Are Onions Safe For Dogs To Eat
Feeding the pet human foods has become a habit of dog owners. It has become instinctive for dog owners to toss scraps of food to the pet. All the remaining food on the plates will go directly to Fido's food bowl. Not all foods that are safe for humans are safe for the dog as well thus the dog owner's habit of sharing the food being eaten with the pet can have dangerous effects on the dog. But can dogs eat onions?
Generally, humans foods can be safely eaten by the dog but some human foods are known to have toxic effects that can result to the death of the dogs. Onions is one of the human foods toxic to dogs. Onion is a cooking ingredient that enhance the taste of foods. Theosulphate in onions is toxic to dogs. Onions become a poisonous food for dogs because these animals do not have the enzyme needed to metabolize this substance .
Spring onions, red, green and yellow as well as other varieties all contain the substance theosulphate. The theosulphate in onions cannot be destroyed if the onion is cooked or dried thus the dog must not be allowed to have pizza pie, onion rings or any other food that contain onions.
The theosulphate in the ingested onion that will not be metabolized by the dog's system will now cause the hemoglobin's oxidation. Hemoglobin, the protein molecules in the red blood cells have the function of carrying oxygen from the lungs to all the tissues in the different parts of the dog's body. The oxidation of hemoglobin will result to the formation of bubble-like clumps in the red blood cells. Because these clumps will stick out from cells, they will be destroyed easily. Once these Heinz bodies rupture, the red blood cells will also be destroyed prematurely. The premature destruction of the red blood cells will hinder its function of delivering oxygen so that the functions of the vital organs will be compromised as well.
What is more alarming with onions toxicity is the fact that it is dose dependent so that the owner would continue feeding the pet onions and the toxicity would build up to cause the dog more harm. Onion toxicity symptoms are lethargy and breathlessness due to the insufficient supply of oxygen. The dog would vomit and have diarrhea. Dogs are voracious eaters but dogs affected by onion toxicity will turn away from food. One good thing about this kind of poisoning is that once the dog owner has stopped feeding the dog onions, the symptoms will be gone and the dog's condition will improve.