Dog poisoned by sugar-free sweetener in Starburst chewy sweets

Fearing the worst, Teresa did a Google search, took one look at the results and quickly called the Vets Now pet emergency clinic in Eastbourne.

Staff arranged for eight-year-old crossbreed Phoenix to be admitted straight away for urgent tests.

Fortunately for Phoenix, there was no major harm done.

Teresa, 59, said: “Phoenix had a very lucky escape.

“The gums were in a box on the sofa. While we were out Phoenix managed to get into the box and eat the whole lot.

“He’s always keen on eating things he shouldn’t eat and he’s got hold of boxes of chocolates before – but never anything like this.”

Teresa, who adopted Phoenix from Romania after seeing his mischievous face on the website of a dog refuge, said: “He’s very determined when he wants to be.

“The minute I realised what had happened, I knew we had a problem.

“As soon as I went on to the internet, I started reading about how toxic some chewing gum can be for animals and realised Phoenix would need to go to the vet straight away.

“He’d already had his dinner by the time it dawned on us he’d got the gum and, in actual fact, he seemed fine – but I didn’t want to take any chances.”

Laura Playforth, Vets Now’s professional standards director, said Teresa definitely did the right thing in rushing Phoenix in.

She added: “A recent study into ingestion of this product reported that it commonly causes severe hypoglycaemia in dogs within one to two hours of ingestion.

“In traditional types of sugar-free gum, clinical signs don’t tend to show for up to 12 hours.

“One of the recommendations from the study was that dogs who swallow Starburst gums should be taken to a vet immediately for assessment and treatment.

“It goes to show that Phoenix is a lucky dog – and there’s no doubt Phoenix is an extremely appropriate name for him!”