Can dogs eat mint?

The detail

The mint in your garden and the mint in your pocket are two different questions. Common garden mint and peppermint leaves are not listed as poisons by the Pet Poison Helpline or VCA Animal Hospitals, and a dog that grazes a leaf on a walk needs no action.

Everything else with mint in the name deserves a second look. Pennyroyal is a mint that grows in UK gardens and is toxic to dogs, mint essential oil is a concentrate that VCA lists among poisonous oils, and sugar-free mints and gum are the most common route to xylitol poisoning in dogs.

That spread is why this page sits in the amber tier rather than the green one. The leaf is fine; the products are not.

Fresh garden mint leaves

A leaf or two of common garden mint or peppermint is fine for a healthy dog. Chop it rather than handing over a sprig, and treat it as a flavour on food rather than a snack in its own right.

The fresh-breath claim you will see attached to mint is folklore. Bad breath in dogs usually means plaque, gum disease or a bad tooth, and none of those respond to a herb.

If your dog's breath has changed, book a dental check. A vet can see the tooth causing it in about a minute, and mint on the food only masks the smell.

Pennyroyal is the mint to know about

Pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium, is the one mint to be firm about. The Pet Poison Helpline lists pennyroyal oil as toxic to dogs and files it under herbals with liver failure named on the entry, and VCA Animal Hospitals includes pennyroyal in its list of essential oils poisonous to dogs.

It grows in UK gardens as a low creeping mint and still turns up in old-fashioned flea remedies, which is the situation vets see most often. Poisoning can happen through the mouth or through the skin.

If you have pennyroyal in the garden and a dog that grazes, take it out. If a dog has been dosed with a pennyroyal flea product or has chewed the plant, ring your vet the same day rather than waiting for symptoms.

Mints, Polos and sugar-free chewing gum

Sugar-free mints and chewing gum are the emergency in this article. Many of them are sweetened with xylitol, and the Pet Poison Helpline says xylitol can cause life-threatening low blood sugar within 10 to 15 minutes of a dog eating it, along with acute liver failure.

Ordinary sugared mints like standard Polos are a different and much smaller problem: sugar, and the risk of a small hard sweet lodging in a small dog's throat. The packet you need to worry about is the one marked sugar-free.

If your dog has eaten sugar-free mints or gum, this is a same-hour phone call to your vet, not a wait-and-see. Take the packet with you so the vet can read the ingredients and work out the dose.

Peppermint tea

A little cooled, weak peppermint tea is unlikely to cause a problem, provided it is brewed from plain leaves with nothing added. Let it go cold first, because a hot drink burns a dog's mouth as readily as it does yours.

It is also unnecessary. Fresh water does the hydration job, and if you are reaching for peppermint tea because your dog has an upset stomach, the useful step is a bland diet and a vet call if it lasts more than a day or two.

Mint essential oil and human toothpaste

Neither belongs anywhere near a dog. VCA Animal Hospitals lists peppermint among the essential oils poisonous to dogs and says only a few licks or a small amount on the skin can be harmful, with drooling, tremors, wobbliness and burns to the mouth among the signs.

Human toothpaste is a separate problem, because many mint toothpastes are sweetened with xylitol and none are meant to be swallowed. Use a toothpaste sold for dogs, which is designed to be eaten.

Do not use mint oil in a diffuser near a dog that already has breathing trouble, and do not put it on the coat for fleas. Licensed flea treatment from your vet works and does not risk this.