Dracula Kitties

Garlic is a wonder-food. It holds numerous beneficial properties for humans, felines, and canines. You will see numerous garlic snacks and supplements for cats on the shelves at your nearest pet food store. Your natural pet care books will suggest adding fresh garlic to your cat's diet to ward off pests and parasites, and for general immune and cardiovascular health.

But did you know that TOO MUCH garlic, or onion, in a cat's diet (or even in a dog's diet, to a lesser degree) can cause a dangerous condition called Heinz body anemia, which damages the liver and red blood cells? An overdose of onion or garlic can cause the usual flu-like symptoms along with discolored urine, allergies, and/or asthma.

Small amounts of these tasty ingredients in food and snacks are fine and may have some benefit to the system, but regular, fresh doses added to food should be avoided unless you're very confident in your dosage research and recipe. Certain treatments might call for such doses, but beware if your pet seems weak and unusually tired, discontinue the regimen asap, and make a trip to the vet to check vitals & blood count.

Topical applications, like the one below for ear issues, seem to be fine, but if your cat seems obsessed with the oil, you may want to brew weaker batches.

Remember cats and dogs do not appear to have Dracula's syndrome (repelled by garlic, right?) and so they are often happy to gorge themselves on these sulfur-y ingredients and then suffer later, so as owners, let's save ourselves from another pet crisis, and just 86 onions and garlic on the daily.