Now that’s what I call a unique question! You might be searching for the answer to this question just for the laughs, or you might be dead serious wondering about whether you can really give your dog some beer to drink with you or not, especially during festive seasons.
Either way, the thought of sipping away on some beer may be very tempting for you to resist at times, and you may just want to share the good times with Fido.
Hey, you may even be one of those people who like to put ice cubes in their beer, and you may be thinking about giving your pooch some beer with ice cubes in it (more on giving dogs ice cubes over here), or your thought of a good Friday night is ordering some pizza and sharing it with your dog over two beers (also more on feeding your dog pizza over here).
Unfortunately though, when it comes to the subject of giving dogs alcoholic drinks like beer, there really isn’t much thinking that needs to be done.
Can Dogs Drink Beer?
NO, dogs should never be given any alcohol-containing-beer to drink, because unlike humans, dog’s systems can’t handle even the least bit of it because of their much smaller size.
However, there are non-alcoholic non-carbonated beers out there that you can give your dog to drink if you really have the urge to give your dog a beer.
But giving your dog alcoholic beer that will get them drunk in no time is an absolute NO-NO.
Why Is Beer Bad For Dogs?
It’s never a good idea to give your dog any alcoholic beverages, because they can lead to the following in your dog.
- Uncontrollable vomiting
- Dehydration – Alcohol rids your dog’s body of water, minerals and electrolytes they need to stay healthy and energetic. (You’re going to have to spend some decent money on a something like pedialyte to rehydrate your dog after that).
- Serious brain damage – caused by a possible drastic decrease in blood sugar levels from drinking alcoholic beer
- Liver failure – You and I might require a lot of beers to be at risk of liver failure, but given the much smaller size of our dogs and their livers, they require only a little alcohol to be put at serious risk of liver failure.
- Kidney failure – Similar to the case of liver failure discussed above, your dog’s kidneys can’t properly filter even the least bit of alcoholic beer they get coming towards them
- Heart failure – High levels of alcohol in your dog’s blood system from the beer they drink often times leads to cardiovascular diseases and heart failure
- Coma – Depending on how much alcoholic beer your dog drinks, this can start off as something as simple as a slight loss in coordination abilities, all the way to drastic decrease in heart rate and blood sugar levels and going into a state of coma.
- Death
What Are Some Symptoms Of Dogs Drinking Beer?
As soon as a dog drinks even the slightest bit of alcoholic beer, their system absorbs the ethanol in the beer and immediately faces great difficulties in properly processing it, which in turn leads to ethanol poisoning.
If your dog shows any of the following symptoms (which typically show anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours after your dog drinks alcoholic beer), there’s a great chance they have become poisoned by alcohol:
- Behavioral changes (barking, unusual biting [a very common behavioral problem in dogs that have been poisoned by alcohol], decreased and unusual movement, etc ..)
- Loss of coordination abilities, light-headidness and confusion
- Seizures
- Excessive urination
- Trouble urinating
- Breathing difficulties
- Frequent fluctuations in body temperature
What Do I Do If My Dog Drank Beer?
The moment you suspect or know that your dog has consumed ANY amount of alcoholic beer, you have to get them to the veterinarian or nearest pet care center right away.
If your dog gets the professional treatment they need to recover from alcoholic poisoning right away, then their chances of recovery are very high (usually the treatment process will be over with during the same day) and you have nothing to worry about.
But, if alcohol remains in your dog’s system for a long time before they get any professional care, this is where this all turns into a nightmare.
If this happens, then your dog is much more likely to develop permanent organ damage which they will have to live with for the remainder of their life, that’s if they manage to survive in the first place.
To make sure this never happens, and besides the fact that you have to make an effort to resist any temptation that comes along to give your dog beer to drink (such as when french fries are around), you must make an extra effort to keep any beer (or any other alcoholic beverage for that matter) as far away as possible from your dog’s reach.
Why? Assume there’s an alcoholic beer bottle within your dog’s reach placed on a shelf your dog can easily get to.
And, assume you’re not around – what might happen?
One scenario would be your dog tries to get hold of the bottle, succeeds in doing that, fiddles around with it, the bottle breaks open and the beer pours onto the floor, and what does Fido do? Drink it all away.
