she ate the disk and she began violent running and jumping. I thought she might kill herself and we could not contain her. We worked her down over a period of two hours with massage and talking, but we were scared. This gnawhide disc contained sorbitol and thus internet research led me to this article. I wonder if there is a connection here.

omg... This information about xylitol is so frightening, yet i'm glad I found out before my dogs get hurt.

There are so many foods and products that are poisonous to dogs.. I'm just scared that one day my dogs will get poisoned from my ignorance of some product.

One of my dogs has an affinity for anything mint.. even toothpaste. She always tries to grab the tooth paste and eat it so I am really glad I found out about this.

What happens if my 13 pound dog eats a tiny bit of toothpaste? like the size of half of my pinky fingernail? Will there be a slow permanent degeneration of her liver or if she does not show any signs of sickness..will it pass???

I just hope and pray that both my beloved dogs will live long and healthy lives with me.

You may be interested to know that new consumer protection laws have come into force all over Europe on 26.5.2008 which say that no-one must sell anything by misleading people and so under this law all Vets who sell pet food are now committing an offence under the new legislation since all who sell pet food are misleading pet owners into believing cats and dogs have a nutritional need for 30-60% carbohyrate in it or the up to 30% carbohydrate in tinned food. Vets are failing to tell clients that cats are true carnivores and must not be fed carbohydrate or that feeding cats and dogs carbohydrate can, as veterinary research shows, give them diabetes or dilated cardiomyopathy which will eventually kill the cat or dog, can give cats kidney failure, cystitis, struvite crystals, calcium oxalate stones or that the acidifiers in dry pet food are causing kidney failure. Under this new legislation no-one must make any health claim that they cannot back up with research and so the pet food companies who are making health claims on the food for bladder, kidney and heart health will now all be committng an offence under this new legislation because veterinary research I have blamed pet food for causing the bladder, kidney and heart problems the pet food companies claim their food is helping. Prescription diets too make false health claims and a Vet I know tells me Hills c/d causes calcium oxalate stones which need an operation to remove them. Purina say in a paper written by them the high incidence of kidney failure in cats in the past 10 years is probably due to the acidifiers the pet food companies put into the food and I have veterinary research which blames these acidifiers for indeed giving cats kidney failue so the pet food companies and Vets are misleading clients by failing to warn them that feeding dry food can cause kidney failure and so are committing an offence under this new law and I am pursuing this with the relevant Government department who are responsible for enforcing the new law.

I am heartbroken. I think this may have been what caused the death of my sweet border collie, Sprocket. Dr. Khuly, can you tell me if Sorbitol has the same effects as Xylitol? Sprocket ate a 1/2 pack of Extra brand sugar free gum, which contains: Sorbitol, Glycerol, Mannitol, Maltitol, Aspartame, Acesulfame K, BHT, and phenylalanine. He had a regular check up scheduled the next day, and I mentioned it to them when I took him in. He had had a couple of seizures that night, but he had a history of seizures and it was controlled with phenobarbitol. Because the pack of gum didn't show Xylitol as an ingredient, they weren't concerned. I just managed the short seizures, and waited for the gum to pass. Then one night later, he went into a seizure, and never came out of it. I had him put down the next morning. Did gum kill my dog? I want to share with my vet and neighbors, friends, etc, if Sorbitol is also dangerous, so they can avoid such a tragedy.

Your stories are tragic. All the info we have on how dogs respond to Xylitol come from one study, though. Small dogs are also predisposed to liver shunts which some dogs can live with [undetected] for years (or forever) and this may have contributed to the toxicity of the product. It certainly sounds like these deaths are suspicious for Xylitol toxicity. Labeling these products as toxic will help spread the word--but getting the news out online and in other media will be necessary to disseminate this issue widely.

As to the toxic nature of related compounds--I'm sorry--I don't know better than you. The ASPCA's poison control may answer your question if you call their 1-800 number, though. I've found them to be extremely helpful.

I learned about this poison for dogs too late. I just buried one of my pommeranians after she had eaten 2 pieces of Trident sugar free gum. I didn't even think about the fact that an ingredient could be harmful all I thought about was her passing it. Four days later she started by vomiting one time, by 6 days she was vomiting everything. I took her to the vet. and he treated the vomiting not seeing signs of anything else. He asked if she had eaten a toy or anything and I told him she had eaten 2 pieces of gum 6 days ago. He refered to the information he had on xylitol and said that according to it she didn't eat enough to hurt her. The next day I noticed her belly was turning yellow. Liver Failure. I rushed her to an emergency clinic and they kept her all night but in their call to APCC they were told she didn't get enought of it to cause a problem. The next day I took her to my old vet near UF and he fought for 12 days to keep her alive and get her through all the medical problems that the xylitol caused. He and Brandi fought long and hard but in the end the effects of xylitol took her life. I would like to get the word out to the general public and pet owners of this danger. If I had heard about it before she would have gotten immediate treatment and maybe she would be alive today. If anyone has any ideas of how to get the word out to the general public please share them with me.

For the other side of the story on Xylitol have a read of this

http://www.laleva.cc/food/xylitol.html

Not good for dogs, but can do wonders for humans that eat too much sugar!!

Dr Khuly,

As I understand, xylitol, like sorbitol, is an oggliosacchride, which is hard to digest in both humans and pets, and these are both used as sweeteners. Please correct me if I am wrong. I believe you know best, so I accept the toxicity factor of xylitol. Since xylitol falls within the same chemical category as sorbitol and others like, mannitol, could large amounts of sorbitol affect pets in an adverse way, especially so if it were of an inferior grade? Sorbitol is used in a multitude of pet foods, and it is a humectant, shows less vulnerability to mold and, supposedly, it is bacteria resistant. It is also used as a plastisizing agent.

I am curious, as Anita's story sounds all too familiar. Rightfully, the family's Lab shares a place with the multitude of "sacrificial lambs" that fell victim to pet food tragedy of 2007. Evidence has come forth regarding the time span as being further back than originally thought. Our our own dog refused to eat her usual kibble right around the same time as Anita lost her lab and continued through until she gave up her life on 3.7.07, before the tainting affected American pets. Anita's story is the first that I have seen falling specifically within the same time frame I had figured the tainted spanned because of our dog's adverse behavior to her food.

Any information you can provide is certainly appreciated.

Thank you.

While Aspartame may not be good for anyone (and less so for our pets) it is not considered a toxin by the ASPCA's poison control. Xylitol has been found to be a potent toxin for pets, however, and though it might not be found in as many products, it's information like this that might keep the industry from adopting its more widespread use.

It seems you folks are mixed up here...xylitol is not found in very many products at all. It is aspartame that is found in everything. It is aspartame that is toxic, overused and overly sweet tasting. Xylitol is a naturally occuring sweetener, produced mainly from birch trees and other sources. Aspartame is a chemical that is well known to cause seizures and headaches among other health problems.

My 4 year old mixed Lab. become suddenly ill last in August of 2006. She had all of the symptons of Xylitol induced toxic shock. She was vomiting, couldn't move as if she had no life in her and all of the symptons came suddenly. My Dad purchased alot of her food from Winn-Dixie, Walmart, and the Dollar Store. Some dry food, but mostly canned and gravied. Neither us or the Vet could find out what was wrong with her. This dog just 12-16 hours prior to this attack was healthy and running and full of life. We ended up putting her to sleep because she was suffering and had been in that state for 72 hours. If funds would have been available to me a struggling single mom of four, I would have transferred her to LSU Vetinary School of Medicine to run more tests. My family and I have been deeply affected because the only thing that happened was a feeding.
We thought she had been poisoned by the neighbor, heartworms, or even insect bites. There was no evidence to support those theories and a lack of closure has my daughter, DADA's best friend, in 11 year old depression. I would like to know if Xylitol was present in those products during the months of July and August of 2006 and if so what can I do to voice my concerns and get justice for our lost family companion?

Hi,

I saw this reported on our channel 10 news four weeks after my puppy Pom ate some gum.

Tinkerbell weighs 4 lbs and ate one stick of gum and with in 20 minutes I was rushing her to my vet. She vomited and then passed out and lost all body function. I live less then 2 miles from my vet and rushed her in. By the time I get there she had died on me and the vet brought her back. The Dr's. gave her blood transfusions and sodium bicarbonate because her blood turned to acid. Tinker was bleeding out and had to have a complete bag of plasma.

Tinkerbell is now recovered and doing fine but if I wasn't home when she found the gum I would have come home to a dead dog. You just can't imagined how fast this was.

I am soooo glad I saw the news about this because we searched this house for anything that may have bitten her anything poison she may have gotten into but never found a thing. We never suspected gum.

That's the scary part. Just a tiny amount has the possibility to wreak such havoc. And I feel terribly ignorant in just having realized how toxic xylitol is. How many other products are causing undiscovered hepatotoxicity or other untoward effects? Truly frightening.

I had a patient, an adult male German Shepherd, present recently with generalized seizures. He had consumed 2 cough drops containing Xylitol. He was lucky enough to make it, but it seems with this stuff a little toxin goes a LONG way.

Oh dear. I'm hooked on Altoids cinnamon gum. #1 ingredient is Xylitol. Fortunately, the dogs aren't allowed anywhere near them, and I'm careful to pick the piece up if I drop it. My other sugar-free treats have sorbitol, which probably isn't good for me or the dogs either.

Hm. Apparently my weird anti-processed-foods lifestyle is good for my ridiculous pup Bella as well as for me.

re:pyrethrins. I didn't know how dangerous these were until I read the Pet Peeves post on themearlier this month. Yeesh! I'm glad I got my anti-flea treatment from my vet.

Thank you for the heads up on this one - I first heard about it on a breed-specific mailing list a couple of weeks ago, and and have since been diligently reading labels; it's really terrifying how many products Xylitol is in. Scary thing is, my corgis would cheerfully eat anything, regardless of ingredients - thankfully, I won't, so there's no sugar free cr*p in the house. Oh, and why do manufacturers use these ingredients? Because they're cheap :(

I have a roommate who chews sugar-free gum. A few months after she moved in, my 13 lb cat died of unexplained liver failure. I did not make the connection and realize the gum was dangerous until I found some stuck the butt of my 4 mo. old kitten. That's when I did some research and found out the gum was very toxic. However, she insists that only a very large amount, which he could not have possibly eaten, could of killed my cat, and refuses to stop chewing it in the house. I've asked her to leave but in the meantime, while she looks for a new place, i need to know if the gum could kill my two remaining cats. Please help! If it is as dangerous as I believe I need an authority to point her to so she will stop insisting the gum is safe and chewing it in my home.

Hi Catmum,

There is no evidence to show that xylitol is toxic for cats. While that doesn't rule it out, because like people who have allergies to various things, cats can also have allergic reactions to things that not all cats have reactions to, it is not common for cats to eat gum or to have reactions to gum or candy with xylitol as an ingredient. While it's true that a lot of cats live until the age of 18, not all do. Again, just as some people live until 95 and some die at 40, cats can die at 13 because it is their time.

I would be more concerned if I had a roommate who was leaving her dirty dishes around for the cats to lick after eating foods seasoned with garlic and onion, which, even in powdered form, are highly toxic to cats.

You might want to take a look around your house to see if there are any other hazards - plants, onions, garlic, electric cords, and strings are some of the worst offenders. Other than that, the best you can do for your cats is to keep them on a healthy, high protein low carb diet, with no unnecessary fat in the form of excess treats, dairy products, or seasoned foods of any kind. That, along with flea prevention and regular checkups will go a long way to making sure your cats have quality lives until it is their time.

Sorry, I thought you said 13 years old - I see that you said 13 pounds.