artificial sweeteners

According to this study I think a little sucralose shouldn't bother a dog.

The toxicity of sucralose has been evaluated in acute and subchronic toxicity studies. Acute oral toxicity studies in male and female mice and male rats documented no deaths or treatment-related signs at doses of 16g/kg for mice and 10g/kg for rats. Sucralose was administered to male and female rats for 4 and 8 weeks at dietary concentrations of 1.0, 2.5 or 5.0%. Achieved dose ranges (mg/kg/day) for the respective dietary levels were 737-1287, 1865-3218 and 2794-6406. There were no toxicologically significant effects observed at the 1.0% or 2.5% dietary levels. However, decreases in food consumption, body weight gain and selected organ weights and ratios as well as splenic and thymic histopathologic changes occurred in rats administered 5.0% for 4 or 8 weeks. A gavage study wherein doses of 0, 750, 1500 or 3000mg/kg/day were administered to male and female rats for 26 weeks investigated further the observations from the dietary study as well as general subchronic toxicity. The gavage study documented no sucralose-related toxicity. These results implicate the reduced palatability and digestibility of diets containing high concentrations of sucralose seen in the diet study as the cause for the decreased food consumption and other accompanying alterations. Dose selection for chronic toxicity studies in rats took into consideration the effect of high concentrations of sucralose on digestion and food consumption and the limitations that would be imposed on subsequent studies. In male and female dogs, no sucralose-related adverse effects were observed following the dietary administration of 0.3, 1.0 or 3.0% for 12 months achieving doses of approximately 90, 300 and 900mg/kg/day respectively. These studies establish that sucralose is non-toxic in rodents following acute oral administration. The rat no-observed-adverse-effect level ranged between 2.5 and 5.0% following subchronic dietary administration. A 3.0% dietary concentration equivalent to a dose of 900mg/kg/day produced no adverse effects in beagle dogs when fed for 12 months.

All sugar substitutes are not equal (no pun intended). XYLITOL is a big NO-NO in animals in any quantity. I wouldn't be too concerned with sucralose in the quantities in cough medicine.

It's really good to learn these things and read labels.

Doug, DVM

The study may say no problems but I don't believe it. The studies also say no problems with MSG and aspertame but they make me deathly ill. FDA refuses to consider that SOME are affected. I was in a survey for MSG by the FDA... Unless you convulsed or died, they didn't care.


Good luck with your pet.

A couple of years ago, I took Darcy to have her teeth cleaned at a vet that was not our usual one. This vet advertises that they have the latest in dental technology and equipment. Since our vet had recently passed away, I made the decision to take Darcy to this one with the most impressive advertising. When I picked her up, Darcy was missing her two front upper incisors as they said those teeth were "dead at the root." We came home with a bag of products I had neither asked for nor ordered, but okay. These were added to my bill. One was a dental rinse, supposed to prevent tartar build-up, etc. A couple of days later when I tried it on my dogs, they all balked and spat it out. I tried a bit of that liquid on my tongue and was surprised that it burned! When I looked at the label, the product contained Xylitol! I poured it down the drain and never went back to that vet. At the time, I think I felt intimidated and that's why I didn't confront them. It will not happen again.

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