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A torn foil wrapper under the table. A bag of raisins chewed open on the back seat. A packet of sugar-free gum dragged out of a coat pocket. If you have just found one of these beside a dog licking its lips, you are far from alone. Chocolate was the substance vets and owners most often asked the Veterinary Poisons Information Service about in dogs in 2025, and grapes and xylitol were both in its top ten1.
Start with the steps below. Then read on for why each of the three is dangerous, where xylitol hides in an ordinary home, and what your vet may do when you get there.
What to do in the first few minutes
If it has just happened, start here. These steps come from the PDSA and from Animal PoisonLine, the service for owners run by the Veterinary Poisons Information Service1. Work down the list in order.
Step by step
- Move your dog awayClear up what is left so they cannot eat any more4
- Keep the packagingIt tells the vet what your dog ate2
- Gather the detailsWhat it was, roughly how much, when it happened and how big your dog is2
- Phone your vet nowOr their out-of-hours service. Do not wait for signs to appear2
- Do not make them sickAnd never give salt water4
- Go if you are told toTake the packaging or what is left of the food with you4
Ring your own vet practice first if you can, because they can see your dog if needed. The PDSA names Animal PoisonLine as the other number to call2. It answers 24 hours a day on 01202 509000 and charges for calls, and its specialists tell you whether your dog needs to see a vet: across all the calls it took in 2025, about anything from medicines to plants, only one in five owners were advised that they did1.
Why you should not make your dog sick at home
The urge to get it back up is strong, and the internet is full of ways to try. Resist them. Animal PoisonLine tells owners not to make their pet vomit and never to give salt water4. Hydrogen peroxide, another home method, has been reported to injure the stomach and gut of dogs and cats given it to make them vomit5.
In 2026 an international group of veterinary emergency and critical care experts published first aid guidelines for dogs and cats, known as RECOVER, and they recommend against routinely making a pet sick before it reaches the vet5. No study has tested whether making a dog or cat sick before the vet helps them, but in studies of people who had swallowed poisons, making them sick did not improve how they fared, and a home attempt can delay getting to the practice5.
The panel's one exception is a dog that cannot get to a vet quickly, and then only when a vet or poison service advises it5. Otherwise, leave it to your vet, who can make your dog sick with an injection if that is likely to help2.
Chocolate: the darker, the riskier
Chocolate contains theobromine, a substance similar to caffeine, plus a little caffeine itself2. Theobromine is harmless to people, but dogs struggle to break it down, and at a toxic dose it sends their nervous system, gut and muscles into overdrive2.
How serious it is depends on how much your dog ate, how big they are and the cocoa content2. As a rule, the darker the chocolate, the more theobromine it contains and the more dangerous it is likely to be2. Cocoa powder is especially toxic, but even chocolate with fewer cocoa solids can poison a dog that eats enough2. White chocolate has no cocoa solids, though its fat and sugar can still upset a stomach or, in severe cases, cause pancreatitis2.
Milk chocolate was the single commonest substance in dog enquiries to the poisons service in 2025, with 899 cases1. Signs usually appear within two to four hours but can take up to 12: restlessness, vomiting, diarrhoea, and drinking and weeing more than usual2. In severe cases a dog may pant, tremble, run a temperature, have a racing heart or fits2. A dog who seems fine half an hour later is not necessarily in the clear.
Grapes, raisins, sultanas and currants: no safe number
Grapes and their dried forms can cause kidney failure in dogs3. What makes them so hard to judge is how differently dogs respond. Some seem barely affected, while others become very ill after a small amount, especially of the dried fruit, and there is no way to know how a dog will react, even one that has eaten them before without trouble3. Hot cross buns, Christmas cake and cookies made with dried fruit all count3.
Signs include vomiting, diarrhoea, tummy pain, low energy and going off food3. A badly poisoned dog can develop kidney failure over the following one to three days3. The PDSA's advice is to contact your vet as soon as you think your dog has eaten any, without waiting to see whether signs develop3.
A new suspect: tartaric acid
For years nobody could say what in a grape does the damage, and the PDSA's page, written in 2020, still says it is not known how the fruit poisons dogs3. In a 2022 paper, poison specialists at the ASPCA, the American animal welfare charity, made the case for a suspect. They described six dogs that developed acute kidney injury after eating tamarinds or cream of tartar, whose signs, test results and, where examined, kidney tissue looked like grape and raisin poisoning7.
What links those foods and grapes is tartaric acid, which the team named as the likely toxic component7. A handful of cases gives researchers a lead, without proving the cause or giving anyone a safe number of grapes. It does add one thing to the cupboard check: cream of tartar, the baking ingredient, belongs out of reach too7.
Xylitol: the sweetener to look for on labels
Xylitol is a sugar substitute, popular with people who have diabetes or eat a low-carbohydrate diet, and its antibacterial properties put it in chewing gum and dental hygiene products4. In dogs it triggers a release of insulin that sends blood sugar down, and it can also damage the liver4. Products vary a lot in how much they contain, but even one or two pieces of gum may be enough to poison a small dog4.
Signs may start less than an hour after a dog eats it8: vomiting, weakness and tiredness from low blood sugar, collapse or fits4. In some dogs, especially those that go on to have liver damage, the low blood sugar can be delayed by 24 to 48 hours8. So a dog who seems fine still needs that phone call.
Where xylitol can hide
On an ingredients list it may appear as xylitol, as its additive code E9674 or as birch sugar, because it occurs naturally in birch trees8. Gum and medicines tend to live in handbags, coat pockets and bedside drawers, so those deserve a thought too.
What your vet may do, and why speed matters
Treatment depends on what your dog ate and how much2. If your dog arrives soon enough, the vet may give an injection that makes them sick. For chocolate, the PDSA puts that window at within a few hours of eating it2. For grapes and raisins it is only usually worthwhile if it can be done quickly, before the fruit has been digested3. That is why the phone call cannot wait.
Your vet may also give activated charcoal, a black powder that traps toxins, and some dogs need a fluid drip, sedation for tremors or fits, and close monitoring2, 3. After grapes or raisins, blood tests may be repeated over a few days, because kidney problems can take that long to appear3.
The outlook is good when help comes early. With the right treatment most dogs who eat chocolate make a full recovery2, and dogs treated quickly after eating grapes are likely to recover fully with no lasting problems3. Emergency care can be expensive3, and the PDSA says it is very important to tell your vet if you cannot afford the treatment they recommend, because there may be other options2.
Keeping temptation out of reach
These three are everywhere: in cupboards, lunchboxes, handbags and the post. The poisons service warns that its own league table is not necessarily a ranking of danger: how often it hears about something can sometimes reflect how easy it is to get hold of1.
Dog enquiries to the poisons service in 2025
Around the house
Do
- Keep chocolate in high or locked cupboards2, and give dried fruit and sugar-free gum the same treatment
- Check the label for xylitol before you give your dog any human food, including a spoonful of nut butter in a toy6
- Make sure everyone at home, children included, knows chocolate is never a dog treat2
Put your vet's number and their out-of-hours number in your phone today. If you find a chewed wrapper tomorrow, you will have the number ready.
Sources and further reading8 sources
The small numbers in the article link to the source behind each fact. Sources open on their own websites.
- VPIS Annual Report 2025
- Chocolate poisoning in dogs
- Grape, raisin, currant and sultana poisoning in dogs
- Xylitol poisoning in dogs
- RECOVER Guidelines: First Aid in Dogs and Cats. Evidence and Knowledge Gap Analysis With Treatment Recommendations
- Poisons and hazards in pets
- Acute kidney injury in dogs following ingestion of cream of tartar and tamarinds and the connection to tartaric acid…
- Xylitol/Birch Sugar