Greenbriar Animal Hospital

Chewable vitamins, chewable medications (prescription and over the counter), low-sugar or sugar-free candy & mints, toothpaste, Crest Whitening Strips, oral sprays, throat lozenges, mouthwashes, liquid medications (prescription and over the counter), chewing gum (including Nicorette and many regular gum brands), commercial baked goods and baking mixes, Jello sugar-free pudding mixes, Beano liquid, some probiotics, jams, jellies, syrups, and lots more.

It is also available in bulk bags for home use. It is well tolerated by humans, does not affect diabetics, and bakes well so it is becoming the sweetener of choice for many things.  Xylitol is being added to existing products at a phenomenal rate. There are even directions for formulating your own xylitol-containing toothpaste and mouthwash on the web.

So what? The problem is that xylitol is a deadly poison for dogs. It causes a severe drop in blood sugar levels and also can cause liver damage, seizures, coma, and death. Toxic doses are not very high – if your 20# dog ate 10 tiny pieces of gum with xylitol (the ¼” by 1” size pieces), it could be fatal.

The other problem with xylitol is that many dogs like the taste, and will seek it. We recently had a case where a dog was grabbing tissues out of the trash. Some of the tissues had (chewed) xylitol-containing gum in them, and after eating some of that, the dog went and looked for more. She ate part of a pack of new (un-chewed) gum. Then she was not feeling so hot! Fortunately, this is a large dog and no major harm was done. If this had been a small dog like Dr. Olson’s Madison (weight 12#), the 3-4 fresh sticks of gum that she ate would have been enough for a major poisoning, extensive emergency care, and could have killed her.

There are currently NO WARNINGS on any xylitol-containing human product, and you need to carefully check all labels to be sure this ingredient is not in any human food, pharmacy or drug store/bathroom supplies, vitamin supplements, or prescription medications that your dog could get into. Anything that is made to go into your mouth or nose could have xylitol in it! Please be aware that it can be added to existing products at any time. You may pick up the exact same gum you always get (and it never had xylitol before), but now it has xylitol. What to do? Learn to check every label, every time you purchase or are given any product that is meant to go into a human’s mouth or nose!

As little as a gram of xylitol can be very dangerous to a 10# dog. To put this in perspective, many small pieces of gum have about ¼ gram per piece, so 4 to 5 small pieces can make a 10# dog very ill indeed. It can be difficult to find out exactly how much xylitol is in a product (it took us 30 minutes, 2 phone calls, and 2 FAXes and we are a medical office!). Cats do not seem to be affected by xylitol at all.