Most dog poisonings do not look dramatic at first. A dog noses into a handbag, chews through a packet of gum, and seems fine for twenty minutes. Then it isn't.
Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener in sugar-free gum, breath mints, some peanut butters, chewable vitamins, mouthwash, and a growing range of baked goods marketed as diabetic-friendly. In humans, xylitol is absorbed slowly and has almost no effect on insulin. In dogs, the same compound triggers a rapid, massive release of insulin from the pancreas, a response so disproportionate that blood glucose can crash to dangerous levels within thirty minutes to an hour of ingestion.
