# Onions and garlic poisoning



## 2pups622 (Apr 17, 2005)

Onion and garlic poisoning 
Onions and garlic are other dangerous food ingredients that cause sickness in dogs, cats and also livestock. Onions and garlic contain the toxic ingredient thiosulphate. Onions are more of a danger.

Pets affected by onion toxicity will develop haemolytic anaemia, where the pet’s red blood cells burst while circulating in its body. 

At first, pets affected by onion poisoning show gastroenteritis with vomiting and diarrhoea. They will show no interest in food and will be dull and weak. The red pigment from the burst blood cells appears in an affected animal’s urine and it becomes breathless. The breathlessness occurs because the red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body are reduced in number.

The poisoning occurs a few days after the pet has eaten the onion. All forms of onion can be a problem including dehydrated onions, raw onions, cooked onions and table scraps containing cooked onions and/or garlic. Left over pizza, Chinese dishes *and commercial baby food containing onion, sometimes fed as a supplement to young pets, can cause illness.*

Onion poisoning can occur with a single ingestion of large quantities or with repeated meals containing small amounts of onion. A single meal of 600 to 800 grams of raw onion can be dangerous whereas a ten-kilogram dog, fed 150 grams of onion for several days, is also likely to develop anaemia. The condition improves once the dog is prevented from eating any further onion

While garlic also contains the toxic ingredient thiosulphate, it seems that garlic is less toxic and large amounts would need to be eaten to cause illness.


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## Trinitee_112 (Dec 7, 2004)

:shock: I give sammy these omega 3 vitamins for his coat and it has garlic in it and i give it to him everyday! Now I'm worried


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## LuvMyChiwawas (Sep 1, 2005)

Thanks for sharing that info.


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## Tucker-N-Jasper (Aug 6, 2005)

Not to argue nor to dismiss, simply to elaborate:

I decided to check on this since Tucker enjoys a single chicken stick (Gerbers) every morning and this claim definitely alarmed me. I acknowledge that the validity information found online can questionable, so take my post for what you get out of it.... That said, I am going to cut the chicken sticks all together just to be safe. Tucker can live without them, I can't without him.

The site Vetinfo4dogs claims: "Our staff members are the owners and employees of a small animal veterinary hospital. We have the training and experience necessary to help you understand diseases, disorders and health maintenance requirements of dogs and cats. "

Here is what they had to say about the toxicity of onions and garlic:
Onion and Garlic toxicity in dogs and cats 

Question: Dr. Richard's, 
Thank you for your help with past questions and creating this web site. 
I have a question about onions and dogs. I read somewhere onions are 
poisonous for dogs yet onions are often ingredients in dog treats. Is it just 
raw onions that are so dangerous? What about meat that has been cooked with 
onions is this dangerous? 
What are some things that are toxic for dogs besides chocolate and onions? 
Also I own several cats are there foods toxic to them as well? 

Kim 


Answer: Kim- 

Dogs develop hemolytic anemia if they eat enough onions. I don't think that it matters too much 
whether the onions are cooked or not. The quantity of onions required is high enough that dogs 
can generally tolerate small doses of onions without any problem and moderate amounts of 
onion without clinically apparent disease, even though there may be measurable changes on lab 
test results. Cats are probably a little more sensitive to onion toxicity than dogs are. I can't find 
an exact quantity of onions required to cause toxicity problems in dogs, but there are several 
case reports of onion toxicity and they involve whole onions or sizable portions of chopped 
onions (like a cup or more). I think that feeding dogs meat that has been cooked with onions is 
pretty safe but you might want to avoid giving them the broth from around something like 
pot-roast if there were a lot of onions used in the cooking, just to be safe. 

Large amounts of garlic will produce similar toxicity problems in both dogs and cats. I think that 
the amount required is not likely to be eaten by a cat but there are probably a few dogs who 
would lap up a container of spilled garlic. 

Among common foods, the only other significant toxicity that I can think of are recent reports of 
toxicity from eating grapes and raisins that have been reported in dogs. 


Mike Richards, DVM 
11/15/2001 


resource: 
http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dtoxin.html#Onion and Garlic toxicity in dogs and cats


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## Alli (Jul 21, 2005)

Garlic is an ingredient in all kinds of dog food, including the one I feed Diego. I think in small doses it is beneficial, but if they were to eat a large amount of it they might have problems.


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## Cooper (Jun 15, 2005)

Cooper and Oma both get an herbal supplement sprinkled on their dinner... I can't remember why I started giving it to them in the first place though. :scratch: 

Anywho, it's got celery seed, lecithin, dulse, parsley, garlic, kelp, alfalfa and Irish moss... neither one of them has looked poisoned at all. :lol: 

I use it as a spice in my food as well. I really wish I knew what it was for though.. :scratch:


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## princess_ella (Jun 4, 2005)

I give Nupro for dogs it has a small amount of garlic its suppose to repel fleas,and is good for the skin and coat Cooper's mom.


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