We all know that pets can eat the weirdest things — some are harmless but most often they are not leading to visits to the emergency room. According to the Pet Poison Helpline, the msot common things pets ate during the Pandemic directly reflected what people were doing while stuck at home.
“Baker’s yeast and bread dough are in our top three types of cases that increased more than 200 percent during the pandemic,” said Dr. Ahna Brutlag, a board-certified veterinary toxicologist at Pet Poison Helpline. “While that sourdough bread smells and tastes great, the yeast in the starter and raw dough can be toxic to your pet. When bread dough is rising, yeast ferments sugars in the dough into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide forms bubbles in the dough making it rise. When ingested, the warm environment of the stomach acts like a proofing oven, allowing the dough to continue to rise and produce alcohol. This can lead to both stomach bloat and alcohol poisoning in cats or dogs, both of which can be life threatening.”
Following is a list of the Top 10 Pandemic Pet Poisoning Increases between March 2020 and February 2021, compared to the same period a year earlier:
- Yeast: 222 percent increase
- Brewed Coffee: 207 percent increase
- Bread Dough: 202 percent increase
- Art Supplies: 113 percent increase
- Marijuana: 102 percent increase
- Paint: 96 percent increase
- Cleaning Products: 92 percent increase (hand sanitizer alone was up 413 percent)
- Cocktails: 92 percent increase
- Cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3): 85 percent increase
- Wine: 77 percent increase
