Can Dogs Eat Garlic? Is It Safe? (With Picture) What Happens if a Cat Eats Garlic

Garlic for dogs and cats. Is it really unsafe as many people say on the internet? Or is it actually safe and can it offer many health benefits for your pets? Is it bad? Get the answer in this article.

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Garlic’s Long History of Medicinal Use

Garlic’s been used medicinally for people for thousands of years. It’s antifungal, antiviral, really, really potent antibacterial, and there are hundreds of studies showing it’s clear benefits of being a natural antimicrobial drug.

It has many specific anticancer properties. It’s been widely used in people for heart health. It can naturally lower cholesterol so much better for you than the statins. It’s great in food. Personally, I love the flavor and I really go out of my way if I’m going to cook anything, I try to include garlic.

There is that little issue about garlic and especially consuming it raw. That kind of garlicky smell it produces to your breath. But it offers number one, so many taste benefits, but more importantly for us and also for animals, a whole host of specific health benefits.

Garlic in Pet Food: Safe or Not?

Possibly it should not be an apple a day to keep the doctor away. It should be a garlic clove a day. I was taught that garlic, i.e. this stuff, is really not safe for our pets and there are multiple studies saying they contain the thing called thiosulfates, those can damage the red blood cells, leading to a thing called Heinz Body Anemia.

The gist I got from my professors, etc., was garlic for dogs, cats, it is bad. Garlic is now approved by the FDA as approved for pet food. The ASPCA’s poison control hotline, they list garlic as a toxin.

Controversial Studies on Garlic Toxicity

So then how do you make sense of that? Is this stuff safe or not? Many of the initial claims saying that garlic is really toxic for our pets came from a 2000 study done in Japan. They were feeding dogs the equivalent of 25 large garlic cloves, i.e. imagine about 30 of these size pouches of garlic. That’s a huge amount of garlic to a 50 pound dog.

These 50 pound dogs getting in excess of 25 large raw garlic cloves a day, they actually showed no outward signs of toxicity. They actually showed no measurable hemolytic anemia, i.e. measures of low percent red blood cells. Although they did have changes in the red blood cells, but that was a massive amount of daily garlic. And you would never, ever be feeding, you don’t be giving a fraction of that to your dog or cat.

Garlic Dosing for Pets: What Experts Say

Most alternative practitioners now advise using garlic and the recommended dose of a dog for garlic would be one clove for 50 pounds of body weight daily. So really they were giving 25 times the recommended amount. And guess what? There were some side effects. So for instance, if you were to give your dog 25 times the amount of recommended dose of this anti-inflammatory, Tula would have acute vomiting, acute diarrhea.

She could develop an ulcer. She easily could get liver disease, kidney disease, because you’re giving 25 times of recommended dose. But then a 2004 follow-up study done by Tang et al. included many of the scientists that actually originally published that 2000 study, actually found that allicin, the active ingredient within garlic, is specifically beneficial for mammals and should be considered as an alternative health treatment for some of the conditions affecting our dogs or cats.

Is Garlic Safe for Dogs and Cats?

In fact, a recent article published in Innovative Veterinary Care, it says that garlic, it is well-rounded and safe for your practice. And when you look at poison control reports, there are virtually zero cases of any type of garlic toxicity reported in dogs or cats. Almost zero.

So you get one study where they’re feeding 25 times the recommended amount, then they’re seeing some adverse effects. They’re feeding 25 times, although no evidence of hemolytic anemia. And that forms the basis for so many of these recommendations. And that’s why so many people are reading, i.e. on the internet, what they’re hearing from their veterinarian. It appears that may not be so.

The Difference Between Onions and Garlic for Pets

As they say in the Innovative Veterinary Care article, it has been used by over thousands of dog and cat parents for the last 30 years. The only adverse effect they’ve ever seen, bad breath.

The other big point the author makes is that much of the research, it comes from the fact that onions, they contain really, really high levels of things called thiosulfates. And those clearly cause serious damage to the red blood cells. Your dog doesn’t even have to eat that many onions and he’s going to develop a Heinz body anemia.

But garlic, on the other hand, it contains a fraction of the thiosulfates. So that’s why yes, onion can be toxic to your dog, like stop eating it, they’re going to recover. But garlic, it contains a fraction of thiosulfates. So yes, garlic itself can be clearly beneficial, provide health benefits for your pets. Because it has so few levels of thiosulfates compared to onion, it’s safe.

Benefits of Garlic for Pets

So why would you consider using garlic on your dogs and cats? Well, number one, and most important, probably one of the best natural antibacterials. In fact, when you look, there are over 350 published papers showing the multiple antibacterial effects and benefits of garlic.

So most of the common bacteria that can affect our dogs and cats, they’re sensitive to garlic. But garlic is also antifungal. So when we’re dealing with our dogs that have secondary yeast infections, i.e. from having allergies, garlic is a great option. Our dogs that have recurring ear infections, because they have the yeast, Malassezia, it’s very sensitive to garlic.

You have a dog or cat with a flu, i.e. a viral infection, one of the few holistic products that has shown to be beneficial against some of those viruses. You got it, garlic. Garlic has some anti-cancer properties. And some of the alternative regimens involving cancer treatment are involving garlic. Then lastly, it’s shown to be really important for heart health, especially so in people, but also in our dogs and cats.

How to Properly Administer Garlic to Your Pets

Another good option we’re considering is garlic. There are multiple ingredients within garlic. Of all the studies that have been done, it’s shown that the most important active ingredient is called allicin. But the only way to get allicin, if you’re looking at a garlic clove, is it needs to be crushed. So the form within garlic itself, uncrushed is called alline.

When you crush it, it activates the enzyme allanase, breaks down the alanine, and guess what it turns into? Allicin. And that’s what we need, and that specific ingredient in crushed garlic, which is beneficial for our dogs and cats, and even people.

Garlic as a Treatment for Parasites and Infections

Lastly, garlic is also anti-parasitic. So we now know it’s got specific anti-giardia properties, for instance. A really common little parasite affecting our dogs or cats, causing vomiting, diarrhea. Garlic is one of the few products that works against giardia. Or borealla, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. One of the few natural products, once again, affecting borealla. Garlic.

Garlic Dosage Recommendations for Pets

So what’s a safe and appropriate dose to give to your dog or cat? If you’re looking at a raw garlic clove, I would suggest a quarter of a standard clove per 10 pounds of body weight daily. But you don’t just quarter it, you then have to crush it, so then it becomes active, turns into allicin. This is an even easier option. This is aged garlic extract, and it’s got the concentrated active ingredient, allicin.

This I like because it comes in a capsule. Potentially a little bit easier to give to your animals. Each capsule here contains 300 milligrams of allicin. Pretty standard dog and cat dose would be 100 milligrams for 10 pounds of body weight daily. So a little ten-toed animal, you put a third of these. Tula, she’s 25 pounds. I’m inclined to give her one capsule once a day.

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When Should You Use Garlic for Your Pets?

When would I do this? Well, if Tula had an infection, maybe she had nasal discharge, maybe she’s got a swelling in her foot, like pododermatitis or something, then no question, that’s when I’d be considering this aged garlic extract. I would be giving her one capsule once a day, somewhere between 10 to 14 days.

 Garlic is Good for Pets, If Used Correctly

I personally think garlic, it is a great alternative option for our pets. So when you go ahead and you give garlic at the appropriate dose, which is not bad, as many conventional people say, I’d say it’s really good. Thanks so much for watching this edition of veterinary secrets of garlic for dogs and cats. Click up there to subscribe to our newsletter, Thank you.

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