GARLIC FOR DOGS

[NAY]  08/27/2008: Carlos from Lisbon, Portugal writes: "I have done some searching online to find the pros and cons of Garlic and pets. I have come across a few links that suggest that Garlic can be fatal to pets - see below;

Garlic is part of the onion family (alliaceae) along with leeks and shallots. There is ample research available which indicates onions can be harmful, if not deadly, to our pets. In the last five years, more and more toxicity studies are being conducted on garlic and all seem to indicate that it, too, can pose serious health risks when fed to cats and dogs. A 2003 study on Grape and Raisin Toxicity in Dogs, published in the Australian Veterinary Journal begins, "The list of commonly available human foods toxic to dogs continues to grow. Grapes and raisins can be added to onions, garlic, chocolate, and macadamia nuts as posing dangers when ingested in excessive quantities." [1] Unfortunately, no one knows what constitutes "excessive quantities".

In an article on Onion and Garlic Toxicity in Dogs and Cats, Jennifer Prince, DVM states: "Garlic and onion are used as flavor enhancers in food. Since the toxic amount is unknown, it is recommended not to add it to your pet's food. These ingredients can cause Heinz body anemia, resulting in a breakdown of the red blood cells and anemia." [2]

[YEA]  07/28/2008: Kate from London, ON writes: "I read the topic about garlic and dogs. Needless to say, I had to try it just because I don't believe in all the chemicals that the vets recommend and personally I think they cause alot more harm then good. Leaning towards the natural approach, both my dogs had fleas. I mixed olive oil and garlic powder. I have my lab (the one with the worse case of fleas) a small clove of garlic. The 8 month old pup I didn't give him any. So far my lab has not SCRATCHED ONCE, in the last hour. He was constantly scratching every 3-5 mins. This would go on all day. Finally I bathed them with the oil/garlic powder and then washed them with dish soap. All is well and they are both very happy dogs."

[YEA]  07/21/2008: Donyale (adkinsthebuckeye@gmail.com) from Columbus, Ohio writes: "I have 4 wolves. One is a Timber wolf/ German Shepard. The other three are all in the high 90's as far as the wolf. Very little dog if any. About three weeks ago my husband and I thought our babies may have worms. So we took a stool sample to our vet and he told us that all four of the wolves had hookworms. The meds for all four of our wolves would have cost us $65.00 in all for all of them.Now my husband and I are not rich people so I did some nosing around on the internet and read up on Garlic cause a very wise old friend of mine once told me that Garlic can expel worms in dogs and Garlic can also prevent a worm infestation. So before I gave my wolves Garlic I looked it up on the internet and did my research. After two days of research I broke down and went to the store and bought some Fresh Garlic in clove form, came home and gave one clove each of Garlic to the wolves and in four days later in their stool were these live hookworms. Garlic will not kill the hookworms, what happens is that the Garlic cleans out the digestive track, now worms need a unclean place so they can thrive. Now by using Garlic to clean out the digestive track the worm will fall off the intestinal wall.The garlic also makes the blood of your pet taste and smell very foul. In my opinion Garlic is a wonder drug that is not only good for us humans to take daily but it works wonders for our four legged friends as well."

[NAY]  06/18/2008: Melissa from Wellsburg, WV writes: "I hate to disagree with anyone about a flea remedy that works for them, but I feel I must say something about the people who support garlic as a cure. I found out the hard way that garlic can severly injure and even kill dogs. Our dog, Chewie, got a hold of a garlic builb and managed to eat most of it before my husband caught him. We didn't think anything of it, he gets into things all the time, but not even an hour later he started vomiting and shaking. He couldn't hold anything down, not even water. It was too late to take him to the vet at that point, so we had to wait untl morning. When we did him to the vet, the vet was just as confused as we were until we told him about the garlic. Then he said, "Oh, that's it."

He explained that certain plants, like garlic and onion, are actually lethal in certain doses. We were lucky because Chewie vomited so soon after eating it. If he hadn't he could gone into renal failure and died.

I don't want to sound like a spoiler for all those who support giving garlic as a flea remedy, but I just don't want someone to loose their pet by giving their dog too much."

[YEA]  06/16/2008: Miles from Oceanside, California writes: "I use to have a German Shepard, and every year around summer time he would become infested with fleas. Flea/tick shampoo was pretty much useless, as I would have to bathe him with it 4-5 times before all the fleas were gone. However, the eggs would still live on, so a week later he would be infested all over again. I had enough so I took him to the Vet, who strangely gave me garlic pills to give him. He told me most Vets don't recommend it, but he has been giving his dogs garlic for years and they've lived healthy lives. My dog hated it, and it was very difficult to get him to swallow it(even if I put it in the back of his throat, or wrap it in a treat). So I started chopping cloves daily and mixing it with plain white rice(the chopped garlic sticks to the rice so he has to eat it). About a week later, I started to notice something...no more fleas! The only side effect I saw(or smelled) was a bitter smelling flatulence. Every year, around mid-May, I would chop cloves and mix it with rice daily. My neighbor said I was "killing" my dog slowly, but his dog always was sick or had some kind of problem, and he would feed her as much RX pills as your average American family takes(needless to say that's a lot). Of course, his dog died, and it was very sad because he thought synthetic man-made pills wasn't the reason. His exact words were something like "she was an unlucky dog". She never even got to see 10, she died at 9 years old from complications, and they had to put her down. However, my dog lived to see 17, and every time I would take him to the vet they would tell me how healthy my dog was, how healthy his coat looked, and they could never find worms. I only gave my dog garlic daily between May-August, so maybe excessively giving them garlic might lead to anemia. However, I don't believe that since some of my friends give their dogs garlic daily year-round and they're healthy. I now have a year old Boxer, who like many Boxers, has minor digestive problems. When he was a pup he would vomit alot and get diarrhea. He also started getting fleas(not nearly as bad as my Shepard) around 6 months, so I started the garlic treatment with him too. To my surprise not only did it get rid of the fleas, but it cured his digestive problems! I thought the garlic might give him diarrhea, but I wanted his fleas gone so I took a chance. I couldn't believe it, he no longer vomited or had diarrhea after feeding him cloves daily with a cup of white rice. I can honestly say garlic is NOT fatal or even harmful to dogs. Whoever published that statement that it is, was probably just trying to market a new pill for dogs, or doesn't want you to know that $2 a month will cure/treat symptoms that most vets charge $200+ for. Last time I checked, I never heard of anyone getting negative side-effects from natural medicine, but how many negative side-effects are there in your prescription and OTC medicines? Exactly! So to all you "experts" who wanna tell me that some world-renown vet said it's harmful, save your breath. I really don't care. I've seen the results, and it continues to work for me and my dog, and that's all that really matters."

[YEA]  06/13/2008: Kathy from Cypress, TX writes: "To keep fleas off my 70 lb. dog, I juice fresh raw garlic and add 1/8 teaspoon of it to a raw egg yolk. He eats it joyfully. NO MORE FLEAS. Fleas hate the smell of garlic. I may carefully increase the amount of garlic juice some in the future because he is 70 lbs. He eats his food joyfully. He also loves greens such as Alfalfa powder, Wheatgrass powder, Barley powder, etc. Dogs need greens too!"

[YEA]  06/10/2008: Suzana from Wellington , Florida writes: "I was born in Europe and we always use to give garlic to dogs when they had worms. I have never ever witnessed anything but good results. It worked every time, most times within 24 hours some other times it would take a few days. The dogs lived very long lives, over 20 years of age. when I came to USA I noticed that a dog's life expectancy is more around 15 years and even less depending on the breeds. That is very sad. Now since National Geographic announced that garlic is bad it seems that everyone is ready to throw away hundreds of years of experience. Garlic cannot become bad from one day to an other. I personnaly don't know what I would do without these natural remedies that have worked for ever. I have yet never seen myself a dog who had adverse effect from garlic but I did see many dogs who went into epilepsy after receiving a conventional deworming :( I wish everyone would do more research before jumping to conclusions and believing everything. Sometimes what we hear is just half the truth... and of cousre we are missing the most important half, so we should look for it. The industry has done a spectacular job until now making us believe that what is natural is bad, synthetic is better, fresh real food is bad (they call it human food to make sure you lost your argument before even arguing it), pet food made from scraps(of "human food"), fillers and preservatives is better. Mentionning garlic among other bad foods for dogs does not make the fact that garlic is dangerous more true but it is more convincing."

[YEA]  06/03/2008: Diane from Foley, Alabama writes: "My female gave birth to 5 beautiful pups and of course she got worms, white ones, we started giving her chopped fresh garlic and within 3 days the worms were gone. The pups are 5 weeks and they have no worms either. Mother nature is very powerful!!"

[YEA]  05/20/2008: Rod from Fort Lauderdale, Florida writes: "My two dogs, a five year old and an eleven year old always have had Garlic for repelling fleas and thicks, digestion and overall good health. The big pharmaceutical companies don't want people to know this, but do your research on the net. Garlic is great and cheap, but also uncommon sense tell us to be cautious with anything, allergies to just about anything can occur."

[YEA]  05/16/2008: Gabrielle from Elgin, Ontario Canada writes: "My 86 lb golden lab chow cross is almost 13 yrs old. Since he was a year old I have been making his dog food - boiled chicken, rice & raw chopped veggies (carrots, zuccini, bell pepper) - I sprinkle dried herbs (basil, rosemary, oregano) & garlic powder into chicken boil. Vets always comment on how healthy my dog is for his age and how nice his teeth are. He is slowing down now but to me it is obvious that the garlic has not harmed him in any way. And I always have lovely chicken broth for myself!"

I have two dogs 8 & 9yrs old; both get a clove of garlic daily. Small clove mix in raw meat for my little dog 25lbs and on or two cloves mixed in raw meat for my big dogs 60lbs, during the tick season, usually May thru July, Aug. When the tick season ends, I don't give it to them. I have had no side affect or problems with fleas & ticks. At first I had concerns about feeding garlic, after doing much research and reading different forums. I feel very confident garlic is safe to give my dogs. Dogs, like people, are different and each one has a different chemistry. What works well for one may not work for another? It's always best to do the research and use good common since, there's pros and cons for everything. You have to feel comfortable with your choices. But for me, garlic is the best tick repel I can use; I feel it's safe and has no harmful side effects."

[YEA]  04/30/2008: Sabina from Goshen, NY writes: "I've been giving my small and large dogs fresh garlic cloves, twice a week, for the past 30 years, and they all lived long healthy lives. I used to eat a clove daily and I never got a cold or flu. I gave up the daily garlic because it made me stink. Once I gave it up I began to catch virus. I now only take it if I feel as though I may be coming down with something."

[YEA]  04/19/2008: Monica writes: "Garlic is perfectly fine for dogs. It does Not break down their blood cells. Onions do though. You will know if they have had onions because they will pee red. With garlic they will not."

[YEA]  03/29/2008: Victoria from Vln, Lithuania writes: "YEA. My 3 years old yorkie gets some garlic for almost 2 years once or twice a weak, he gets no fleas or worms. He is on raw food. And with this food and some garlic he is doing well."

[NAY]  02/07/2008: cheryl from santa cruz, ca writes: "I read the suggestions about garlic for worms, and i used it on my dog and found no cure and no side effects. But, I was reading an old National Geographic magazine (Oct. 2007) and I came across a list of harmful food for dogs and one of them is garlic. It reads "Garlic breaks down a dog's red blood cells, leading to anemia and possible kidney failure from leaking hemoglobin". And for those of you who are curious.. the list reads on:
1.alcohal-depresses brain function and cause coma.
2.coffee- caffeine in a cup of coffee is a methylxanthine compound that can increase a dog's heart rate and trigger seizures.
3. macadamia nuts- just a couple can cause tremors, and even temporary paralysis in dog's hind legs
4.onions- damages is hemoglubin culmulative, so small tastes over time can be worse than wolfing down the whole bulb.
5. grapes (and that includes raisins)- can cause renal failure.
.. this probably isnt everthing so I hope you read up first before giving your pet something new."

[YEA]  02/05/2008: Darren (darrenzak@shaw.ca) from Vancouver, Canada writes: "Hello, i almost lost my 10 year old Lab last week, all because he had been consuming garlic in his food. I was buying a very expensive dog food that I thought was providing the optimal nutrition and goodness for him. I didn't know that Garlic could cause hemolytic anemia and other deadly problems. I quickly learned, not from my vet, but because i am an RN with a developed intuition and' my gutt had and was telling me that his condition had something to do with his food.I removed all forms of garlic form his diet and boom he has made a 180 recovery, thank god. I would encourage everyone to read what is in the bag of food that you are feeding your family/best friend.If you don't know if it is good for your dog do some reaserch on the ingredent."

[YEA]  01/28/2008: carla from houston, texas writes: "i had a doberman that lived to be about 16 years. one day we took him to the vet and we found out that he had heart worms and they told us the price for what we can do and were blown away.  so we started to give him garlic in his food everyday.  we took him to the vet about a month later and the heart worms were gone!!  we told them what we did and they didnt believe us.  about 11 years later he passed away from old age.  we now have a min. pincher and we too give him garlic everyday!  nasty farts, but no infections!  Garlic is proven to fight infections but vets dont want you to know because its so much cheaper to buy garlic."

[YEA]  01/19/2008: Koni from London, UK writes: "I have been sprinkling garlic powder on my dogs (home cooked) food since I got him aged 6 months. He's never had a flea. Recentley I ran out (of GP) and it was a week before I replaced it (me casually thinking all would be ok) During that week he got worms, when I put him back on the Garlic Powder the worms were eradicated. It works for me."

[YEA]  12/01/2007: barb haven from WINDSOR, canada writes: "I routinely use 1(med) clove of garlic in a 2 litre stewpot that yeilds 72 oz of dog food. consisting of 2 cups brown rice, 2-3 small potatoes, 3 carrots, 1 tbsp rosemary, 1 stalk celery, 1tbsp basil, 1/4 can chick peas, 1 med zucchini, or broccoli and two apples, I sometimes include 1/8 cup cottage cheese, to this I add' a ratio of 1/3 pureed mixture of either beef or chicken liver, chicken gizards and hearts. In additional after cooked I sprinkle in 2 tbsp of a 2:1 ratio of  calcium/phosphorus supplement, which also includes proteins, fats,vitamins, minerals and advanced micro -nutrients. Am I overdoing it by adding the calcium vitamin supplement?"

[NAY]  11/13/2007: Helen from Aldergrove, Canada writes: "Just a little warning about using garlic as a flea remedy: in large amounts garlic and onion can cause anemia in dogs by interfering with normal hemoglobin production. I've heard that garlic can work on fleas, but found that it only upset my puppy's stomach and gave her garlic scented farts (nasty!). Later on I read (National Geographic, among other sources) that it can interfere with hemoglobin production and should be avoided - though onions are worse for this."

[YEA]  11/11/2007: Margaret from Bradford, UK writes: "We have two belgian shepherd dogs, both rescues. Katie is 7 years old and we have had her for 5 years. Claude is 5 years and we had hm from being a puppy. We have mostly fed them on home cooked food (always with Garlic and veg (not tomatoes). We have NEVER had fleas or worms (much to the distress of our vet on annual vet visits). We also give them a couple of Marrow bones (marrow bones only). Their helath and teeth are like puppies. The vet is always amazed. We also have two rescue cats one in now 12 years old and both have a similar diet to the dogs. Both are ful of fun and healthy and vermin free! All our other animals ov er the last 47 years lived long and healthy lives dying only of old age and having had the same diets"

[YEA]  10/31/2007: Marilyn from Bloomfield, New Jersey writes: "My dog (shepard/pit mix) was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma when she was 51/2 yrs old. This is a cancer that forms in the lining of the blood vessels and is known to affect the spleen and heart.  At this time, there is no known cure.  The condition started inside her nose and was making its way toward the brain.  The veterinarian gave her 5 wks to live but instead she lived for 22 months.  No medication was prescribed and I believe that she lived that long due to a diet consisting of vitamins, steamed vegetables with chicken and fish and 1 clove of garlic with every meal. (She was 60 lbs at the time) Her coat became very shiny and soft,(not to mention she stopped shedding), she was exhibiting energy and was even found with normal blood values even though her condition condemned her to anemia.  Unfortunately she lost her battle to the cancer as it eventually made it's way to the brain. While some state that garlic is dangerous, used correctly and in moderation, it will demonstrate homeopathic properties.  Given what I know and what I've experienced, I intend to continue using it with my future canine companions and support its use in moderation."

[YEA]  10/25/2007: Joey from Las Vegas, NV writes: "Sorry to bust everyone's bubble, but I have been feeding my dog a heaping teaspoon of crushed garlic twice-a-day with his dry food for 10 years. I took him to a new vet a few months ago. He guessed his age as FIVE. My dog loves it. He is in perfect health and I believe garlic is one of the things that has kept him young. He's now 10 years 7 months. Then again I also feed him 2000 mg of MSM a day, a multi vitamin, glucosmine/condorotin (spell check please) and water soluble silver and minerals. I don't buy into what the so-called experts say. I go by what my experience teaches me. And I think garlic has been GREAT for him.  In fact, he very rarely gets sick and I don't use any poison flea control crap that the vets push on you or vaccinations that can ruin his immune system.  He’s a Sheltie Mix and his coat is gorgeous.  And I predict he’ll live to at least 20. All animals can live longer lives through correct supplementation."

[NAY]  10/22/2007: Sarah from West Chester, Pennsylvania writes: "I was giving my Belgian Sheepdog less than the the manufacturer's recommended dosage of garlic. I wanted an alternative for the control of parasitic insects. The garlic caused my dog to get an ulcer which ruptured his stomache - He died.  There may not be scientific data to say garlic is not safe - but it wans't safe for my dog.  I still search for the right balance between natural and pharmaseutical.  Everthing and anything we give can have a concequence.  I have to live with the fact that by trying to help my dog I killed him."

[YEA]  10/13/2007: Denise from Corrolitos, Ca writes: "I have appreciated the comments on earthclinic in regards to dogs and garlic. I was raised with dogs eating garlic to prevent or rid them of worms and fleas.I ended up terribly concerned at the sudden rash of information this is harmful to my dogs as no one would want to intentionally cause illness or death of a beloved pet. my dogs are sisters now three years old they had been eating garlic powder since 6 months I am certain it rid them of worms They eat canned food mixed with dry and water or broth with what would be a reasonable amount of garlic POWDER ie: suitable for a pet parents taste. I had stopped feeding them the powder for awhile gravely concerned for their health. Suddenly I noticed duller coats, itching ,fleas and a brief return of' hinny draging (worms) after this I returned them to the seasoning amount of garlic powder behold shinner coats less flea annoyance and no worms.  I spoke to pet food providers asking about tomatoes since their  brand of dog food contained tomatoes I was told the tomatoes  in the food are not harmful to dogs since they are powdered. Last I can say Im not feeding my dogs tomatoes (too much acid) but Im keeping my eyes open and tolerating my garlic powder kisses."