Sweetener in gum is causing surge in accidental dog poisonings

[Sawdust]

Ms. Cox, of Charlotte, N.C., came home to find that the labradoodle had knocked her son’s Ice Breakers gum off the counter and ingested about 20 pieces. The dog began vomiting and later became lethargic. A local animal hospital diagnosed liver failure...The culprit: xylitol, a sugar substitute increasingly used by food manufacturers. It has been deemed safe for humans but is extremely harmful to dogs—roughly 100 times as toxic as milk chocolate, a more widely known hazard, experts say. The sweetener is causing a surge in accidental dog poisonings, some fatal, according to animal poison-control centers.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/11/03/sweetener-in-gum-is-causing-surge-in-accidental-dog-poisonings.html

I had no idea - I knew that chocolate was toxic to dogs, but an artificial sweetener?

My kids chew that gum, and leave the pack laying around on low coffee tables; we don't have a dog right now, but friends bring their dogs over sometimes. I'd feel horrible if a dog got sick from something at my house.

So, what other common household items that are toxic to dogs do I need to quarantine?

[French G.]

Onions and grapes, they get overlooked as everyone knows about chocolate. Even if you cooked with onion powder, no doggie leftovers.

I stopped chewing gum, the FDA can tell me the sweeteners are safe but none of them metabolize and your body does not know what to do with them. In the case of my unhappy GI tract that means ejection. Along with nutrients from the real food I ate as well as the flora balance. My life has been so much happier since I read any label I think might have artificial sweetener.

[230RN]

I think Geranium plants are also toxic to household critters, but I can't remember if that's for cats or dogs or both or all of them, including human children critters.

^

In the case of my unhappy GI tract that means ejection.

Artificial sweeteners often make me pee like mad, but I'm not sure which specific ones --unless it's all of them.  Trouble is, they're in toothpastes, too, and I soon learned to not use toothpaste in the AM before the usual traffic jams during the commutes to Denver on I-70.  ("Ohhhh, man, c'mon, next exit.  C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!")

I found using just bicarbonate of soda as a dentifrice worked pretty good for the AM ablutions.  Must watch the sodium intake with that, though.

[DustinD]

Probably well known but antifreeze leaks and spills. Every animal I have seen (birds mammals) seem to love the taste.

[KD5NRH]

I stopped chewing gum, the FDA can tell me the sweeteners are safe but none of them metabolize and your body does not know what to do with them. In the case of my unhappy GI tract that means ejection. Along with nutrients from the real food I ate as well as the flora balance. My life has been so much happier since I read any label I think might have artificial sweetener.

Xylitol itself seems to be pretty inert.  The problem is that, for whatever reason, it's rarely used alone.  I've bought it pure and cooked with it plenty of times with no problem, but then I get something touting that it's sweetened with xylitol, and after a headache, read the rest of the label to find out there's also sorbitol, stevia or some other rat poison in there.

[Jamisjockey]

Stevia isn't "rat poison".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia