Poisoned! After brewing beer, used hops can kill your dog

November 29, 1:00 PMBeer ExaminerCharlie Papazian

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Brewers and beer drinkers love them, but spent hops 
can kill your dog. 

It’s sweet, smells good and if you brew you may put it into your compost.  Be careful.  If hops are eaten by your or neighborhood dogs it will likely result in death.  If you are a homebrewer be aware and take precautions.   
     Brewers call the used hops and grain “spent grains”  and “spent hops.”  The grains go to the farmer for feed full of protein.  The hops are composted at best.  The system is closed in the commercial world.
 Spent grains are wonderful for bedding and composting material for garden.  So are hops, but if not dug into the ground properly, wandering dogs may be attracted to the aroma and flavor.
     I did a bit of web research and found this excerpted from Workingdogs:   Hops Homulus (sic) lupulus- the spent hops from the home brewing of beer presents a new danger to dogs. Since 1994, the National Animal Poison Control Center has been consulted on five dogs, only one of whom survived. The dogs present with panting, restlessness, and signs of increasing pain. The most significant symptom is a rapid increase in temperature called malignant hyperthermia.  Treatment includes gastric lavage, charcoal slurry, coldwater baths and IV sodium bicarbonate to reverse metabolic acidosis. Hops contain a variety of biologically active compounds, the most suspect however is an uncharacterized alkaloid.