Garden crops which are bad for your dog.

[tedln]

My big Labrador loves almost any vegetable from the garden. His favorite is cucumbers, but they are not producing yet. He has been eating all of my cull (two footed) carrots, he also steals green tomatoes if I don't close the gate securely.

I was also giving him a few radishes and onions every day. I thought the other day, I should check and see if anything I'm giving him is potentially harmful. I was very surprised to learn onions and garlic can kill a dog. They have a component which a dogs intestines do not have an enzyme to process. The chemical or component can build up in their bodies because they can't excrete it. It eventually can reach lethal levels and the red blood cells are damaged reducing their ability to absorb and transport oxygen. No more onions for Charlie!

Ted

[digitS']

Ted, I used to do the same thing, unwittingly, for my neighbor's dog.

She was a real sweet thing - a beagle. Now, it takes something for me to admit that a hound can be sweet. They are so gosh darn noisy!

My garden then was across the alley from my home and she was tied in her backyard to the fence. To keep her quiet . . . I'd slip a lettuce leaf or something thru the fence to her. Dogs like attention like that and she was getting precious little attention! She was actually tied by a leash - I don't think she had quite 8' to move around in and most of that was taken up by her doghouse!

She was taken into the home when the owner or her daughter was there. I suppose they didn't enjoy the noise she made more than anyone else.

Anyway, I soon learned that she liked green onions best. I'd slip a green onion to her almost daily over 4 summers! It didn't kill her at least and I had no idea that I was endangering her health!

Steve

[Bobberman]

Suggestion put a picure of a fire hydron on all your tomato post since nitrogen is good for the garden!

[Rogue11]

In addition to onions and garlic, Grapes and Raisins are toxic for dogs and dogs, and tomatoes are bad for cats. Also some kinds of mushrooms like the ones that pop up in the grass when it is wet, can be appealing to dogs because of their smell, but can kill them.

[speedster7926]

grapes are only poisonous to some dogs it really depends our dogs would eat them off the vine took them to the vet cause we heard that they were bad for them too but they said that only certain dogs are effected and as for garlic I have never heard that we were told by 2 dif vets to give garlic tabs to dogs for flees been doing that for 15+ years now

[Odd Duck]

All of the allium family can be dangerous for dogs and especially for cats. The grapes/raisins problem is also accurate. I'd never heard the tomatoes and cats thing, but a quick search shows there is some info about that, I'll look into it some more tomorrow.

Another thing to consider is to make sure your dog can't get into the compost heap. If they only get fresh stuff, it's not necessarily a big deal, but molding stuff can produce toxins that can be very deadly.

Macadamia nuts (not really a "garden" item for most people, but worth mentioning) can also be toxic to dogs and so can xylitol, a common artificial sweetener. Make sure they can't get any green areas from potatoes.

I'm sure there's others, these are the first that come to mind. The ASPCA runs a website and hotline for poisoning cases - NAPPC, National Animal Poison Control Center - 888-426-4435. There is usually a charge for each call, but if you're calling about a product, many companies have made arrangements to pay for calls concerning their products.

[Odd Duck]

grapes are only poisonous to some dogs it really depends our dogs would eat them off the vine took them to the vet cause we heard that they were bad for them too but they said that only certain dogs are effected and as for garlic I have never heard that we were told by 2 dif vets to give garlic tabs to dogs for flees been doing that for 15+ years now

Some dogs react badly to grapes and raisins and some have no problems at all, but are you going to risk kidney failure in your dog on the chance it MIGHT be OK? I gave grapes to my own dogs for years, but once I heard about problems, I stopped. Simple choice for me.

Garlic does NOT work for fleas, there have been multiple studies done and it simply does not work. Garlic tabs contain relatively little garlic, so doesn't usually cause problems for dogs (they are less sensitive to it than cats). But, if they were a highly food driven dog, they can have problems if they ingest enough raw garlic or onion. It causes a syndrome called Heinz body anemia - the hemoglobin (protein inside the red blood cell that carries oxygen) actually coagulates (clumps) and can no longer carry oxygen.

[Rogue11]

Was the vet who gave you the smart advice about the grapes able to tell you how you would know beforehand if you have a dog that might be affected less than others?
Onions and Garlic contain thiosulphate. Dogs and cats lack the enzyme to properly break it down , which can lead to Heinz Factor Anemia. However garlic has far less thiosulphate than onions. Perhaps garlic tablets have even less of it and therefore are not as harmful.
I can only tell you what we learned, but any good vet clinic can provide you with a list of food bad for cats and dogs. and I am pretty sure you will find Grapes as well as Onions and probably garlic on those lists.

[cynthia_h]

All of the above cautions, plus do *not* feed dogs or cats anything with chocolate in it. This includes cacao-bean hulls used as a mulch: they are TOXIC to dogs and cats, but the warning isn't on the bags.

I doubt that any of us are growing cacao-bean trees--they only grow within 9 degrees North or South of the Equator and at lower altitudes--but most of us have chocolate-containing products at home.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rainbowgardener]

ASPCA has this great website for checking if any particular plant might be toxic to your pet:

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/

you can set it for only plants that are toxic to cats or only plants that are toxic to dogs or horses or all of the above.

[thanrose]

On Davesgarden website (I am not a member), there is a contributor named palmbob. He's a vet and a rare plants collector. He writes some interesting and balanced articles on plant toxins and dangers. Aside from all the caveats mentioned above, he also relates his veterinary experience as applicable.

[url]https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2878/[/url] Toxic Plants- What Does That Really Mean
[url]https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/414/[/url] Plant-related food toxins of the Holidays and your pets
[url]https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/395/[/url] Toxic Plants of the Winter Holidays, from a Veterinary Perspective

The first one is where I really started to take notice of his common sense approach. I think that's the one where he mentions that some sites will tell you how poisonous apples are, but that the principle is the cyanide in the seeds and just how many apple cores will you or your dog eat at one time?

He's another vet who used to let his pets eat fallen grapes, but is now faithful about preventing them from doing so due to more knowledge of how dangerous that is.

[applestar]

I doubt that any of us are growing cacao-bean trees...

it's on my wish list. Logee's has it but for more $$ than I'm willing to spend right now....

[tedln]

Interesting information but my garden is pretty simple. I only have vegetables which we and our friends and family will consume. The interesting part of the toxicity of garden vegetables is some are toxic to my dog, but not to me. If onions were toxic to me, I would have been dead long ago.

Living in the country as opposed to a manicured residential sub division; our pets are exposed to many toxic or dangerous substances such as Poison Ivy and Poison Oak and other harmful plants as well as venomous snakes, skunks, and coyotes. I really have no control over what nature produces with the exception of my ability to manicure the immediate area around my house and garden and then contain our pets within the manicured area.

I am a little surprised with all the information furnished about toxic plants, no one mentioned Castor Bean plants. Many people grow them for decorative purposes and the beans are very attractive and potentially harmful to children.

While some plants have the potential for harm, others seem to have beneficial effects I don't understand. We have many flower pots and containers with everything from Hibiscus to Day Lillie's growing. One long planter was full of Rose Moss last summer. The Rose Moss draped over the edge of the planter almost to the floor of the deck. Ants set up an assembly line from the ground, up some support beams, and across the second floor deck to the Rose Moss. I don't know what they were transporting back to their den, but they sure were industrious about it. I later noticed pieces of Rose Moss broken off and laying on the deck. It took me awhile to figure out what was breaking the Rose Moss stems, but I noticed our Labrador would sometimes stick his entire head into the Rose Moss and rub it all over his head. He would then rub his entire body against the moss hanging over the edge. I don't know what is in Rose Moss that a dog would want to smear over his body, but he sure likes the stuff. He doesn't eat it, he just uses it like a body lotion.

Ted

[cynthia_h]

Interesting information but my garden is pretty simple. I only have vegetables which we and our friends and family will consume. The interesting part of the toxicity of garden vegetables is some are toxic to my dog, but not to me. If onions were toxic to me, I would have been dead long ago.

Living in the country as opposed to a manicured residential sub division; our pets are exposed to many toxic or dangerous substances such as Poison Ivy and Poison Oak and other harmful plants as well as venomous snakes.

I am a little surprised with all the information furnished about toxic plants, no one mentioned Castor Bean plants. Many people grow them for decorative purposes and the beans are very attractive and potentially harmful to children.

Ted

Responding in order to these concerns:

1) Dogs developed from wolves and other Canidae, who were hunters and scavengers. If a food was part of a prey animal's diet or was a normal part of the leavings that the canids scavenged, there was no survival value in having a strong toxicity reaction to it. This is my theory of why so few fruits, vegetables, and grains are toxic to dogs. All of us came up with only a few items in these categories. The dangers of grapes and their dried version, the raisin, were discovered only within the last 10 or so years, and the active factor isn't yet isolated. Dogs have munched on apples ever since we domesticated both dogs and apple trees, I suspect, but the number of apple seeds a dog will eat is naturally limited by the bulk of the apple surrounding them. Macadamia nuts are native to Hawaii; no canids encountered macadamia nuts until the 19th century, hardly enough time to evolve immunity to them.

Interestingly, cultivated mushrooms after cooking are safe for dogs to eat. But all wild ones must be treated as deadly. Mushrooms are found everywhere and are still evolving. Even as I write this, the [url=https://www.akcchf.org/canine-health/your-dogs-health/death-cap-mushrooms.html]Death Cap mushroom[/url] (Amanita phalloides) has expanded its range in California, changed its odor to that of dead fish--very attractive to dogs!--and decided to grow under pine trees in dry conditions up to 6,000 ft. as well as its traditional habitat: under oak trees in wet conditions under 1,000 ft. Treat all wild mushrooms as if they are Death Caps, esp. where dogs are concerned--children can be told "no" for the critical few seconds it will take you to pick the mushrooms, but dogs are very fast.

2) I know from multiple, painful personal experiences that dogs do NOT react to poison oak or poison ivy. They can carry the urushiol on their coat back to their people, though, and the people will break out, sometimes without even knowing they've been exposed until their entire body is involved.... Your concern about snakes is well-founded, esp. in light of what happened the other day!

3) True enough about Castor Bean plants, but with castor bean oil having been on the market for so many years in the past (I don't know whether it's still available), it doesn't strike everyone immediately as toxic. And, again, with children you can put them in a playpen if they're young enough, or--with a truly impetuous toddler--find other means of restricting his/her wandering or your own activities outdoors if you (a parent) do not feel the child will be safe in your yard otherwise. (Says the aunt, who did do some baby-sitting of niece/nephews at the relevant ages.)

With regard to the ASPCA's list of toxic plants, in some cases it overstates the situation, and in others it doesn't state the toxicity emphatically enough, IMHO. Anything that might provide a warning sensation in the mouth (e.g., a hot pepper's warm/hot sensation in people) is listed as "toxic," even though the animal might not fall ill from it. But chocolate is listed like any other item, and it takes very little to elicit a reaction.

Cynthia
remembering also Donato...

[Canoe]

Thanks for the heads up on the things not to feed my dog. I only knew about the chocolate. But my little girl did tell me that Max(our dog) is not a vegetarian, becuase he would not eat any of the veggies she tried to give him. He mostly gets dog food, other then when I cook outside and drop a hot dog or two for him. guess he still have a lot of that wolf blood in him.

thanks again

Canoe

[Odd Duck]

[url]https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2878/[/url] Toxic Plants- What Does That Really Mean
[url]https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/414/[/url] Plant-related food toxins of the Holidays and your pets
[url]https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/395/[/url] Toxic Plants of the Winter Holidays, from a Veterinary Perspective

He's another vet who used to let his pets eat fallen grapes, but is now faithful about preventing them from doing so due to more knowledge of how dangerous that is.

Excellent articles and very thorough, jives with my experiences also. I agree with pretty much all of his points. I see far more cases of toxicosis from owner induced problems - rodenticide ingestion, chocolate toxicosis, dropped medication ingestions or deliberate dosing by the owner with medications that pets cannot handle (ibuprofen, acetaminophen, etc), or recreational drug ingestions, etc, than I have with any plant toxicosis.

I've never personally seen a case of toxicosis from grape/raisin ingestion but I know vets that have. Because of what I know, I would never risk my dogs lives by giving them one. I have seen 1 cat with Heinz body anemia (from the tiny amount of powdered garlic in the meat baby food the owner was feeding). I've not seen it in any dogs, but it is well documented.

Cynthia, some pets will react to poison ivy or poison oak. It seems to be less common than in people, but I've seen it. The owners always seem to get it worse, though!

[gixxerific]

As stated dog are carnivores or at least were in the past. Which means they ate the stomach of other animals which may have had plat material in them.

So always in moderation. I give my dog garlic sometimes but not much , heck it is in most dog food even the good ones. But some things to steer clear of is a lot of chocolate and grapes seem to bad for dogs but than again that is in large amounts and on a case by case deal.

Carrots, sweet potatoes most greens are beneficial.

[jal_ut]

Post subject: Garden crops which are bad for your dog.

That would be any he messes with!!!!!

[gixxerific]

I feel you there Jal! My puppy likes to sneak into my smaller garden through my hodgepodge fence I have.