Toxic Chewing Gum? One stick could kill your dog!

This reminds me of a joke my father used to tell. "Did you hear about the poisonous rock? One drop can kill you!" And then he would laugh really hard, forgetting that we had already heard the joke about a million times before.

Sugarless gum making dogs sick is no joke though.

A couple of years ago I came home from a wonderful vacation with Heidi and the boys and immediately went to pick up our Labrador Retriever from our friends' house.  As always, Birkie greeted me with exuberant unconditional love, even though I didn't take him with us on our trip.  He loves staying with Jeff and Vicki and their Golden Retriever, Deuce, but he is always happy to get home and sleep.

As Vicki handed me his toys and food, she said "Birkie was pretty good this time. The only thing he ate was some gum that was in the car this afternoon."  I laughed, pleased that he didn't destroy anything important or eat anything that might get stuck in his stomach. I have had to remove things from his stomach twice with the endoscope. "That wasn't sugarless gum was it?" I asked. "Yes, it was." Vicki replied. She retrieved what was left of the wrapper and estimated that there were three or four sticks that Birkie might have eaten. I tried not to look alarmed but I could see the worried look that Vicki gave me as I drove away.

Sugarless gum can contain an artificial sweetener called xylitol.  Xylitol triggers insulin release in dogs which causes their blood sugar to drop, sometimes to dangerously low levels. It can also cause liver damage in some dogs. Xylitol does not have these effects on people.

At home I looked up the brand of gum and found that the manufacturer doesn't list how much xylitol is in each stick. Further research indicated that the amount of xylitol in a single stick of gum can vary from 0.9 mg to 1,000 mg depending on the brand or even the flavor of the gum. Toxicity depends on the weight of the dog and how many milligrams of xylitol were ingested.  Some quick calculations told me that Birkie could possibly get sick from the gum later that night.

This meant yet another after-hours trip to our animal hospital for Birkie. First, I checked his blood sugar and it was normal. Next I gave him some medicine to make him vomit. Nothing in the vomit looked like gum. His blood liver tests were normal.  At this point he was looking at me like he wanted to take back that nice greeting he gave me earlier. He loves visiting our hospital but he is certain that nothing good is going to happen when I make him hold still. Fortunately, everything checked out ok so we headed back home to unpack the suitcases.  The next day his liver tests were still normal so there must not have been much xylitol in the gum that he ate.

If Birkie's blood sugar had been low, we would have placed an IV catheter and given him fluids with dextrose (a type of sugar) added. Left untreated, low blood sugar can cause loss of consciousness, seizures and even death.  The symptoms could be delayed several hours after eating the gum or even a day or two later if there is liver damage.

Everyone knows that chocolate is not good for dogs an most people have heard that grapes and raisins can occasionally be bad for their dog. One problem with sugarless gum is that most dog owners are not aware that it can be toxic.  Another problem is that some gum manufacturers consider the amount of xylitol in their gum to be proprietary information and they don't publish it. This makes our job as veterinarians more difficult and causes unnecessary anxiety in dog owners when gum has been ingested.

Later that evening I called Jeff and Vicki to tell them about the sugarless gum and that Birkie was just fine.