Onions For Dogs

[DavidDownes]

Are onions okay to give you dogs? I heard that they're not recently that they not, and have given the left overs of my dinner to my Staffordshire Bull.

[leelapops]

Hi DavidDownes.

I have heard that too much onion can be bad for dogs: some people advise avoiding completely, and some people are more of the opinion that a little won't be harmful. I guess it's up to you how you choose to take advice. I also heard garlic wasn't great for them, but I know of people who give dogs garlic as a natural flea remedy.

Some things are a definite no-no (like chocolate, which you'll know, for example), but other things are more cloudy.

So maybe a case of moderation and personal choice.

I won't say anything about feeding your dog leftovers, although I am sure some people will.

Give your staffie a pet from me :)

Lisa.

[Illyria54]

This is a good link.
http://www.petalia.com.au/templates/storytempl ate_process.cfm?story_no=257#ct-4

[Snappy]

Onions cause hemolytic anemia, which means that the red blood cells break down leaving the dog short of oxygen. Onion poisoning can occur with a single ingestion of large quantities or with repeated meals containing small amounts of onion. The condition generally improves once the dog is prevented from eating any further onion. The poisoning may occur a few days after the dog has eaten the onion. At first dogs affected by onion poisoning show gastroenteritis with vomiting and diarrhea, weakness and show little or no interest in food. The red pigment from the burst blood cells appears in an affected dog's urine making it dark colored. The dog will experience shortness of breath because the red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body are reduced in number. Other symptoms are elevated body temperature, confusion, and increased heart rate
The quantity of onions, raw or cooked, required is high enough that dogs can generally tolerate small doses of onions without any problem and moderate amounts of onion without apparent signs of onion poisoning. All forms of onion can be a problem including dehydrated onions, raw onions, cooked onions and table scraps containing cooked onions, left over pizza, chinese dishes and commercial baby food containing onion

[kita1]

Garlic is proven to be perfectly safe to give dogs. That it is harmful is a total myth arising from the fact that it is the same family of plant as onion.


There was an ariticle recently in one of the Dog papers written by a vet who had to back down because the previous week he had said that garlic was poisonous for dogs - I think it was someone from Dorwest herbs who proved to him that he was wrong.

[doggydays]

I give garlic in their veg mix, never had fleas or ticks or anything like that!