Jalapenos are one of them foods people either love or hate. A lot of people do enjoy jalapenos. The question is though, can dogs eat jalapenos? Are they safe for dogs to have? We will talk about all this and spicy food below.
Can Dogs Eat Jalapenos?
Jalapenos or any spicy food for that matter should not be given to dogs. Such foods will affect the digestive system of your dog. You should be twice as careful when you are personally using condiments or spices too.
Jalapenos and peppers place themselves in the top 10 poisonous foods for dogs. Even if you think spicy food does not harm your dog. In excessive quantity, all spicy foods will prove to be bad for dogs in the long run. The only pepper you should ever consider is the bell pepper but that is a different article.
What Happens When Your Dog Eats Jalapenos?
Symptoms of a dog exceeding their allowed food limit include bloating, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Your pet will become lethargic, extremely thirsty, and in extreme cases, could suffer from shock, seizures, or ulceration of the gastrointestinal system.
When your dog eats jalapeno, the above can happen as well. Along with their body having trouble to expel it. Even in case the case of there being no noticeable signs, you must try to soothe the stomach since it will be upset.
Feeding your dog bland food and supplying them with lots of water is always a good idea when they have an upset stomach. Since a dog’s stomach is not designed to eat spicy food, it may take a couple of days to recover from the shock.
In case, they took just a little, they might just have minor stomach upset and other side effects. Your pet will vomit or have diarrhea to get rid of all the seeds or pepper, as quickly as possible.
If your dog has eaten something seriously hot, then you should contact your local veterinarian straight away. Even if it was just a small portion of something not as spicy and your dog is acting strange then you should contact them straight away too. A dog’s sense of smell and taste is a lot greater than a human’s. So they will be feeling the spiciness a lot worse than we would be.
What To Do If Your Dog Has Eaten Too Many Jalapenos?
Since your dog will be losing body fluids, ensure they stay hydrated throughout the day. If you know your dog has eaten more than a manageable amount of jalapeno, it is time to pay a visit to the vet.
In large quantities, jalapenos are not just unhealthy, but dangerous too. Similarly, if your dog has not fully recovered after two days, you should necessarily visit the vet.
At all costs, you need to prevent any extreme digestive issues from occurring. Be very careful to keep your dog from foods that will cause them severe stomach unrest.
If they have eaten store branded Jalapenos, then there is a good chance of them getting dehydrated easily. According to the USDA FoodData Database for every 100g of Jalapenos there is 1640mg of salt. Which is a crazy amount of salt for a dog to intake if they have eaten that many. You should always make sure they have water available to them.
As mentioned above, if your are worried or if you just want to be on the same side, you should take them to your local veterinarian. It truly is better to be safe then sorry.
What Is The Deal With Dogs And Spicy Foods?
Almost anything spicy causes stomach upsets and cause problems with the dog’s digestive system. Dogs have not adapted to eating spicy foods.
These food items affect dogs more than other domestic pets. Sometimes, even people have a negative reaction to jalapenos. The problem with dogs is they will not react negatively to the taste of jalapenos seeds or spicy peppers. The problem is when it starts to hit their digestive system.
They will more than likely not show any reaction while chewing anything spicy. It is because dogs have just about 1700 taste buds, compared to 9000 taste buds in humans. It translates to your dog not finding the spiciness of jalapeno, off-putting.
A dog’s sense of taste is much less discriminating than that of humans. In fact, while humans have roughly 9,000 taste buds, dogs have only around 1,700. This means their sense of taste is about one-sixth as powerful as ours.
Read the original article – AKC – Can Dogs Taste
Nevertheless, their stomach is not designed to digest such spicy food. Some spicy food can cause irreparable damage to their dog’s stomach and digestion system. Hence, it naturally becomes the dog owner’s responsibility to feed the right kind of food to his/her dog.
Are There Any Health Benefits of Jalapenos?
Some websites have stated that Jalapenos can have a health benefit to dogs, which is crazy. Peanuts have health benefits to humans, but if your allergic to peanuts then they can cause your serious harm. This is the same with Jalapenos.
They may contain strong Antioxidant properties and a wide range of Vitamins and minerals. This is true but the spiciness far out ways anything. Especially the spiciness of Jalapenos, which can cause damage.
So for the above point, we will not mention any health benefits to Jalapenos. Simply because it does not matter.
Conclusion
No dogs can not eat Jalapenos. They may not be toxic to dogs like onions and chocolate. But they can cause discomfort and can cause damage to your dog’s stomach if given in large amounts.
Some dogs may not show signs of discomfit straight away. This means you need to keep a close eye on your dog for the next day or two if they have eaten one.
Some of the negative effects associated with jalapeno are vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. Usually, symptoms clear up within 1-2 days. If you are worried at all, please contact your veterinarian or emergency clinic.
If you notice chronic vomiting or prolonged sickness in your dog, do not hesitate to consult your veterinarian. Call up an animal emergency clinic if your local vet is not available.
