Why Is Dough Bad For Dogs, And What Can You Do About It?
Play dough, both homemade and store-bought, and unbaked bread dough are the two main varieties of dough that can create serious problems for dogs. While the symptoms of toxicity change depending on the type of dough, it is advised to keep your pet away from both. And if they do, immediate veterinarian care is required.
What Happens To Dogs When They Eat Dough?
The warm, wet habitat of the dog’s stomach acts as a good incubator for yeast replication in the dough. The increasing dough mass produces stomach distension in the dog, compromising blood circulation throughout the body. Breathing can become more difficult as the stomach continues to distend.
As a consequence of yeast fermentation, ethanol (alcohol) is taken into the dog’s bloodstream, resulting in inebriation and possibly serious systemic abnormalities.
What Makes Play Dough Risky For Dogs?
Flour, corn-starch, oatmeal, and a lot of salt are common ingredients in homemade play dough recipes. Your pet’s health could be jeopardized by the salt. Although neurologic disorders are common symptoms of salt poisoning, the heart is the most prevalent adverse effect of toxic quantities of salt taken through play dough.
When there is too much salt in the blood, the heart has to work significantly harder. Severe adverse effects are most likely in dogs that already have a heart problem.
Symptoms That Your Dog May Have Consumed Play Dough
- Seizures
- Coma
- Coordination issues
- Weakness
- Coughing
- Pale gums
- Ascites is a condition in which the belly fills with fluid as a result of the heart’s inability to pump effectively.
When A Dog Eats Unbaked Bread Dough, What Happens?
Raw yeast-based bread dough might be an unforeseen poisoning risk for dogs. The dog’s gastrointestinal tract provides an ideal habitat for the yeast organisms to multiply when the bread dough is consumed.
The bread dough will spread in the dog’s stomach, putting pressure on the surrounding organs and causing breathing problems. The sticky quality of the mass will make it tough for dogs to vomit up the bread dough.
Is It Poisonous For Dogs To Consume Unbaked Bread Dough?
The developing yeast cells will create ethanol as the illness worsens, and the dog’s blood alcohol level will increase to harmful levels. Unbaked bread dough, like many other kinds of alcohol poisoning, can produce intoxication, lack of coordination, and central nervous system depression.
Although treatment can help to alleviate the symptoms of alcohol poisoning and increase the chances of a dog surviving, severe cases can still be dangerous.
The bread dough might have to be surgically removed in some circumstances. Gastric dilatation and volvulus are significant complications that can occur in susceptible breeds (GDV).
The stomach might twist and become misplaced as it expands in this disease. Bloating and gas in the abdomen are the most common causes, but rising bread dough can also produce this. If unbaked bread dough poisoning happens in huge or giant breeds of dogs, gastric dilatation and volvulus are more prone to develop.
If the stomach becomes significantly twisted, a fatal gastrointestinal rupture is a possibility. Raw yeast-containing bread dough can cause serious and even deadly poisoning in dogs.
Signs Of Dog Poisoning From Unbaked Bread Dough
The indications of a dog that has eaten unbaked bread dough are as follows.
- Stomach distended
- Vomiting that isn’t productive and retching
- Breathing problems
- Excessive salivation
- Depression
- Disorientation
- Weakness
- The body temperature is too low.
- Seizures
- Coma
Yeast Can Put Dogs’ Lives At Risk
Yeast is responsible for the fluffiness, lightness, and lift of bread. It’s what gives a baguette or an excellent sourdough loaf those lovely air bubbles. Yeast, of course, is a living organism (a member of the fungus family) that transforms carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and alcohol in wet, warm settings.
When a dog eats bread dough, it absorbs yeast that has already been activated and continues to thrive in the warm, moist belly of the dog. As a result, the dog’s intestines generate even more co2, causing the stomach to enlarge and bloat.
Gastric Dilatation Volvulus is the medical word for this excessive bloating (GDV)
The gas produced by yeast gets lodged in the gut of the canine. This gas, for whatever reason, does not flow easily out of the stomach like most intestinal gas, causing the digestive system to expand and pressurize.
As the gut expands, the stomach lining might burst, causing cardiovascular injury and diaphragm damage. As a result, if your dog has eaten raw bread dough, you should take him to the vet right away. Nearly a quarter of dogs with GDV do not live, even with treatment.
GDV Symptoms Include:
- Drooling
- Anxiety and agitation
- Breathing that is shallow or panting that is heavy
- Pacing
- Vomiting attempts
- Bloating in the stomach
What To Do If A Dog Has Consumed Dough?
Contact your veterinarian or a 24-hour emergency clinic right away if you fear your pet has eaten bread dough or play dough.
Because the dough will expand once it reaches the stomach. Your dog may only require an injection to induce vomiting if prompt veterinarian treatment is available.
However, it is dependent on the amount of dough consumed and the period between ingestion and therapy. Unless your veterinarian instructs you otherwise, never try to initiate vomiting at home. If your dog has eaten uncooked dough, you can offer them some cold water to drink to help slow down the fermentation process.
Dough Ingestion Treatment
As previously stated, vomiting can be used to help eliminate the dough from the stomach. However, this is highly unlikely to happen, and more rigorous treatment is frequently required. Your dog’s gut might have to be “lavaged,” which means the liquid is injected through a pipe into the gastrointestinal cavity to aid in the elimination of the dough mass. If vomiting and lavage do not work, surgical removal may be required.
Toxicity Of Dough Prevention
Treatment is always preferable (and less expensive) than prevention. Because time plays an important role when it comes to dough ingestion, it’s vital that everyone in your household is aware of the risks that dough poses to your dog.
Preventing Toxicity In Play dough
- Keep your dog in a crate or a separate area when playing with play dough.
- Make sure your kids understand that play dough is harmful to dogs, and never let them play with it.
- Play dough should be kept in pet-proof jars out of range of your pup’s eager nose.
- Preventing Raw Bread Dough and Pizza Dough
- Never leave the uncooked dough to sit on a table. Keep it warm in the oven or microwave.
- Never throw away unwanted or outdated bread dough in your home’s garbage bin.
- While preparing bread dough, make sure your dog is in another room or crated so that counter-surfing canines can’t take the dough while you’re distracted.
Dogs Recover From Dough Poisoning
Bread dough poisoning in dogs can be treated promptly and effectively, and the canines can recover completely. This is particularly true if dogs only consume a tiny amount and are able to puke it up before the yeast ferments and grows the lump. This can also be likely to succeed if the veterinarian is able to swiftly stabilize poisonous alcohol content and evacuate the bread dough; but, severe alcohol poisoning can soon result in irreparable brain damage or death.