Pets and More Pets ? Do Tomatoes Have Toxic Effects on Dogs

Dog owners are aware of the fact that even high quality dog foods may not contain all the necessary nutrients that will ensure the overall health of the dog. Dog owners would therefore supplement the dog?s diet with vitamins and give the pet nutritious people foods. Pet parent would give the dog fruits and vegetable as these people foods are rich in vitamins and minerals. Some common people foods though cannot be safely consumed by dogs thus pet parents have to be very careful in augmenting the dog?s diet with people foods.

Humans use tomatoes, a member of the nightshade family in varied ways. Raw, cooked, used as ingredient to dishes and sauces, tomatoes are favorite human foods. Tomatoes have loads of healthful benefits for humans. This red edible fruit is rich in lycopene, a potent antioxidant. Tomatoes are widely known as one of the food items that effectively prevents cataracts, heart diseases and cancer.

Dogs are highly valued pet and dog owners have been accustomed to sharing their food with the pet. Is it safe to give tomatoes to the dog? As mentioned, tomatoes belong to the nightshade family and plants from this family are known to have toxic effects. Tomatoes has alkaloids, a substance that is toxic even to humans. Unwanted effects of ingesting tomatoes range from being mildly irritating to fatal.

Dogs love eating tomatoes. Dogs can also gain the healthful benefits humans get from these luscious red fruits. Dogs can eat ripe tomatoes but not the green unripe ones and also not the leaves and the vines of the plant as they contain solinum alkaloid which is highly toxic to dogs. This toxic substance present in tomatoes is called tomatin.

Signs of tomato toxicity will be seen after the dog ingests unripe tomatoes. Dogs that have eaten unripe tomatoes would drool excessively, vomit and have diarrhea or constipation. The toxic substance tomatin is not efficiently absorbed by the intestines thus dogs would suffer from stomach upsets. Dogs that have eaten large amounts of the unripe tomatoes would suffer from severe symptoms of poisoning that can even result to the death of the pet. Toxin present in tomatoes would directly affect the heart and the central nervous system causing the dog to have breathing difficulties and to suffer from tremors and muscle weakness. The toxin found in unripe tomatoes can cause heart arrhythmias, a condition that can lead to the death of the dog.

Tomato toxicity is dose dependent. The dangerous effects of this fruit would depend on the amount of fruit ingested in relation to body weight. Tomato toxicity can be prevented by making sure that the pet only ingests ripe fruits.

Can dogs eat tomatoes? More on this and other food questions can be found at Sarah?s Dogs.

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Source: http://petsandmorepets.com/2012/08/do-tomatoes-have-toxic-effects-on-dogs/

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