Monday, October 3, 2011

Raw Potato Poison?


I hope this post helps someone frantically searching google for 'dog ate raw potato'.  Monday afternoon I was digging some potatoes that volunteered in the garden.  Incidentally I got 20lbs from 2 volunteer plants.
Tibby was watching me and at some point she decided to get a snack for herself.  She ended up eating 3 small potatoes.  I thought it was cute, so I took some pictures.  Then I started to wonder......are raw potatoes safe for dogs to eat?


A quick search of google reveals that - no raw potatoes are not safe for dogs to eat.  So I called the vet - yes, raw potatoes are safe for dogs to eat.  If they don't chew them up properly it can cause problems, but otherwise it is fine.  Who was right?
The vet was correct.  Google was wrong.  That evening Tibby had some stinky gas and then rushed outside twice to poop.  After her 2 potato poops she was back to normal.  But of course my worrying was not over, because Google told me over and over that signs of raw potato poisoning take 4 days to appear.  So I waited.


Seven days later.  She is fine.
She won't be getting any more raw potatoes, because it did cause some GI upset with the smelly gas. 
But now I know raw potatoes are NOT poison. 

4 comments:

K-Koira said...

I think the "raw potatoes are poison" idea comes from the fact that raw green potatoes are, in fact, poisonous. In fact, when potatoes were first discovered in the Americas and brought back to Europe, people ate them raw and got seriously sick, because exposure to sunlight makes potatoes green, which creates a poison in them.

However, you are totally correct in that raw potatoes are not poisonous to dogs at all if they are the correct color.

Kiyi Kiyi said...

yup, but it gave me one scary week of waiting

jet said...

Yes, but green potatoes won't kill you either, just cause a GI upset for humans. As a poor student I ate some slightly green spuds with no ill effects.

Just goes to show that Google isn't always right.

Kiyi Kiyi said...

Yes that's true Google isn't always right.