My cat had some garlic dipping sauce should I be worried?

skygem

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Hey all!

Today while I was at work my kitty got into my garbage and found a container of Dominoes pizza garlic dipping sauce I had thrown away last night. It was mostly empty, but he licked it clean and i wanted to know if it was something to worry about?

Google tells me that 1 gram of garlic per 5 pounds of cat is dangerous, and my boy is approximately 11 pounds. With the small amount of garlic that would be in the dipping sauce, and furthermore the small amount of sauce he had, I thought he'd probably be fine but I'm just worried since he's on the older side (9), and has some health problems (ibd). He hasn't thrown up or shown any other signs of garlic poisoning and is acting totally normal, but I know that signs can take 2-4 days to show.

So is this something to worry about or should I just keep calm and keep an eye out for a few days
 

Caspers Human

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Garlic isn't immediately toxic to cats but it is harmful on a broad scale.

In other words, it's a "systemic" toxin but not necessarily an "acute" toxin.

The harmful substance(s) in garlic (and other plants in the allium group such as onion, garlic, chive, leek and scallion) act mainly on the red blood cells to cause anemia.

The toxic dose of fresh garlic is somewhere around 1 gram of garlic per 5 pounds of the cat's body weight.
Garlic powder or dried garlic is more potent because the drying process makes it more concentrated. A small amount of garlic cooked into food is less potent because it has been diluted.

Here is a good link for information about garlic and cats:

The website, PetMD.com has a good article about foods toxic to cats, in general:

A quote from the PetMD website: (emphasis added)
All members of the onion family can cause problems if eaten in sufficient quantity.

A small amount of onion or garlic in some sauce is not likely to cause problems. However, eating a clove of garlic or a green onion may cause digestive upset.

Eating any type of onion on a regular basis could cause anemia.
Bottom line:
If a cat eats a sizeable amount of garlic, it's a problem that could require a vet visit.

If a cat licks some pizza sauce with garlic in it, she'll probably be okay if she didn't eat a lot.

Just keep an eye out for problems and call your vet if there are problems.

Beyond that, just shake your finger and say, "Bad kitty!" ;) ;) ;)
 

Mamanyt1953

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Could not have said it better, nor more thoroughly! This sort of thing, however, is why I am now in the habit of giving those containers (and all others) a quick rinse before throwing them away.
 
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