Sodium, to be exact, and how much of it we all eat.

My husband has heart issues, and over the past 12 years I've become a ninja at spotting how much sodium hides in our food. If you love a diabetic, like Daddy was, you count carbohydrates. If you love a heart patient, you watch sodium. Too much of it can lead to congestive heart failure or make it worse. My husband had that, too. So I learned to cook our fresh food with as little salt as possible, and I cut the last of the processed food out of his diet way back in 2014.

We need salt, just not that much

We all need salt. It's essential to our wellbeing. Sodium helps regulate fluid balance, carry nerve signals, and power the contraction of our muscles. Too little causes problems, and too much causes problems.

The same goes for our dogs.

How dogs get too much

There are more ways for a pup to overdo it than most people realize. Your dog might gulp ocean water at the beach, raid a bag of salty snacks, lick up rock salt and ice melt (hello, Indiana winters), eat homemade play dough, or chew up a paintball.

Every one of these is cause for concern, especially if your pup doesn't have fresh water nearby. Any of them can lead to salt toxicosis, also called sodium ion poisoning, and that's a true medical emergency.

What happens inside the body

When blood sodium spikes, it pulls water out of the body's cells and into the bloodstream. Brain cells take the hardest hit. They shrink as they lose water, and they can swell dangerously if a dog rehydrates too fast. That's why you don't try to fix this one at home.

Early signs: vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst, frequent urination, and lethargy.

Severe signs: confusion, muscle tremors, wobbly or uncoordinated walking, seizures, coma, and death.

If you see any of these, or you know your dog got into something salty, call your vet or an emergency clinic right away. You can also call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 (they may charge a consultation fee). Treatment usually means IV fluids and close electrolyte monitoring, and your vet will bring sodium levels down slowly on purpose.

The slow build

Too much salt over time matters too. It puts extra strain on the kidneys and heart, and it can make high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart disease worse, especially in senior dogs. Sound familiar? It's the same story I live with at home.

And too little?

It's rare in today's world. A dog eating a normal diet almost never runs low on sodium. When it does happen, it can cause restlessness, severe dehydration, or heart rhythm problems, and it usually points to an underlying health issue. That makes it another one for your vet.

The nut jar experiment

Here's a little kitchen experiment for you. I poured a 12-ounce jar of salted mixed nuts into a colander and shook it. Six tablespoons of salt came out. That's about a third of a cup of extra salt from one jar of nuts, and it's unacceptable.

Why bother? We don't need it. The nuts taste just as good without it, and all that salt makes the hubby's fluid retention around his heart worse.

Read the label, y'all

Read labels for yourself, and read them for your dog. That's one reason every Scout & Zoe's® treat is either a  single ingredient or limited ingredient treat with nothing extra added. A little attention now buys you more good years together.