Keep your dog away from your spent hops.

[Pilgrim]

Reading an old issue of Zymurgy and I came across an interesting article. I always dump my spent hops in the garden near my hop plants (kinda in the hope that it might give them some inspiration). Now I don't have a dog anymore but my old Irish Setter would eat anything, edible or inedible. So when I read this I thought it would be a good idea to pass it on.

"There is a potential danger for pet owners who might discard their spent hops in the yard or allow their pets to possibly eat the hops. I was surprised to learn that spent hops are more dangerous to dogs than
fresh ones. I am contacting suppliers to ask them to include a warning in their brewing instructions. My local vet is spreading the word throughout the industry here as well."

Reply by the Professor:
"Thanks for the helpful warning. I did a bit of research and found this on several Web pages
including http://workingdogs.com/doc0175.htm:
Hops Homulus (sic) lupulus: the spent hops from the home brewing of beer presents a new danger to dogs. Since 1994, the National Animal Poison Control Center has been consulted on five dogs, only one of whom survived. The dogs present with panting,restlessness, and signs of increasing pain. The most significant symptom is a rapid increase in temperature called malignant hyperthermia. Treatment includes gastric lavage, charcoal slurry, coldwater baths and IV sodium bicarbonate to reverse
metabolic acidosis. Hops contain a variety of biologically active compounds, the most suspect
however is an uncharacterized alkaloid."

So there, you have been warned!

[jt]

Righto - easily fixed - shan't get a dog !

[James P]

That's probably why my lab is blind, either that or he's been into Grandpa's moonshine I brought back from the States...

[jamis]

Mushrooms nearly killed our boxer when she was young, and chocolate is also toxic to dogs.

[David Upex]

So too are grapes. Chocolate raisins would be a real killer.

[Stu McKinlay]

I feed my dog chocolate all the time
According to National Geographic's Interactive Chocolate Chart it'd take 40kg of milky bar to kill my 15kg dog! I guess that is in one sitting.
Mind the cocoa though... that stuff is lethal.

They should do an interactive chart like that for alcohol so that teenagers know how much might harm them. I guess you'd need another scale... "Vomiting and Diarrhea" wouldn't be the first step on the alcohol one, it'd more likely be "Embarrassment and a bit of a Hangover"

[Dougal]

I can corroborate the chocolate thing. We've always got the good 85% stuff on hand and a previous dog ate a whole cake. Don't recommend after-hours vet rates on a public holiday (though on the other hand, it was the nicest smelling vomit I've ever experienced).

It's all related to the size of the dog and how strong the chocolate is. My 25kg dog was okay, though we still had to feed him charcoal tablets, but apparently a kingsize of dark Whittakers is potentially enough to finish off a Jack Russell. The toxic part is theobromine, which dogs can't metabolise, and I gather in serious cases it gradually leads to seizures and organ failure several hours after ingestion.

Crappy milk chocolate has so little of this stuff that it's unlikely to be harmful.