Garlic Toxic for Dogs? NOT!

[Chelseyb123]

I have big dogs but i dont give it to them. As long as ive had dogs ive only experienced fles once and that was only because he was around a dog that had them an at the time a dog store/daycare the lady at the front desk did recommend using garlic for fleas. But i juat shampooed the dog i had then an they went away shortly after.

 

[RainForestBird]

My 5 pound Papillon (6 years old, almost 7) eats onions in my beef stew all the time, and he passed his physical with flying colors. Except for teeth cleaning that is common with little dogs, he hasn't needed any medical attention. As I mentioned, I fed my dog canned dog food during the 70's and 80's and it had onions listed as one of the ingredients. Unless I see hard evidence, like a bona fide research study saying that the typical amount of garlic and onions (not 3 bushels at a time) included in home recipes is harmful, I will keep feeding my dogs this beneficial food. The article that I provided backs up my opinion that onions and garlic are not harmful. Once a scary rumor gets started, there's no stopping it. And, stating that onions and garlic are bad for chickens is just nonsense. It's just my opinion (because I am not a vet) but I think it would be much more harmful to feed an animal pesticides, or apply it to their skin so that it can be absorbed into the owner's bloodstream, and the dog's. The naturopathic vet we now use says it actually shortens a dog's life.

 

[AlleysChicks]

They can cause Heinz body anemia, which destroys red blood cells(which are important if y’all didn’t know). But I learned that in tech school, along with other niffty things . They don’t just hand medicine out like candy to children. But if one of my pets had a parasite or something endangering its life, you can bet I’d be getting some “pesticides” from a vet clinic since I know what actually goes on

I know both traditional and non traditional veterinarians. Neither knocks the others methods, they communicate with each other for advice from time to time also.

To each their own though.
Best wishes

 

[Chelseyb123]

Personally id look at it like this not saying they are toxic or not with the onion part but if you really think about all dogs an breeds are different special with food an allergies. I had a dog that could not certain things because it would make him through up. My boxer an mastiff i have now i Cant switch their food to a better quality brand other than dog chow because for some reason it just doesnt mix well with them and gives them the shits or vomite. Someone i know has a young dog with a VERY sensitive stomach an she has to pay a lot for its food. Just sayin that also plays a factor in what we feed our dogs.

 

[RainForestBird]

Personally id look at it like this not saying they are toxic or not with the onion part but if you really think about all dogs an breeds are different special with food an allergies. I had a dog that could not certain things because it would make him through up. My boxer an mastiff i have now i Cant switch their food to a better quality brand other than dog chow because for some reason it just doesnt mix well with them and gives them the shits or vomite. Someone i know has a young dog with a VERY sensitive stomach an she has to pay a lot for its food. Just sayin that also plays a factor in what we feed our dogs.

My dog doesn't take well to chicken, which is common with a lot of dogs. So I totally agree that some dogs might be allergic to certain things like onions and garlic, as some people are.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Unless I see hard evidence, like a bona fide research study saying that the typical amount of garlic and onions (not 3 bushels at a time) included in home recipes is harmful, I will keep feeding my dogs this beneficial food.

Great! Since you said it, let's see if you keep to your words.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984110/#S0016title
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-91992011000100002

"Consumption of as little as 5 g/kg of onions in cats or 15 to 30 g/kg in dogs has resulted in clinically important hematologic changes (Cope, 2005). Onion toxicosis is consistently noted in animals that ingest more than 0.5% of their b. wt. in onions at one time. A relatively high dosage (600–800 g) in one meal or spread apart over a few days can damage red blood cells and cause haemolytic anaemia accompanied by the formation of Heinz bodies in erythrocytes."

Of course most of the older studies that these two studies reference are behind a paywall. But if you'd like to pay to read them, there are several studies that I could link you to for it. I even have friends who are students who have access to those articles through their school so I could probably find the best ones for you.

Case closed, right?

 

[Bunnylady]

You know, if you (the OP) look critically at that article you linked to, the author doesn't say that garlic and onions are safe for dogs. He says that in small doses, given no more often than every other day, you don't cause noticeable harm, and (in his opinion) the potential health benefits outweigh the damage that the toxic elements in onions and (to a lesser extent) garlic do.

If you read the Japanese study that the article references, the authors of the study said that they recorded notably lower levels of red blood cells and hemoglobin in the dogs after they were given doses of garlic extract for a week compared to the values seen before the experiment began, and concluded that it is true, the constituents of garlic do destroy red blood cells. However, of the 4 dogs in the study, none lost so many RBC's that it actually became anemic. That's a far cry from saying that it is safe to give garlic to dogs; in fact, the authors of the study recommend against it.

 

[RainForestBird]

I'll quote the article here in case people didn't have a chance to click on the link:

In 2000, a study at Hokkaido University was done in which four dogs were each given 1.25 ml of garlic extract per kg of body weight for seven straight days.

So... if the dog weighed 50 pounds, he would have been given somewhere around 25 large raw garlic cloves! (Honestly, no one in their right mind would give so much garlic to their dogs in REAL LIFE, right?)

Now, in that study, even with the ridiculously excessive amount of garlic given, none of the four dogs showed any signs of toxicity. And while the garlic did affect the dogs' red blood cells, none of the dogs developed anemia.

In fact, in a 2004 study conducted by some of the same researchers in the 2000 study, it was showed that the compound allicin was good for health, and that despite the high concentrations of garlic used during the study, no development of hemolytic anemia was found in the dogs.

This 2004 study has led the researchers to retract their earlier suggestion that garlic is bad for dogs. They even concluded that this herb has "the potential to promote immune functions and prevent cardiovascular diseases."

So, the same researchers that conducted the 2000 study are retracting their earlier suggestion. I have nothing against using flea or tick medication if a dog is infested with fleas. Its using it prophylactically (on a regular basis) in a perfectly healthy dog that has no evidence of fleas that is a problem. Giving a dog a large dose of pesticides is I believe (and so do others) far worse than garlic in the amount that would not cause harm to the dog or his owner. Just as others have had experiences with dogs getting sick, I had a terrible experience with my child having a bone tumor at age six. Little did we know that her daycare center was housed in building that used to be a dog kennel. The building was regularly sprayed for fleas. There was also an outbreak of lice in her kindergarten class. The children were treated with a medication used to kill lice in sheep, I believe the brand name was Quell. The lice were resistant to over the counter medications. The teachers sprayed the coat closets and the mats the children slept on during nap period. Later, there was a study that came out linking pesticides with soft tissue tumors in children.

I'm not trying to be argumentative or rude, I just think its a serious matter and we should think twice about the chemicals we expose our beloved animals and family to.

They can cause Heinz body anemia, which destroys red blood cells(which are important if y’all didn’t know). But I learned that in tech school, along with other niffty things . They don’t just hand medicine out like candy to children. But if one of my pets had a parasite or something endangering its life, you can bet I’d be getting some “pesticides” from a vet clinic since I know what actually goes on

I know both traditional and non traditional veterinarians. Neither knocks the others methods, they communicate with each other for advice from time to time also.

To each their own though.
Best wishes

 

[ChocolateMouse]

In case you're wondering, 30g is 1oz which is when they start seen negative side effects.
600-800g is 1.3-1.7lbs is very dangerous. Which SOUNDS like a lot, but you're looking at about 2.5 cups of chopped onions.
Which when spread out over 3 days can mean if your dog eats less than a cup of onions a day for 3 days it will be in trouble. That's no so difficult for a large dog, an since the dosage is based on body weight it scales.

So if you wanna give, say, a 1/2tsp of dried onion powder to a great pyr every day, you won't have problems. But yes, onions are scientifically proven to be bad for dogs. Garlic is slightly less bad, but has the same active compounds that onions do, just in smaller/different amounts.

 

[Bunnylady]

I think the author of the article that the OP linked to is counting on the readers not being able to understand scientific jargon. Certainly, the 2004 study is tough going, but basically, it looked at the behavior of human and dog white blood cells and platelets in a test tube when exposed to the compounds that have been identified as causing the destruction of red blood cells.