Salt toxicity?

[pitgrrl]

So one of my dumb dogs got ahold of a loaf of bread and a teaspoon full of sea salt last night. The bread seems to have finally moved it's way along, and although two vet techs have already told me that the salt shouldn't be a problem, I seem to have read too much about dogs overdosing on salt in the last 12 hours, and I'm still a bit worried about it.

So do any of you have salt eating dogs? Any ill effects in the longer term?

[Magnolia618]

I would think that the loaf of bread would have absorbed the salt pretty well

If she is acting normal, I wouldnt worry too much about it.

[Malli]

I'd totally not worry about it.

I work at an Animal Emergency and I've seen some effects of salt water intake, they were vomiting, diarrhea, and gastro intestinal irritation, a little dehydration as well.

My own dog does not hold his water kong properly when retrieving in the water and tends to accidentally swallow salt water, he just gets the runs

I think the level of salt to cause damage to a dog would have to be very, very high.

At the most, I'd withhold food for 12-24 hours and then try a gastroenteric diet or some plain cooked rice for a day or 2 to prevent GI irritation, and thats being paranoid safe

[pitgrrl]

Well, just for the purpose of future information, someone did manage to find me a study on the effects of salt, which actually gives amounts:

According to a study of cases at the APCC of homemade playdoh ingestion, a dose of salt >1.9 g/kg can be toxic and >4 g/kg can be lethal. 15 ml of salt weighs about 18 g. So if the dog ate about 75 ml of salt, the dose would be 3 g/kg so signs of hypernatremia (ataxia, tremors, seizures) can be seen.

So my dumb ass dog only managed to get .17g/kg. I guess in this case it's good that he's a big dumb ass......
I think it's time I get a baby gate for the kitchen, since Basil just seems to be willing to eat anything and everything.

[mnp13]

This weekend, Ruby ate 1/4 of the bottom tier of my father's three tier ultra dark chocolate cake that my sister made from scratch. I thought her head was going to spilt in two she was so mad. However, she managed to shrug it off... I have to say I was VERY VERY impressed.

We didn't have any hydrogen peroxide around to make her puke, but we decided that she didn't really eat enough of it to worry.

Which leads me to - I thought that dumping a couple table spoons of salt down their throat was a way to induce vomiting??

[Marinepits]

It can be, but hydrogen peroxide seems to work better and quicker. I used it just the other day on Mac after I couldn't find a piece of toy that he shredded. I found it when he threw it up.

The salt wouldn't be absorbed into the dog's system before it is vomited back up.

[Malli]

perhaps the reason why salt toxicity is rarely, if ever seen is because the body does such a good job of removing from the system quickly (i.e. either through vomiting or diarrhea)... Frankly, I'm surprised your dog didn't vomit, I had a prank pulled on me at an old job when someone put salt in my pop and I drank it through a straw, I totally got a weird feeling in my stomach, and I think if I'd had much more then the sip or 2 I took, I'd have been sick.

Malli