If your pet eats too many cicadas, when should you see the vet?

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (CBS) -- With 17-year periodical cicadas on seemingly every outdoor surface in parts of the Chicago area, some veterinarians — even emergency vets — are getting calls to treat pets that eat too many of the insects.

Veterinarians emphasize it's rare for a cicada-eating issue to turn into an emergency for pets. But with vets seeing such issues across the Chicago area nonetheless, experts have some advice.

Some dogs are gleefully gobbling up cicadas and their exoskeletons, explained Dr. Jennie Culen of Thrive Pet Healthcare in Hoffman Estates.

"The dogs, they basically think they're like potato chips — they're crunchy," Culen said. "They eat them."

But only the worst cases of trouble after dogs eat too cicadas end up needing treatment from vets like Culen.