Re: Re:Garlic

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> Hi All
> I am sorry to be a pain but someone wrote some stuff about Garlic and
> anemia a while ago and I thought I had kept it on file. I can't find it
> anywhere and was wondering if the person who wrote it could send it to
> me again?

There were a couple of people that replied, but I can sum up what's in the
literature.  As far as I've been able to see, there isn't any research done
specifically in horses being fed garlic, but there is in small animals (dogs
and cats) and also in cattle, so it's reasonable that what affects both dogs
and cattle will probably also have a similar effect on horses (though this
isn't written in stone).

What's reported in the literature is that anything in the onion family
(which includes garlic) causes injury to the lipid membrane (the outside of
the cell package, so to speak) of red blood cells, and also destroys
hemoglobin, the pigment which carries oxygen in the blood.  These changes
caused hemolytic anemia and hemoglobinuria---translation, the red blood
cells were destroyed, so you had fewer of them, plus the debris was flushed
out in the urine, hence red colored pee.  If enough is fed, it can kill the
animal.  If fed chronically, it can also cause dermatitis (skin problems)
and asthma (in dogs, anyway).

But, dose is everything and you have to feed alot to cause significant
problems, more than most people would reasonably feed.  In dogs, a 20 lb dog
eating a good sized spoonful of raw, cooked or dehydrated garlic or onion
would show up with some hematological changes apparent only on a blood
smear, and the same dog eating about a cup or so a day would be severely
anemic and potentially dead in about three days.

If you extrapolate those doses to an adult sized horse, then you can see
that you'd have to feed a bunch of garlic to cause significant problems.
It's not a linear thing, though---that is, the lethal dose for a 1000 lb
horse is not automatically ten times the dose for a 100 -lb dog, it tends to
be less than that.  Still, if you were to stay on the conservative side, I
would roughly guess that you would start to see some non-lethal changes in a
blood smear if you fed a horse more than a cup or so a day of garlic.  Most
people don't feed that much.  At what dose would it start to cause a
noticeable anemia, I really don't know.  How long the garlic had been fed
would make a difference as well, since the effect is to some extent
cumulative if hemolysis is outstripping regeneration.  To kill a horse
outright, you would probably have to run him over with a garlic truck.

I asked the same question of a boarded veterinary pathologist (for those
that are under the impression that I make this stuff up as I go along or
something) and he agreed with my estimate as well.

In the case of your friend whose horse might also be eating acorns, well,
acorns can cause a hemorraghic enteritis if enough are eaten.  The green
acorns are more toxic than ripe acorns and the leaves can also cause a
problem.  Since one of the symptoms of oak poisoning is hematuria (blood in
the urine again), then it's reasonable to assume that enough of it would
cause systemic anemia.  How much does it take, I don't know.  Probably a
fair amount, but horses are more susceptible to it than cattle, sheep and
goats are.

There's also a syndrome called acorn calf syndrome, where a pregnant cow
eating alot of acorns will give birth to a calf with lax tendons that's also
stunted and grows poorly.  Something to consider for anyone with a pregnant
mare that might take it into her head during her pregnancy to start wolfing
down tons of acorns.  Dakota's mom used to eat a few acorns when she was
pregnant, and Dakota is anything but stunted.  So I'd assume it would take a
significant amount of acorns.

Hope this helps.

Susan G