chocolate.. bad?

[Equisgurl]

I cant remember what post but a while back I was reading something horses drinking coke? and several people mentioned feeding chocolate to their horses. I know that chocolate is very toxic to dogs, cats, birds and other small animals. Is it different for horses?

[Lucy J]

my old horse loved chocolate (well developed habit before i got him) he used to get some everyday, i didn't realise it was toxic, but i don't think it did him any harm. but my YO says if a horse was to have a mars bar before a drugs test it would fail the test because of something in it.

to be on the safe side, i don't feed ciara anything like that. she didn't even know what a polo mint was until people at the yard constantly tried to get her to eat them. better safe than sorry.

[fair~filly]

I bet a lot of us have given our horses a piece as a "treat".
A drugs test will show traces of caffeine and theobromine if Chocolate has been fed (both are stimulants & banned in horse & Dog racing)
theobromine is dangerous to Dogs as it's toxic & takes ages to leave their system...I suppose the same applies to Horses, but it would take a larger amount to cause problems.
I remember hearing that tomatoes are dangerous too.

F~Fxxx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Horses are Us© (http://horse.notlong.com) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[LynneAC]

Hi, chocolate contains theobromine which takes longer to break down in dogs, cats, horses etc than in humans which is why it is potentially more toxic to animals. It is, however, also toxic to humans but we would have to eat about 20 lbs of the stuff to feel the effects! Caffeine is also present in chocolate which is another part of the problem.

Dark chocolate is more toxic than milk which is more toxic than white! The effects are dependant on the amount given and the size of the animal. Some of the effects in dogs/cats are:

Excitement, nervousness and trembling
Vomiting and diarrhoea
Excessive thirst and sometimes excessive urination (at higher levels of Theobromine toxicity)
Muscle spasms
Seizures
Coma (which is rare)
Death (also rare) and is probably due to heart rhythm abnormalities

Following this we could assume that chocolate IS harmful to horses but only if we fed them fairly large amounts of it. It is also a seen as a stimulant and, as such, could be seen as an illegal stimulant.

As it is of no real nutritional value it's probably wiser all round to steer clear of it ...... now if only this would frighten ME enough to stop me from eating it .........

[virtuallyhorses]

Originally posted by LynneAC
...It is, however, also toxic to humans but we would have to eat about 20 lbs of the stuff to feel the effects! ...

oh, I better cut down then :p

[galadriel]

When a family friend's dog got into the halloween chocolate, I looked it up to see just how toxic it was. For dogs, the toxicity level is at about 1oz/pound bodyweight (for milk chocolate, less for dark).

If the theobromine is only as toxic to horses as it is to dogs, then a 1000 lb horse would need to eat 1000 oz of milk chocolate for toxicity. That's about 63 lb, or 28 kg.

[Equisgurl]

thank you so much for the info, and I even learned something:p

[kelsmells]

Fluelle just loves a little bit of choccie:D I only give her a tiny piece every now and then,i don't think it does her any harm(i hope):D

[Zingy]

Originally posted by LynneAC
It is, however, also toxic to humans but we would have to eat about 20 lbs of the stuff to feel the effects

Is that a challenge? ;)

[martini55]

Martini loves anything food related. She especially loves time outs and salt and vinegar crisps, though she only gets a bit if I'm eating it so its not very often.

[epcd3000]

Originally posted by Zingy
Is that a challenge? ;)

I'm up for it. :D

[shaka]

Coke and other fizzy drinks are NOT good for a horse AT ALL. This is because they contain a lot of gas. When there is a big build up of gas in the stomach, I'm sure we all know what this leads to, colic! Occasionally isn't so bad, but deffinitely not often, and when it is done, preferably flat!
I wouldnt say chocolate is good for horses, as their systems are not designed to cope with it. But then, are our horses digestive systems designed to cope with most the supplements on the markets today?

And epcd, me to!!
Ahhhhhhhh we should start horses and choco holics anonymous...

[T-bred]

I try to avoid feeding anything like that to my horses. I know that my old dog Beamer ripped one of our Christmas stockings open and then he ripped through the candy bar wrapper and then he ate the chocolate while we were gone. We called the vet and because it was only milk chocolate they said he would just have a stumache ache! They said that the dark chocolate and baking chocolate is the stuff you can't feed them!

Anna

[nat17]

:*** that a challenge?

I am also up for it!;)

[4_white_socks]

I wasn't there, but I was told one of the ponies had a whole easter egg! I'm not sure how, but she was ok. Strangely, the next day she had and extremely speedy trot... (I think it was the day after anyway :))
She's ok, not ill or anything, but I wouldn't reccomend giving chocolate to horses (well, not much), especcially after seeing the posts above