scavengers they are, will always be sniffing around for anything that smells good enough to eat, and you know they will pull you off of your legs to get to that piece of moldy pizza or rancid chicken bone or sweet-smelling thing on the ground. Here is where car maintenance and a dog’s sweet tooth can be a dangerous combination. Did you know that automobile antifreeze is a common source of poisoning for dogs? It is the ethylene glycol in antifreeze that tastes very sweet to a dog and they like and are attracted to it. They way they get access to it is when leaks from the car’s radiator or coolant system leaves puddles of antifreeze on driveways, on the street, and on the floor of your garage. Common colors you will see are green, orange, blue and pink. Those sweet smelling puddles can be very tempting to lap up. In fact, dogs that are housed in garages, even just part time, are at greater risk of antifreeze poisoning. I used to see wet spots of green or pink antifreeze all the time, in the empty parking lot spaces of the condo where I lived with Rosy. We steered clear of them. Most dogs that are attracted to the sweet taste of antifreeze will lick it directly from those puddles or even from residue on the containers if you keep them in your garage. But dogs can also become indirectly poisoned if they walked in it and then later
How to Prevent Your Dog From Antifreeze Poisoning When a dog’s sweet tooth and cars collide
blueberries like my dog Rosy does? I feed these to her on occasion because the fruit sugars in some fruits are okay for canines to eat. I don’t give her “people” cookies, candy, or cake, however, and recommend you do the same. If your sugar-seeking canine does happen to grab a cookie or two in the house, as long as there is not an abundance of dark chocolate in it, it’s most likely not going to cause a serious problem.
Dogs like sweet things. They have taste buds that detect sugars just like we do. You can hear all about cats and dogs taste buds and what they taste compared to you, in the first segment, “How Good are Pet’s Taste Buds” in the Raising Your Paws podcast episode you’ll find below (visit https://nutrisourcepetfoods.com/blog/ how-to-prevent-your-dog-from-anti-freeze- poisoning-blog-83 to hear more) .
When outside, though, dogs, being the
Does your dog like watermelon and
Missouri Pet Breeders Association | Page 34
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