Cats and onions... should I be concerned?

I would take your cat to the vet immediately. Onions are quite toxic to cats even in small amounts. Read this blog post

@goose756

Wow! Weird. I had no idea!

Not too sure about cats, but my Great Pyreneese puppy loves the follow and has not died yet from eating them…............

1. Cheetos

2. Sweet potatoes

3. Dill pickles

4. Bananas

5. Peanuts and peanut butter

6. Carrots

7. Peas. She kicks ticked off because they roll away.

8. Ritz crackers(no salt).

9. Ice cubes

10. Onion circles

11. Okra

Granted, she is not fed this every meal. She steals it when she has the opportunity from counter-surfing. She is five months old and weighes 70 pounds.

Onions did not kill my puppy, but ask a vet about a kitten and onions.

I just called the vet. I even went so far as to explain how the onion is pulped before it’s mixed into the salad… she said that she’s sure the cat will be fine. Still nervous of course… but at least someone is home watching her.

this cat is infuriating. You could put a steak, or a whole shrimp, or a piece of chicken in front of her. She’ll look at it, and then go about her cat business. Now all of a sudden she wants to eat onion laden potato salad >.<

When Willow was just a purple dorg from Animal Rescue (which is to say, when she was young), she was much more likely to be fed “whatever was at hand” and which she would gladly sample. We found out that she liked carrots, and offered those to her as treats, and which she accepted the same way. I found out by accident (dropping some chopped onion on the floor) that she liked onion, too. So I’d give her occasional slices of raw onion.

Not long after finding out about this, I took her for an initial checkup with my new veterinarian (since we needed our own vet). During the intake exam, the vet’s assistant asked about her diet, at which time I mentioned the carrots and onions along with her normal dried food. He burst out laughing, “And she’s still alive?”

That’s when I found out about the supposedly toxic effects of onions on dogs. So I stopped giving them to her, of course. But I still think that the dangers are somewhat overblown.

Of course, this is the same dorg that got into rat poison in someone else’s garage two weeks ago, then later in the day threw it up on their rug, and walked away with no ill effects. There’s no telling what won’t kill her.

Wow! Thank you for this question. Until now I had NO CLUE cats could not eat onions! (Or Garlic!)

I never heard of this. I’s assume it’s like dogs and chocolate. Some are more sensitive than others. I had a big dog once that ate an entire easter basket full of candy and had no issues whatsoever.

Just something to be aware of, but, I wouldn’t panic.

Some brands of commercial pet food actually use onions and garlic for flavour. It’s not healthy for dogs or cats, but small amounts won’t kill them dead. Likewise, unless you’ve got a tiny dog and a big chunk of baker’s chocolate, the theobromine isn’t healthy, but probably won’t cause instant death. (Raisins are another matter, of course. Even one can kill a dog stone cold dead if your dog happens to be susceptible – and you won’t know until it happens.)

It doesn’t sound as if she was likely to have ingested a significant amount – she should be fine.