Raw yeast dough

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If you bake yeast bread from scratch, it is essential that you keep all raw bread dough away from your pets. Ingesting it can cause serious problems and be life threatening for your pet.

Doughs that do not contain yeast are less of a concern, but can still cause gastrointestinal problems.

Why is it so dangerous to eat?

Yeast is a microscopic fungus that, under the right conditions, makes carbon dioxide gas and ethanol (alcohol) from sugar. This effect is great for making bread because gas makes the dough rise and ethanol flavors the bread before burning off in the oven. However, this process is dangerous when it occurs in your animal's stomach.

Being moist and warm, the stomach is essentially the perfect environment for yeast to grow and pump out carbon dioxide and ethanol. The buildup of gas and rising dough in the stomach is painful and can lead to a condition called bloat: “the mother of all emergencies.” Also known as gastric dilatation and volvulus, or GDV, bloat is where the expanding stomach puts pressure on surrounding areas and decreases blood flow to important organs. Even more dangerous, the stomach may eventually twist, cutting off blood flow even more. The twisted stomach can reduce blood flow throughout the whole body, leading to a serious condition called shock.

Several steps are needed to save a bloated dog’s life. Part of the problem is that the main three steps - d