Is it okay? [Pet Advice Queries]
 

Is it okay to give my toy mix dog pistachios as a treat? He's used to human food, and loves the salty little treasures almost as much as I do. He begged for a shelled one when I picked up a pack last week, and I've been giving him one or two when I grab a handful (the whole pack was shelled, so no worries there). It just occured to me that this may be detrimental, but I don't really know.

http://experts.about.com/q/Ask-Veter...-pistachio.htm

Pistachios can be highly toxic to dogs.
---they have been known to cause symptoms as mild as diarrhea/vomitting, to severe as seizuring and hind end paralysis. Your veterinarian will want to do some bloodwork to comfirm whether or not a toxicity is present. If there is, activated charcoal will be given orally, to absorb any toxins in the blood stream and IV fluids will be given for 24-48 hours to flush the system out.

Dogs eat their own poo too. Buy a thing of dog treats and keep his diet regular.

Aside from the article Mal quoted, I saw nothing on the web to suggest that pistachios are toxic for dogs (It could be that the presence of loud abdominal rumbling that made the vet concerned, in conjunction with the nuts...who knows. But who posts emergency vet questions on the internet?!) The ones I saw mentioned most often were macadamias and walnuts, although one site said "In fact most nuts are not good for a dogs health since their high phosporus content is said to lead to bladder stones." None of this seems terribly scientific. "Is said to..."? What kind of medical evidence is that?

Anyhow, just err on the side of caution. Peanuts are probably pretty safe, since peanut butter is a common ingredient in dog treats, so if he really likes salty treats, go with those, but sparingly. Since he's a toy dog, and probably pretty small, it doesn't take much of anything to poison him or throw off his dietary balance. Nuts are pretty high in fats, and dogs need a good omega 3 : omega 6 ratio in their diet to keep their skin and coat healthy.

Here's a list of other stuff dogs shouldn't eat:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Grapes,-Nu...Avoid&id=20315

I've heard that salt is very harmful to dogs and cats. I would recommend just giving him normal dog food and dog treats. There really is no need for human food. It just makes them sick and makes them beg for food more at the dinner table.

Try giving your dog a cold carrot. They usually love them, and they're great for their teeth.

Um... forgive me but this is hilarious. All animals need salt, there's a reason they give horses salt licks.

Too much salt can be harmful, but they have kidneys that work so you'd have to seriously overload them.

Since dogs and cats have different requirements than human beings we really don't know how much salt they can handle. For example, how do you know that a piece of cheese (which is very high in salt) wouldn't be harmful to your pet?
So unless you are a vet, I would suggest keeping any pompous remarks to yourself.

A piece of cheese is not harmful for your pet. You know how I know? It's a common practice by vets to wrap vitamins and pills for pets in a piece of cheeze.

Salt is extremely important for the workings of their body. Not having enough will cause kidney, liver, and other organ failures.

http://www.iams.com/en_AU/jhtmls/nut...=PN&qi=3000377

There if harmful you mean they drink water, than you are right

That's new to me about the pistachios. Didn't know that. Maybe if we only had a Tilted Pets section we could have saved the innocent lives of pistachio-addicted baby dogs.

After owning cats that eat like goats, we've learned from our vet that both onions and pork are bad for pets. Grapes are bad mostly because they could choke on them. Some, but not all cats like cheese, and ours prefer different flavors (one cat likes American, one prefers mild cheddar, and another prefers sharp cheddar). One cat's murderous flatulence has vanished since she stopped letting him have the leftover milk from her cereal bowl.

Grancey also likes to create "brokeback moments" between our two male cats by getting them to lick yogurt off the same spoon, but I'll let her explain that one.

Settle down, folks...no need to get snippy.

As with humans, TOO MUCH salt can be bad for them. The problem is in knowing how much is "too much." Because they're smaller and have different dietary requirements, a few super-salted nuts for them is more than just the equivalent of a snack for humans.

The problem isn't really the salt, though (I'd think that, at most, it'd just make them really thirsty). I'd be more concerned about fat, as (like most American humans) most American pets are obese.

The OP has a toy mix. That means it's kidneys are roughly the size of, well, a kidney bean. Would take very little to overload an organ of that size.

A horse, on the other hand, has gigantic kidneys. You're not comparing apples to oranges, you're comparing watermelons to cherries.

I know the vet I work for only advises people to cut back on salty diets for their pets if they have heart problems of a certain nature. Other then that I have never heard of it being a problem.

The thing is though that pets really need to stick to a diet of "pet food" why feed them human food when there is a possibility that is will affect them in a negative way??

I have always heard of giving pets their own food as treats, they really don't know the difference and we know that it will not harm them.

Thank you, Nikki. Hubby and I have never been able to come to agreement about people food. I don't want them eating table scraps of any kind, and hub treats them like garbage cans with fur. :mad:

Reminds me of a really old dog I used to have named Brandy. She would eat *anything* and I mean anything. I am pretty sure she was so old that her tastebuds just didn't work anymore, but I would often see her chewing on so many random things like Bananna peels, apple cores, and orange peels.

Most of the time she was just happy to eat whatever you were eating at the time, which got her into trouble once when she decided she wanted a 'bite' of the cigerette my aunt was smoking and it burned her little tongue when she tried to pick it up when my aunt's back was turned. Silly Puppy.

if nothing else, whether nuts are toxic or not.. I'd worry about a small dog choking on a small nut, because i'd imagine that it doesnt always chew things (just shoes and furniture)

I don't give my cats any people food if I can help it, they have been raised that way and in fact they now snub certain people foods that most other animals love, such as tinned tuna and fresh salmon. They like the occasional piece of cheese and of ham, but that's about it. Oh, they also love yogurt! These are very occasional treats, as in once every two weeks. Their favourite cat "treat" is half a tin of gourmet cat food (lamb or beef flavour) which they gobble up very fast. They onlt get that twice a week. All the rest of the time they drink water, eat dry cat food (lamb, rabbit or chicken flavours) and the occasional whiskas kitbit for fun. They are happy healthy cats who want for nothing. No need for any people food really - my cats are the proof.

I think the bottom line is this:

Look before you leap.

What I mean to say is: if you feel like you HAVE to treat your dog to "people food" LOOK IT UP. Make absolutely sure that the food you're giving your dog isn't harmful to them. In the case of pistachios, I didn't find any specific data FOR PISTACHIOS. However, I did find several different sources that said walnuts and macadamia nuts are bad. What this says to me is... why only these two nuts? I would avoid nuts of any kind with my furry friend.

Table scraps should be removed of fats before you feed them to your pet. Also, salty food is harmful to dogs (just as it is harmful to humans... but keep in mind the animals are much smaller than we are). NEVER EVER feed your dog raisins or grapes. Even a small serving of grapes can cause acute renal failure which, unfortunately, caused the death of my parents' last pet... I actually helped feed this dog grapes... not knowing what it would do to him.

THE BEST thing you can give your dog for a treat is a DOG TREAT. My parents buy their current dog special dog treats when they feel he deserves something special. We have standard treats too, for when he "looks cute" or soemthing of that nature. Remember that dog food is made for dogs and people food is made for people.

Just be careful... pets are amazing

i second that motion but the mods don't think there is enough pet "action" to make a pet forum worth it. who knows...

on the food front, it's better to feed them pet food. that said, we've also learned that it's good to add other things to their diets. we provide different things each day such as yogurt mixed with brown rice and chopped up greens, tomatoes and oregano, strawberries. they seem to like different things at different times of the year.