# Dogs just ate M&M's, any reason to be concerned?



## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

Yes, I know chocolate is toxic for dogs. Somehow my dogs got ahold of 2 bags of the halloween M&M's, the peanut ones. Each bag is 13 grams and probably holds 10 peanut M&M's. Both dogs consumed them I believe, but I have no idea how much each dog had. 

I know M&M's don't have a ton of chocolate, and it's milk chocolate so it's not quite as toxic as if it were dark chocolate, but is there any reason to be concerned? Obviously I've made sure the rest are out of reach (I though they were to begin with), but is such a small amount of chocolate any reason to take them to the E-vet? I wasn't planning on it as my google searches seem to indicate they'll be fine, but I thought I would ask here to be safe as well. 

I don't have anything here that would make them throw up, so it's either off to the vet they go, or I do nothing.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

13 grams, a half ounce bag? I think you are ok. May get a little bit of the runs. FWIW my English Springer Spaniel ate a 2 lb bag of hershey's kisses once and did not really get sick other than that.


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

jocoyn said:


> 13 grams, a half ounce bag? I think you are ok. May get a little bit of the runs. FWIW my English Springer Spaniel ate a 2 lb bag of hershey's kisses once and did not really get sick other than that.


Yeah that's pretty much what I figured. Hershey's kisses would likely have a lot more chocolate than M&M's.


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

The yellow bag M&Ms are milk chocolate. It's bad, but a small amount probably won't do much. It's the dark chocolate and bakers chocolate that are very toxic. Our beagle ate a 2 tiered box of assorted chocolates and didn't even show the slightest sign of illness, she was indestructible.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Milk chocolate has very little chocolate in it. Our boxers used to CLIMB to get the Easter baskets and always managed to get one with the huge hershey kiss in it. It can depend on the dog but he will most likely be just fine.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

jocoyn said:


> 13 grams, a half ounce bag? I think you are ok. May get a little bit of the runs. FWIW my English Springer Spaniel ate a 2 lb bag of hershey's kisses once and did not really get sick other than that.


OMG. My ESS did that back in the 80s when I was in my 1st marriage.
We passed out some then went with our own child, trick-or-treating, and came home to aluminum wrappers all over! I had no idea chocolate could make dogs sick, and she was okay, but the next day her poo was runny and shiny all at once!!


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

When I was a kid, I used to share M&Ms and Hershey kisses with my beagle. Dog lived for 17 years.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

msvette2u said:


> OMG. My ESS did that back in the 80s when I was in my 1st marriage.
> We passed out some then went with our own child, trick-or-treating, and came home to aluminum wrappers all over! I had no idea chocolate could make dogs sick, and she was okay, but the next day her poo was runny and shiny all at once!!


Yes that was the year our yard was decorated in Christmas Hershey Kiss wrappers. They were EVERYWHERE. 1993-one of the rare years we had snow on the ground so they REALLY stood out.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

jocoyn said:


> Yes that was the year our yard was decorated in Christmas Hershey Kiss wrappers. They were EVERYWHERE. 1993-one of the rare years we had snow on the ground so they REALLY stood out.


Happened to me 3 Christmas's ago. My smallest girl at about 55 lbs ate a 2 1/2 lb bag of the cheap hersheys chocolates. They were all individually wrapped in sparkly foil and I found sparkly poop for awhile after.

The emergency vet said she would have had to eat approx 10 lbs of that kind of choc to even get a little sick.


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## Scarlettsmom (Jul 12, 2011)

My parents had a miniature Schnauzer eat an entire pound of See's chocolates and other than skipping ONE meal and a little lethargy, she was fine. Still, you can't be too careful. The nuts probably caused her more intestinal issues than anything.


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## Scarlettsmom (Jul 12, 2011)

Rerun said:


> I found sparkly poop for awhile after.


Makes picking up after them just a little more entertaining.


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## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

I think it also depends on the dog and their tolerance. My good friend's adult male Black Russian Terrier (approx 105lbs) ate a half bag of Nestles Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips and was dead within 12 hours.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

bocron said:


> I think it also depends on the dog and their tolerance. My good friend's adult male Black Russian Terrier (approx 105lbs) ate a half bag of Nestles Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips and was dead within 12 hours.


that's exactly what my vet said when I asked years ago. That milk chocolate has so little of the compound in but it really depends on the dog.


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## huntergreen (Jun 28, 2012)

i am guessing the dog is fine, also a little gassy from the peanuts. can't tell you how many times my daughters , in there younger days, would share their chocolate pudding with kyra. she is 13 now.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

I've had a few dogs get into dark chocolate - last one was my Tristan and I induced vomiting 1st thing. I mean we were 10 min. from home, so I raced him home and got it out of him quickly. The Dove chocolate pieces were still relatively whole. 
Got home and called our vet, she said just monitor him, give him some fluids maybe so I ran about 50ccs under his skin and he was fine.
The hardest one was our last Dachshund, Copper, who ate dark chocolate as well, induced vomiting and kept a close eye on him.
His heart raced for a while but he was okay. It's still very scary. And yeah, the dark chocolate is the most toxic.

I guess cocoa mulch is also toxic to dogs, and they tend to get into it? I've never even seen the stuff.


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## pyratemom (Jan 10, 2011)

I think at this point it is probably fine. The peanut M&M's are mild milk chocolate so you won't have the problems you would have had with semi-sweet or dark chocolate. Those are the worst. The peanuts could cause some gas though. Just for the record if you ever need to make your dog vomit up something quickly, peroxide -just a capful - will do it (based on your dog's size of course). Smaller amounts for small dogs. Please update and let us know how it's going.


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## blackshep (Aug 3, 2012)

My parent's Lab ate about 1 cup of pure cocoa once. It was like she was on speed, we took her to the vet, they had to sedate her I think, or something.

She pulled through, but man alive, that was a bad one.


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## arycrest (Feb 28, 2006)

Jax08 said:


> Milk chocolate has very little chocolate in it. Our boxers used to CLIMB to get the Easter baskets and always managed to get one with the huge hershey kiss in it. It can depend on the dog but he will most likely be just fine.


When my Cocker was about 6 months old he ate one of those huge milk chocolate Easter bunnies ... he got some diarrhea but nothing serious happened (this was years ago, before it was common knowledge that dark chocolate can be dangerous).


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