# So my lab ate lots of bread...



## TheBlatt

To be more specific, Freddie ate an entire loaf of regular white bread, an entire package of hamburger rolls, and an unknown quantity of hotdog rolls (no more than 8). 

This was yesterday afternoon. Wife called vet and they told her that he would be fine, probably feel bloated. Since then, his bowels have been slightly larger than normal, though nothing to suggest that he ate a couple pounds of bread.

He didn't seem lethargic and he still has that same appetite (see voracious) as before.

As he doesn't seem to have any negative effects yet, this thread is more about relaying a humorous (now, not at the time) story but also asking for insight into what I might expect to see from him in the next days. Is there any far-reaching effects that haven't him yet. It's just that the vet seemed pretty non-chalant about the situation and some quick research on the internet revealed stories ranging from dogs dying from bloat after eating bread to nothing at all happening.


----------



## Independent George

What you can expect? I think you can expect a lot of whining that he can't get five loaves of bread for breakfast, and maybe a few pitiful looks because the poor dear is clearly starving to death. You know - the typical Lab stuff.

Bread isn't the best thing for dogs, but it's not really harmful, either. It's basically junkfood. He did the canine equivalent of inhaling four bags of Cheetos in one sitting. It won't kill him, but it's probably best if he avoids doing it again.


----------



## TheBlatt

When the vet said that he probably wont be hungry for a while I just rolled my eyes. Unless he meant 5 minutes when he said 'for a while'.


----------



## Dog_Shrink

The biggest concern for any dog who eats large amounts of bread should be the yeast content they injessted. THAT is what can hurt them. I had a hound that ate a whole loaf of bred including the bag and she was fine... she just felt like crap for a day (don't know if it was the dicipline or the bread tho). if your lab has that HUGE an appatite I would make sure he is cleared of any internal parasites esp. tapeworm. A puppy appatite should be big but not unsatisfiable. Might be time for a stool check. BTW if you give your dog a slice of bread every other day or so that will decrease your chances for fleas as yeast is a natural flea repellant. That's all I give my dogs to control fleas and we never have an issue. If its going to be an acceptionally bad season we also just use a dab of eucalyptus oil as that also repels fleas.


----------



## KBLover

Dog_Shrink said:


> BTW if you give your dog a slice of bread every other day or so that will decrease your chances for fleas as yeast is a natural flea repellant.


Wait, what?

Seriously?! 

Wally is SO getting a slice of bread every other day. Wally also approves of this method (he's a bread FANATIC - he would eat bread...over STEAK)


----------



## Dog_Shrink

Yep and vet approved. I took my old lab to the vet once when he was young and he asked if we ever had trouble with fleas (this was when spot on's were just getting popular). I said no,he asked me what preventative I used and I said nothing he just gets a slice of bread a day (before I knew anything about dogs) and he said THAT explains it.. I said What? He replied the yeast in the bread is a natural flea repellant. I said Cool... 

hence starts the debate over brewer's yeast... supposedly part of the arguement is brewer's yeast does the same thing, but people were going over board with it (thinking if a little is good a lot has to be better) causing negative side effects from over dosing. I presume that's why vets no longer recommend bread as a good way of flea control but I still use it. IMO it's a lot safer than spot ons, and just as effective. We treat the yard 2x a year with a broad spectrum pestacide (from sevin products) in april and september, then the bread and we never have issues.


----------



## amdeblaey

Dog_Shrink said:


> Yep and vet approved. I took my old lab to the vet once when he was young and he asked if we ever had trouble with fleas (this was when spot on's were just getting popular). I said no,he asked me what preventative I used and I said nothing he just gets a slice of bread a day (before I knew anything about dogs) and he said THAT explains it.. I said What? He replied the yeast in the bread is a natural flea repellant. I said Cool...
> 
> hence starts the debate over brewer's yeast... supposedly part of the arguement is brewer's yeast does the same thing, but people were going over board with it (thinking if a little is good a lot has to be better) causing negative side effects from over dosing. I presume that's why vets no longer recommend bread as a good way of flea control but I still use it. IMO it's a lot safer than spot ons, and just as effective. We treat the yard 2x a year with a broad spectrum pestacide (from sevin products) in april and september, then the bread and we never have issues.


That is so totally cool-my dogs are getting bread too-what kind-does it matter kind of bread-white or whole wheat?


----------



## Cinch

That is a lot of bread. Poor guy is going to be a pooping machine in awhile. A whle new way to look at pooping a loaf, eh? 

I had never heard of the slice of bread thing before. In that case the original posters dog should be good for what... a year or two? lol


----------



## Poly

TheBlatt said:


> To be more specific, Freddie ate an entire loaf of regular white bread, an entire package of hamburger rolls, and an unknown quantity of hotdog rolls (no more than 8).
> .


He must be a pure bread dog 

Seriously, there shouldn't be any problems. Maybe some loose BMs, if that.

Labs seem to be unusually attracted to bread and bread products for some reason. Actually, a couple of packages of rolls isn't going to phase a Lab in the least and he would be perfectly content to eat his regular meals in addition. However, you'll want to cut down a bit on his regular food for a couple of days - he's had more than enough calories. 

Labs are notorious food opportunists and will grab and eat almost any food that they can reach, so consider this a relatively harmless lesson. Make sure from now on that you keep *all *foods out of his reach.


----------



## Trixie

Haha -- he may have some serious bread farts, too. Mmmm.... I wonder if beer would have the same flea prevention attributes? After all, beer is just liquid bread, really!

My dog loves bread and I give her nibbles of bread (that I bake, nonetheless!) all the time. Now I have a good excuse to spoil her!


----------



## Cinch

Poly said:


> He must be a pure bread dog


I can't believe I didn't think of that pun!

I wish I still had that little joke-story, about the dog that ate the buns and got drunk/ hangover and pooped all over. I haven't seen it for awhile, but I remember laughing pretty good at that one.


----------



## Independent George

Dog_Shrink said:


> Yep and vet approved. I took my old lab to the vet once when he was young and he asked if we ever had trouble with fleas (this was when spot on's were just getting popular). I said no,he asked me what preventative I used and I said nothing he just gets a slice of bread a day (before I knew anything about dogs) and he said THAT explains it.. I said What? He replied the yeast in the bread is a natural flea repellant. I said Cool...
> 
> hence starts the debate over brewer's yeast... supposedly part of the arguement is brewer's yeast does the same thing, but people were going over board with it (thinking if a little is good a lot has to be better) causing negative side effects from over dosing. I presume that's why vets no longer recommend bread as a good way of flea control but I still use it. IMO it's a lot safer than spot ons, and just as effective. We treat the yard 2x a year with a broad spectrum pestacide (from sevin products) in april and september, then the bread and we never have issues.


Hold on - that sounds a little... odd. Any yeast in the dough is dead and gone by the time the bread is taken out of the oven. It's possible, but the idea still seems weird to me.

American soldiers serving in the South Pacific during WWII used to eat match heads to repel mosquitos; the sulfur in the match heads would pass though the bloodstream and be excreted through the sweat glands. In that case, though, its a sulfur compound passing through the body whole; a yeast microbe would be destroyed during cooking, and the remains digested with the rest of the bread.


----------



## Dog_Shrink

usually I use white bread since all my dogs are sensitive to wheat.


----------



## KBLover

Poly said:


> He must be a pure bread dog


LOL

That's a good one


----------



## KBLover

Independent George said:


> Hold on - that sounds a little... odd. Any yeast in the dough is dead and gone by the time the bread is taken out of the oven. It's possible, but the idea still seems weird to me.


Hmm...

Maybe there's something still left behind. The yeast is certainly dead, but perhaps there's some kind of compounds or whatnot that are still in the bread from the yeast having been in there.

I know how bread works, but not to that intimate of a level 

I just know it eats my dough, farts, and those farts makes my bread rise and add flavor 

Though - raw dough - would that work even better? Or, heck, giving him like a 1/8 tsp of yeast itself?


----------



## Dog_Shrink

It's too easy to over dose with pure yeast, bread dough is like eating a glue ball, and it doesn't kill the fleas it repels them so it's something in the process of digesting the bread and processing it into it's useable parts that are secreated thru the pores... so it's a combination of several things, not just the yeast itself. The process has to alter the dog's natural surface PH to a point that is repuslive to fleas.


----------



## poodleholic

Dog_Shrink said:


> usually I use white bread since all my dogs are sensitive to wheat.


ROFLMAO Oh, that's rich! lol


----------



## TxRider

Hope counter surfed a whole loaf of bread not long after I adopted her. The only result I saw was a bad case of the runs for a day.


----------



## RonE

My lab once ate 72 large, unfrosted cutout cookies. There were absolutely to visible affects at all for about 24 hours, when he produced a pile of soft dog crap bigger than many dogs.

It didn't affect his appetite at all.

So much for the low-carb diet.


----------



## DeniseV

Poly said:


> He must be a pure bread dog


LMAO!!! I seriously just spit my coffee all over the monitor when I read that....very witty! That was so funny....I read it to my mom and we had a good laugh.

Thanks for the giggle!


----------



## Jessymp

Dog_Shrink said:


> usually I use white bread since all my dogs are sensitive to wheat.


xD White bread still has the same amount of wheat in it.  Just less whole grains.


----------



## Dog_Shrink

Hm odd... they don't react at all to white bread but give em wheat and it's goopy eyes and paw licking all around.


----------



## Trixie

'Wheat bread" does not mean that other breads are not made of wheat, it means that so-called "wheat breads" are made with whole grains. And frankly, most commercial "wheat bread" is no different than commercial "white bread", but there is absolutely no difference in the amount of wheat, gluten, yeast or anything else other than sugar (or in the case of commercial bread, high fructose corn syrup).

(I sort of bake for a living)


----------

