garlic for dogs

Question
I have been putting garlic powder on my 3 dogs food for a bit and just today i gave them raw cloves. I was reading about poison for dogs and it lists garlic as being extremely poisonous and now I'm FREAKING OUT. 2 chow mixes 1 is 8yrs 1 is 5yrs and i have 1 desert wolf-14yrs old

Answer
HI Jimi
The story is such:  onions and garlic belong to the same "family".  Onions are always dangerous to dogs, causing anemia.  Onions, raw or cooked, should never be fed to dogs.  Although Garlic is from the same family, the actual element that causes the anemia is in minute amounts in garlic.  So for garlic to be dangerous to your dog you would have to feed them a couple of whole bulbs a day on an ongoing basis.  You would probably never even get them to eat that much in one sitting due to the strong odour.  

The benefits of garlic are that it supports healthy blood and a healthy immune system.  AND keeps pests like fleas and worms away.

Horses can never be fed garlic due to the fact that they don't have gallbladders, and therefor garlic can make them very very ill.

But for your dogs it's fine.  One whole clove each may be a little too much for such small dogs, possibly causing some tummy upsets.  But you can certainly put your mind at ease.  Most dog foods and dog health products contain garlic.

I hope this helps.
Silva.
www.roxysworld.com.au