Xylitol (a sweetner) Found in Gum and Other Sweets Can Kill Your Dog.

[M.D. Holloway]

A women here in Dallas left her purse out and her Lab got into it, chewed up a dozen pieces of Trident and nearly killed him. Come to find out, the sweetner Xylitol is deadly to dogs.

I checked Wikipedia and found out the following:

For dogs, xylitol can cause serious, possibly life-threatening, problems. Dogs which ingest products sweetened with xylitol may experience insulin-mediated low blood sugar hypoglycemia, possibly resulting in loss of coordination, depression, collapse and seizures as soon as 30 minutes after ingestion. One case occured in a standard poodle that ate five or six sweetened cookies. Xylitol can also cause liver failure and coagulopathy (failure of blood clotting) in dogs. Dogs that have eaten products sweetened with xylitol, including some sugar free gums, baked goods and tooth pastes, need immediate medical attention even if they are not showing illness. Sick dogs (vomiting, weak, seizuring, etc) are likely to need aggressive veterinary treatment and close monitoring of blood values.

For humans, Xylitol, like most sugar alcohols, can have a mild laxative effect at high doses. It has no known toxicity, though; people have consumed as much as 400 grams daily for long periods with no apparent ill effects

Xylitol, also called wood sugar or birch sugar, is a five-carbon sugar alcohol that is used as a sugar substitute. Xylitol is a naturally occurring sweetener found in the fibers of many fruits and vegetables, including various berries, corn husks, oats, and mushrooms. It can be extracted from corn fiber, birch, raspberries, plums, and corn. Xylitol is roughly as sweet as sucrose but contains 40% less food energy.

Xylitol was first derived from Birch trees in Finland in the 19th century and was first popularized in Europe as a safe sweetener for diabetics that would not impact insulin levels. In the late 20th century, xylitol in granular form began to be mass produced in the United States under the brand name "Ultimate Sweetener" using beet plants in California. Today, using corn sources, most world supplies reportedly come primarily from China.

As a food product it is not subject to drug regulations but xylitol based products have been certified by the American Food and Drug Administration as a suitable remedy for infantile dental caries.


It is very popular in Finland, which is considered its "home country". Many Finnish confectioneries employ xylitol, or have a xylitol version available. Virtually all chewing gum sold in Finland and Europe is sweetened with xylitol.

The formerly Spanish company, now Italian, Chupa Chups makes a xylitol-based breath mint, Smint, that it markets worldwide.

In China, Japan and South Korea, xylitol is found in wide assortment of chewing gums. Korea even has a brand of gum named "Xylitol," while Japan has a brand called "Xylish."

In 2004, popular North American Trident gum was reformulated to include xylitol, but not as the main sweetener (which are still sorbitol and maltitol). Also sold in North America is Carefree Koolerz, which is a sugarless gum sweetened exclusively with xylitol. It is also found in Smokey Mountain Snuff.

In 2006, William Wrigley Jr. Company reformulated their Orbit gum to contain xylitol and released it under the name "Orbit Complete."

When Extra introduced xylitol-containing products to Hong Kong and Guangdong, it translated the word "xylitol" phoenetically into Cantonese as saai lok to (ɹñ˜ñ„), which literally meant "suntan camel", and used the camel as a figurative icon in its advertisements.

Asics Corp., a Japanese company, markets a line of women¡¯s t-shirts with xylitol infused into the fabric. Xylitol, like several other sugar alcohols, exhibits a cooling effect in the mouth. The t-shirts are intended to utilize this same property to keep a person cooler in warm weather.

[bell]

wow, good info.
i'll be passing this info to my parents as they have a golden retriever, husky, and a husky/german shepard mix......(maggie/kira/apache)