My Dog Ate Oreos, What Do I Do?
The best advice here is to call your veterinary surgery as soon as possible. Their advice will depend on the number of cookies eaten, whether any packaging was swallowed and any other health conditions your dog has. Your vet will assess the risk and may offer to make your dog vomit, or they might administer some medications or simply advise you to monitor for any concerning signs.
What Happens to Dogs After Eating Oreos?
Many flavored or coated varieties of Oreo are now available, but the original is made up of two chocolate-flavored wafers/biscuits sandwiched together with a sweet crème filling. The main ingredients are: sugar, flour, palm oil, cocoa, vanilla flavoring and chocolate.
The nutritional content of an Oreo is mostly carbohydrates (sugars) and fat, with a very small proportion of proteins and absolutely no vitamins. These snacks may be delicious but they certainly can’t be classed as nutritious!
There are approximately 50 calories in one cookie. The calorie requirements of a dog vary depending on its age, sex, breed, and activity level. For example an average 10-kilogram dog will need around 500-600 kcal per day, so even one cookie is quite a big chunk of those calories. Now imagine if they ate a whole packet or they were given two a day a day on top of their balanced diet. It’s easy to appreciate how quickly a dog’s weight can increase and negatively affect their health. Ingredients
Most of us are aware that chocolate is toxic to dogs. This is due to a substance called theobromine which is found in cacao (the plant used to make cocoa and chocolate). On its own it has a bitter taste, but when mixed with sugar and other ingredients, it is pretty tasty. Theobromine is similar to caffeine and side effects range from mild (hyperactivity or tummy upsets) to severe (affecting the nervous system and heart) and in very worst cases, death.
Theobromine content varies hugely in different types of chocolate with the highest amounts being present in baking cocoa powder and dark chocolate and the lowest amounts in white chocolate. Thankfully, although Oreos are flavored with and contain both chocolate and cocoa, the actual amounts are small and you would be unlikely to see any serious side effects in your dog related to the chocolate in these cookies. However, this does depend on the number of cookies eaten.
In each Oreo cookie there is 4.2 grams of sugar, which is 1 teaspoon – that’s a lot of sugar! There’s also 2.1 g of fat, which is approximately half a teaspoon. High sugar and fat intake in dogs causes gastrointestinal issues (tummy upsets) such as vomiting and diarrhea and can result in pancreatitis. This can be a serious and painful condition caused by inflammation of the pancreas and is often associated with high fat or sugar meals, along with other causes. In dogs with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, a high sugar intake is life threatening and you must contact your vet immediately for advice.
This is oil derived from the fruit of the palm tree. It is not toxic to dogs but it does have a laxative effect, contributing to the risk of your dog developing diarrhea after enjoying this tasty snack.
My Dog Ate Oreos – What Do I Do?
If your dog just ate one cookie, watch for any irregular health symptoms, but they should be safe and digest them without any issues.
Call your veterinarian if your dog at an entire package of Oreos and you notice them acting like they are in pain or if you see them trembling or trying to vomit.
Yes, a dog can safely eat one Oreo, one time. However, these cookies have harmful ingredients that you should keep away from dogs.
These are the ingredients in Oreos and how they effect dogs:
There are a lot of Oreos that don’t have chocolate in them. Here’s more information about those varieties and how safe they are.
Golden Oreos are also known as vanilla Oreos or white Oreos. No matter what you call them, dogs should not eat them.
Since they don’t have any chocolate in them, they are one of the safest varieties dogs can eat. However, you should still keep them away from your dog.
They are still made with palm oil, sugar, and high fructose corn syrup.
Contrary to the name, there isn’t any real lemon in lemon Oreos. Since they have so much palm oil, sugar, and high fructose corn syrup in them, dogs should not eat them.