Allium sativum is toxic to cats, dogs and horses. The reported severity is critical. Also known as Garlic, Serpent Garlic and Softneck Garlic.
If your animal ate this plant, call your veterinarian now, or one of these services.
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Ireland has no animal poison service for owners. Call your veterinarian. An Irish veterinarian can consult the Veterinary Poisons Information Service in the United Kingdom.
Giftinformationscentralen stopped answering questions about animals on 1 July 2018. Call your veterinarian or an animal hospital.
Vomiting Anemia Blood In Urine Weakness High Heart Rate Panting Weak Pulse Incoordination Cardiovascular Collapse Difficulty Breathing
The color of each symptom follows the severity scale above.
Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to Central Asia, northeastern Iran and the foothills of Himalayas. It has naturalized in many other parts of the world, including Mediterranean Europe and China. There are two subspecies and hundreds of varieties of garlic.
The scent of garlic is known to linger upon the human body and cause bad breath (halitosis) and body odor. This is caused by allyl methyl sulfide (AMS). AMS is a volatile liquid which is absorbed into the blood during the metabolism of garlic-derived sulfur compounds; from the blood it travels to the lungs (and from there to the mouth, causing garlic breath) and skin, where it is exuded through skin pores. Since digestion takes several hours, and release of AMS several hours more, the effect of eating garlic may be present for a long time. Washing the skin with soap is only a partial and imperfect solution to the smell. Studies have shown sipping milk at the same time as consuming garlic can significantly neutralize bad breath. Mixing garlic with milk in the mouth before swallowing reduced the odor better than drinking milk afterward. Plain water, mushrooms, and basil may also reduce the odor; the mix of fat and water found in milk, however, was the most effective. Abundant sulfur compounds in garlic are also responsible for turning garlic green or blue during pickling and cooking. Under these conditions (i.e., acidity, heat) the sulfur-containing compound alliin reacts with common amino acids to make pyrroles, clusters of carbon-nitrogen rings. These rings can be linked together into polypyrrole molecules. Ring structures absorb particular wavelengths of light and thus appear colored. The two-pyrrole molecule looks red, the three-pyrrole molecule looks blue, and the four-pyrrole molecule looks green (like chlorophyll, a tetrapyrrole). Like chlorophyll, the pyrrole pigments are safe to eat.
Also recorded as Cultivated Garlic and garden garlic.
More from the Amaryllidaceae family:
Countries with the most wild observations, from GBIF data.