Why you need to lock up your Easter eggs: Pete talks chocolate poisoning

This week on the Pat Kenny Show, we discussed chocolate poisoning in dogs, and then we took the usual queries from listeners.

Essential facts about chocolate poisoning

• The big risk is not from giving chocolate treats
• The big risk is dogs stealing chocolate
• Dose to kill a small dog (5kg):
  + Dark chocolate: 50g – half a bar
  + Milk chocolate: 100g – one bar
• Lock up your Easter eggs!
• If your dog does eat chocolate, phone your vet immediately

Questions:

• I’ve an outdoor pond, about three feet square & two feet deep. I’ve five goldfish, 2-3 years old & big, relatively speaking. When changing water, should I also clean out algae from walls & bottom or leave well enough alone?  Kieran in Glasnevin.
• Is there any way of deterring cats from entering my property? Two of my neighbours have been “accumulating” cats, for want of a better word, over the past few years, buying and taking in new ones but also feeding strays. Our village is teeming with them and they spend their nights fighting/mating noisily on my roof, they sleep on and scratch the paint on my car and use my garden as a giant litter box. They have become a real nuisance and I want to know if there is any scent, device, etc that will put them off coming into my yard?
• Any cure for a nervous dog? Mike in Clare
• I have a 4yr old male neutered vaccinated cat. He has had an intermittent cough since i got him. He will wake up and cough. He sometimes cough after running like a mad thing up and down the garden. He doesn’t seem like he’s struggling for breath but his coughing sessions can last a few minutes. Advice please?
• I had my pet rabbits teeth clipped 6 weeks ago but they have overgrown again after 3-4 weeks, what’s the solution other than clipping every 3 weeks? Seamus