It would never be a good idea to teach the dog the trick of drinking beer from the can. A dog’s systems cannot process alcohol well so that a small amount that would not cause intoxication in humans can already cause digestive problems or worse result to poisoning that can kill a dog. In humans ingestion of alcoholic beverages will result to vomiting, frequent urinating and uncoordinated movements but in dogs the effect would be more serious. Dogs that have ingested a sizeable amount of alcoholic beverage can go into coma or have cardiac arrest and if the dog does not receive urgent treatment the condition can result to the dog’s death

The dangerous effects of alcohol ingestion in dogs is not a common knowledge and dog owners that know about alcohol poisoning would commonly believe that situation occurs only when the pet ingests alcohol. Apart from alcohol ingestion there are other situations where the dog can be poisoned by alcohol. Ethanol is commonly used as a solvent in medications. Dogs are very curious animals known to have indiscriminate eating habits thus owners that leave medications lying around are actually tempting the dog to investigate and to taste the interesting substance. Alcohol poisoning can occur if the dog has ingested medications containing ethanol. Dogs can get poisoned by ingesting yeast dough. Yeast dough will ferment inside the dog’s stomach and produce ethanol which will cause the poisoning.

In about 30 minutes, a dog that has ingested alcohol will start manifesting symptoms of alcohol toxicity. Similar to humans intoxicated by alcohol, dog would have swaggering or uncoordinated movements as well. The dog that would be noticed to have the strong smell of alcohol in the mouth would drool and vomit. A drastic change in behavior will be noticed and in about a day or two the dog would either be sluggish or very excited.

Dogs that have downed more alcohol would need a trip to the vets to be treated for alcohol poisoning. The nervous system of the dog will be affected if sizeable amount of alcohol was consumed. Tremors, slow respiratory rate can get the dog into coma. Alcohol toxicity symptoms can progress to cardiac arrest that can lead to the death of the dog.

Dogs that have consumed substantial amounts of alcohol would need urgent treatment. The dog will be given supportive treatment. Activated charcoal is administered to cleanse the gastrointestinal tract of ethanol so as to prevent the toxic substance from being further absorbed by the body. Dogs that have consumed alcohol would vomit and have diarrhea thus intravenous fluid therapy is one of the treatments administered to correct fluid and electrolyte imbalance.

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