From: "Sandy Ayer" Subject: Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 4:27 PM Here is an excerpt from the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (Volume 14 Page 196 - September 2004). Note that these precautions relate only to home-made dough andnot the commercial Play-Doh: *** Homemade play dough, often considered benign, has caused serious illness and death in dogs. The toxicity of homemade play dough is primarily due to the salt (sodium chloride) in the mixture that leads to hypernatremia. Homemade play dough is a salt-flour mixture used for art projects and Christmas tree ornaments. There are a variety of recipes available in cookbooks, craft books, and on the Internet. A basic recipe includes 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of table salt, and 1/2 to 1 cup of water. This recipe produces approximately 2.25 cups of play dough. Each tablespoon of play dough made with this recipe contains approximately 7.9 g of sodium chloride. Only relatively small amounts of play dough need to be ingested to reach potentially toxic and lethal salt doses in dogs . This should not be confused with the commercially available product, Play-Doh?, manufactured by Hasbro (Pawtucket, RI). No records indicate hypernatremia due to this product. Homemade play dough may contain considerabl amounts of sodium chloride that, when ingested, can lead to severe clinical signs and death. *** IMPORTANT: Please keep any home-made play dough secured and away from your dogs. Secured is the operative word here as, in the above sad case, thedogs were able to open a cabinet where the play dough