Avocados are ripening at the moment... I have a tree in the houseyard that hangs really low. The dogs have taken to picking the avocados and laying them around in the sun until they ripen and then eating them. I find them in amazing places, this morning Abbey had stashed one in my bed!! anyway I am not sure exactly how many they do consume, but does anyone know it it will make them sick?? Not sure what I will do anyway about the ones on the tree.

I would be interested to know the answer to that one too. I had a dog that used to do a similar thing with avocados and there didn't seem to be any ill effects.

From the health side of things I would think it would add to their general health and be good for their coat! Although I'm not sure about the skin of the avo. I think there would be evidence if they eat too many and they have an ill effect on them!!

the avo is not something that i would eat and i would not feed it to my dogs as it kills birds real fast but thats not to say it's bad for dogs or us i just don't like it's taste or lac of i should say. i had a dog that raided the grape vine all the time and i use to let her as they were red/black grapes and i only like the white ones but years later i was told that grapes are bad for dogs and can kill them if that is the case Dutches should have died well before she did, she also ate peaches plums apricot's strawberries apple and mandarin's plus all her veggies very easy dog to keep happy lol

I thought avocados were poisonous to dogs. Although yours seem to be doing it without ill-effects.

One of our horses picks them off the tree anytime he can, and so far no harm. But he's much bigger obviously than a dog.

(edit: have just done a quick google and found several pet sites saying that the risks are to heart, lung and other muscle from a chemical called persin and of gi upset due to the fat.


This is from Wiki...No vet sites came up which makes me suspect it's not a really high risk, and dogs aren't listed in this article except about the pits being a foreign body. Did find a Jackie French 'recipe' for shiny coats mixing dry food and avo although I don't think she's really a dog expert ;-) All you'd have to do, imo, to get that effect would be add oil/fat to the diet, that would be the only way the avo could be having a direct effect on the coat. Not avocado oil though, the persin would be concentrated in the oil.

Well geee I'm not quite sure how to get rid of them as they are quite high on the tree. I do toss the ones on the ground over the fence, but that does not help with the ones that fall during the day!!!

Royalla - I don't like them either.

There don't seem to be any ill effects so far and they just go crazy over them. They have really nice shiny coats so I guess it must be from the high content of oil.

I will try to be a bit more dilligent with throwing them over the fence.

Now I'm starting to worry about our horse eating them. I wonder whether the persin is cumulative or not. Because if it's cumulative then them seeming ok lots of times when they eat them doesn't mean much. And he does eat the seeds, which is where it comes from.

I guess it is all in many they eat. I know of one dog that used to help himself and he got quite gutty and fat from all the avacados but no other ill effects. What would worry me is the seed inside, but I am a bit paranoid today will tell you soon in a post.

They don't eat the seeds, they are littered around the yard and the house. I suppose between the seven of them they eat probably one every second day. (there are probably about 4 new seeds per day. If one cracks a new avo open they all grab bits of it so they are shared out)

After reading your post yesterday I was driving to the post office (!) wondering if there was a cumulative effect too. Wondering if it is stored in the fat or the liver and that over time continuous eating might have an effect. There are probably a few factors that would make a reaction to persin more likely, say like general health, how many advocados eaten and if all of it was eaten and what the rest of the diet was.

I really like advocados! Pity you couldn't send them down here - we pay about $2 each for them.

Just as a tease ... Roadside stalls are 3 for a $1

I am getting the impression that persin is a very newly identified compound and not much is known about it yet. Although considering it's potential usefulness for treating breast cancer, guess it won't be too long before more info is available. Guess that is linked to why it causes mastitis in some animals.

So I was just wondering what else besides humans, considering the list of creatures that advocados affect, eats advocados?