chicken soup toxic?

[ashleyjonah]

As a treat, I gave my 17 kg/38 lb dog about a ladle of the clear broth of chicken soup (I made it with onions for my dinner, but I strained the broth to be free of onions when I gave some to my dog) along with a little bit of chicken.

I am concerned now after reading about the poisonous effects of onions to dogs. Will the soup broth, which I made with onions but did not contain any actual cooked onion pieces when given to my dog, have a toxic effect on my pet? I am worried that the toxic thiosulphate may have leaked from the onions into the soup broth.

[Michie888]

Yes, she got so excited after smelling it - I will definitely cook chicken for her using the other veggies she can take. Thanks!

[ginger899]

Dogs LOVE chicken broth! Just leave out the onions/garlic/leek etc

Good recipe:
small pieces of chicken fried slightly until they brown a little. Then water, sliced carrots, and green beans. Simmer for 15 minutes. No need to add salt, pepper or anything else.
Other vegetables like Chard, greens, spinach, swede turnips, broccoli, sweet potato, white potato, cauliflower....etc can all be used as a variation.

[ginger899]

Sorry my answer is a bit late.
She will probably be okay. But to set your mind at rest I think you should call your vet to ask advice.

[Michie888]

Hi, I just gave 2 tiny bits of chicken breast to my baby pomshi mix (small puppy) that was cooked in an onion, leek & garlic broth, then realized the broth ingredients could seep into the chicken as well. Now I'm worried... vet 911?

[Me967]

Hi and thank you.  I hope I'm not upsetting  ashleyjonah by asking this on her post.

She will occasionally eat chicken tenderloins and mashed potatoes but will not at all eat the l/d Rx food.  I tried blending it in every which way but lost.  This was a last resort.

Thank you so very much for your comment back.  It opened my eyes to the dangers of onion more so.  The one she really likes is "Earths best organic #3...country veg. chic. soup in which has no onion powder.  Maybe I'll give her mostly this and see how it works for a while.  Every so often I get away with giving her the chicken tenderloins and mashed potatoes or single grain baby food rice.  

Thank you again for the reply.  Amy.  

[Ghilly]

Since your Border Collie is already compromised by having liver failure, even though the onion powder is down at the bottom of the list, I would see if I could find other flavors that she was interested in, and gradually work the ones with the onions out of the picture.  If you can't find others that she enjoys, try to make the ones with the onion powder the ones you use least frequently.  Obviously she is doing well on them, and has shown no ill effects up til now, so chances are there is not enough of the onion powder in the food to harm her, but like I said, with liver failure, she is already compromised, so you want to give her every little bit of help you can, but not at the expense of her going off her feed to any great degree.  Sometimes it's a case of the lesser of the evils.  

Ghilly

[Me967]

It's funny you mentioned baby food.  My Border Collie has liver failure.  I've always looked at the ingredients concerning salt, fat, protein, calories, etc., but not onions.

I feed her baby food due to the fact that I tried the Rx. food, cooked chicken, rice, eggs, mashed potatoes and just about anything else you can think of.  She dropped 20 pounds and I thought I was going to loose her.  She was literally starving herself.  After a couple months I started her on baby food.  It was that or loose her.  

She's doing great on it.  I just checked her jars and found 3 out of 5 has the onion powder in them.  In which would only leave 2 that I could buy for her.  Her appetite changes daily so giving her a different flavor each feeding works great.
What is your opinion of onion powder on the bottom of the ingredients lists?    

[ashleyjonah]

Thank you all so much for the info. I will keep an eye on my dog and hope for the best!

Thanks again and best wishes to everyone :)

[Ghilly]

You're welcome, ginger.  I'm glad you found the info useful.  :)

Oddly enough, garlic is considered safe for dogs to eat IN MODERATION.  A week or so ago I posted a recipe for making liver treats by boiling and then baking slices of beef or calves liver, and one of the things you can do to make this even more appealing to your pet is to sprinkle a little bit of powdered garlic on it before you put it in the oven.

Leeks I would avoid, they are much more onion-like than garlic, having the layers like onions and those gossamer-thin membranes between the layers just like onions do.

By the way, there was a typo in my original post.   It should have said that the onions cause the Heinz bodies to become very THIN, not THING.    To explain this a bit further, the reason the urine is such a dark brownish color is because the ruptured red blood cells are being excreted in the urine, that accounts for the color.

Something else to keep in mind.  Often, when our pets are off their feed for whatever reason, we turn to the old standby, commercially prepared human baby food (ie, Gerber) in jars, because it tastes good to them and its readily available to basically everyone.  The only problem with baby food is that you have to read the ingredients list carefully, because one of the things that makes the stuff so tasty is that onions are added during the cooking process!  So while we're feeding our pets baby food to tweak their appetites, we could inadvertently be doing them harm by feeding them onions without even realizing it.  So read those labels carefully before buying baby food for your pets.

Ghilly

[ginger899]

Thanks for this info, Ghilly. I will DEFINITELY in the future make sure my dog has nothing whatsoever to do with anything that has gone near onions. I knew they were bad, but didn't know HOW bad. I guess garlic is the same? And what about Leeks? Are they dangerous too?

[Ghilly]

Keep a close eye on her for a couple of days, the effects of onions don't happen right away.  Keep a watch on her gums that they stay bright pink, and watch her urine output to see what color it is.  If she is having a problem from the onions her urine will be very dark in color.

Onions cause Heinz body anemia in dogs and cats.  It's a form of hemolytic anemia.  Heinz bodies are part of the red blood cells, and the onions cause the walls of the Heinz bodies to become very thing and rupture.  The thing is, they don't have to eat the onions themselves, they can eat something that was cooked WITH onions and get the same effect, so you are right to be concerned.  I wouldn't be panicking, but be concerned.

The smaller the dog, the lesser the amount of onions are needed to do damage.  You should watch your dog for about 72 hours following the consumption of onions or onion-containing food.  If all is well, you're good to go.

Ghilly

[Me967]

Just as flmagi noted "beware of salt".  It is very hard on them.  Years ago I gave 2 of my dogs some canned chicken broth.  Next thing I know they were both peeing up a storm until their urine turned to bright red blood.  They drank a ton of water, both went to the vet and were fine but, I was lucky not to loose them though.  That was over 20 years ago; but, I'll never forget it.

[ginger899]

My dog drank a little home cooked broth which had been made with lentils, onions and carrots. She had about a small glassful of the liquid, a spoonful of lentils, and a few pieces of carrot. It did have a little salt, as the stock I used contained some sea salt. She showed no problems at all. I wouldn't give it to her often (as flmagi is right about not giving dogs salt) and I don't want her eating onions. But it appeared to do her no harm.

[flmagi]

I'm sure your dog will be fine. It would take a lot of onions to make a dog sick, depending on the size of the dog and amount of onions.  What you need to be careful of with soups to, is the salt. Soups tend to be very high in sodium.