Avocados

Question
I occasionally will by Avocados and eat them because they are so good.My soon to be 4 yr. old male Rottie has taken a liking to them as well, they also help make his coat nice and shiny. What concerns me is that now I have read conflicting information-some say they are harmful-others say no as long as he doesn't consume the skin or leaves and that in places where they grow animals-including dogs consume them on a regular basis with no ill effects-in fact they are very recognizable for their shiny healthy coats.Who is right? I certainly don't want to harm my dog as he really does love them,but I will stop if is harmful.

Answer
Well I understand your concern, but when looking for reliable information online always look first to a veterinary site or veterinarian. That is the only way you will get real information and not "something someone told someone else."

From the research I have done for about a year, it is true that avocados have been put on the toxic list for dogs, cats, birds and horses. These wonderful fruits are very toxic to the point of death, in horses.

I have a friend that fed Avoderm for years to her dogs and everyone of those dogs died from (early age)cancer. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I feed Science Diet only and my dogs died from old age.

Here are some references to avocado toxicity that I have found:

This one is full of medical terms but it states that two dogs were found poisoned by eating avocados.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7898892

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado#Toxicity_to_animals

From the ASPCA:

http://www.aspcabehavior.org/articles/71/Foods-That-Are-Hazardous-to-Dogs-.aspx

From petplace.com (Dr. Jon DVM)
Avocados. The leaves, fruit, bark and seeds of avocados have all been reported to be toxic. The toxic component in the avocado is "persin," which is a fatty acid derivative. Symptoms of toxicity include difficulty breathing, abdominal enlargement, abnormal fluid accumulations in the chest, abdomen and sac around the heart. The amount that needs to be ingested to cause signs is unknown.

So by and large it's advisable to not feed the dog any avocados at all.