Hops are extremely dangerous for dogs!

Hello to everyone. I just wanted to post this as a source of information to all brewers. I have been brewing for about a year and half now. My friend decided that he wanted to grow hops and had told me that he couldn't put them in the back yard because they were toxic to dogs.

Until yesterday, I had no idea how serious this actually was.

After a day of brewing I had all of my spent grains i a bucket to dispose of them. I was also cleaning out my hop bags. I emptied the hops onto the top of the bucket of grains. Before I poured out the bucket, I had let my 55 pound english bulldog out to potty. As i've discovered before, dogs really like the taste of spent brewing grains.

Trying to get to the grains, my dog age up some of the hops. I only used 1.75 oz in the whole brew, and much of it was still left in the bucket. In fact, it looked like for the most part it had just been pushed to the side. I caught him quickly after he started, but he had already managed to injest some of the spent hops.

I honestly thought that because the hops were spent, and that because he only got a little bit, he would be fine. A couple of hours later, he started panting heavily, i noticed that his nose, and mouth became very flushed, and he was hot. He was also downing water very quickly. Once again, I still was not attributing this to the hops, i figured he was just running around and excited. Until he vomited.

At that point i did a quick google search for hops toxicity in dogs and a couple fo the notes said that even in spent hops they were toxic. And the symptoms matched my dogs exactly.

My wife and I rushed him to the emergency vet clinic. They put him on an IV, and did some bloodwork and x-rayed him. Within an hour they were able to get his temperature, which was 105 when we got there, back down to 102, and all of his bloodwork came back pretty ok.

The vet was most concerned about internal issues such as liver, and other organ failure, gastrointestinal issues, and most concerned with internal bleeding.

At midnight we recieved a call saying he needed to get a plasma transfusion to be on the safe side. This all happened less than 12 hours ago, and as of 11 a.m this morning, he was doing good, but the vet had put another iv in him, and said that he was not out of the woods yet.

I am writing this to urge all brewers that are also dog lovers, please dispose of your hops somewhere your dogs cannot get to them. Don't leave them for a second when your dogs could be around them. Trust me, thats all it takes to potentially lose your best friend.

there is a sticky about this somewhere on this forum.

I am sorry for what you are going thru, every 6 months or so there is a posting similar to this. I wonder if we can somehow get the companies that bag the hops to place a warning sign/label on all bags sold. I truly hope you friend makes a full recovery.

Good luck to your best friend

Wow man, that would be horrific if future health concerns persist, sorry to hear about your pooch. It really is something I can see overlooked often.

I don't have a dog, but I do have a cat. Do you know if it is the same for cats, I've read this about dogs their is actually a sticky in the hops section I believe but never googled 'cats and hops' (doing now).

My dog got into some spent hops. I got lucky she didn't need to go to the vet. I let her out to use the bathroom, she got into the hops and luckily came inside, immediately jumped into my bed and puked all over.

Lesson learned.

Wow, hope your dog is ok. That will make me think twice about where I wash out my equipment. I just washed out my pliny clones secondary carboy in the back yard due to the three inches of hop trub in the bottom. Luckily my 100 lb american bulldog must have left it alone.thanks for the tip though.

Glad to hear he's hanging on. I've always heard that once they ingest, it's pretty much too late. I also believe, spent hops are the real danger, as dogs naturally have no interest in fresh hops. Cover them in warm sticky sweet wort, and there's another story. Good luck.

My Airedale had some hops once. Now he has an insatiable desire for Pliny the Retriever, Alpha Dog King, and, of course, Raging *****.

Um, sorry to make light. Hope your friend recovers fully.

eastoak said:

there is a sticky about this somewhere on this forum.

Click to expand...

It's stickied under the general beer forum.


Rev.

My thoughts are with you and your dog.

Ahhh man that sucks. Good to know though. I have three english bulldogs and a 2half day old bulldog puppy. I will def make sure they can get to my spent hops

Sherlock (my English bulldog) is back home and doing great thanks to the wonderful vets and vet techs at Houton's Animal Emergency Clinic.

buloldogs are a handfull. i breed and love them but they will literally eat rocks. good luck with your bully!

Thanks for the reminder! Dogs are my career so to speak...I am a dog trainer and do rescue work.

It is amazing how silly dogs can be sometimes. With our 5 Wolfdogs, they have to go outside when I am brewing. Countersurfing, and the fact that they seem to want to get rowdy when i am breing makes this a disaster waiting to happen. Its bad enough 2 of 'em LOVE beer (why my kegerator will for ever have picnic taps) and our 12yo Arctic likes to get high on Colorado River Desert Toads....

Hope your pup does ok, my thoughts are with him and you....

glad to hear Sherlock is back home with his loved ones.

Yikes, sorry to hear that, but glad it looks like he's going to come out the other end ok!

Any indication if dogs are prone to like to eat 'em off the vine? Sounds like your guy got into some that were soaked in tasty wort.

I grew hops years ago, and my previous dog never showed any interest in the plants AFAIK. I just re-started this year, and I don't think our current one even noticed them, but I thought I'd ask about it.

No, i honestly don't know. I don't think they are prone to touch the plants, but I wouldn't take the risk. The hops mine got into were spent, and sitting on top of a bucket of grains, which i beleive was his real target as the hops, for the most part, were all pushed to the side. Just shows that even just a tiny bit is very dangerous.

I think your vet is trying to screw you with expensive medical procedures. Anytime a medical professional has wanted to do something "Just to be on the safe side" it usually required some form of payment.

I'm not trying to refute your experience...but the dog could have have probably just as easily de-toxed himself with several bowls of water. Obviously the dog was smart enough to consume water ASAP...

The toxins would have probably been urinated out. A plasma transfusion would not remove anything from the digestive tract where it was absorbed. Your vet is taking advantage of your emotions...

OldWorld said:

I'm not trying to refute your experience...but the dog could have have probably just as easily de-toxed himself with several bowls of water. Obviously the dog was smart enough to consume water ASAP...

The toxins would have probably been urinated out. A plasma transfusion would not remove anything from the digestive tract where it was absorbed. Your vet is taking advantage of your emotions...

Click to expand...

While I agree with you that vets do suck as much money as they can out of you often when stuff isn't necessary....

no disrespect intended but you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to how the dog would've made out if left alone to just drink water. Your statement there is preposterous. People here have lost their dogs due to hop ingestion. Also, drinking water is not the same equivalent of a plasma transfusion. Just sayin'

Besides, isn't one's dog (man's best friend) worth the cost of being on the safe side?? I know my dogs are well worth it.


Rev.

Any word on how the hops in the beer would be for the dog? My dog likes to hang around when I brew an lick up any spilled wort. She also likes to come with me to the kegerator in the garage since there is no drip tray.

Tony