A Springer spaniel will be under close watch this festive season after she was rushed to intensive care for indulging on Christmas chocolate.   

Mo, a 10-year-old Springer Spaniel from Wimbledon, suddenly became agitated and restless on Christmas day last year after unwrapping and eating two large dark chocolate bars which had been lying under the Christmas tree.

 

Her owners, Sam and Jenny Lloyd from Wimbledon, rushed their beloved pooch to the vets where she underwent emergency treatment and luckily lived to tell the tale.  

Mr Lloyd said: "It was a very frightening experience. 

"The chocolate had been under the tree for a few days and we hadn’t really worried about it because she’d made no attempt to eat it - but it’s easy to forget what a phenomenal sense of smell dogs have and, at some stage when we weren’t around, she’d obviously decided to give it a try.

"We were so relieved to have her back fit and well and, this year, any festive chocolate will well out of her way."

Chocolate is toxic to dogs and can in extreme cases prove fatal. 

Roger Bralow, senior vet at the Stone Lion Veterinary Hospital in Wimbledon where Mo was treated, said:  "Dark chocolate is especially dangerous for dogs and she had ingested ten times the potentially fatal dose."

Mo was treated in an intensive care unit and after 24 hours was fit enough to be sent home.

Mr Bralow added: "I don’t think many people realise just how dangerous [chocolate] can be. 

"If you suspect that your dog may have eaten some, contact your vet urgently. 

"The symptoms can take up to 12 hours to show."