Re:garlic

[CMNewell <reshan@deyr.ultranet.com>]

>Garlic is a Gift!  From the God(s)!!!  I can't see how it would be poison
>for horses!  Someone prove me wrong!

I would, but I'm too lazy to dig the relevant references out of my files. <G>

Horses and other animals *can* be poisoned by garlic and onions. 
The  mechanism of action is hemolysis of red cells by N,N propyl disulfide.
It does take a fair amount of garlic to do this, but there are recorded 
instances of sheep and horses being fatally poisoned by eating the green 
tops of garlic and onion, respectively, as well as dogs dying after getting 
into onion soup mix. The amounts of onion  or garlic powder found in some 
baby food are sufficient to induce Heinz body anemia in the cat.

It is unlikely that anyone is feeding garlic in toxic amounts, but you 
never know--there are folks who think that if a little is good, a lot is 
better.  Remember, the difference between medicine and poison is the dose.

I have been trying to figure out for about 3 years now who would fund me to 
establish levels at which toxicity was measurable in the horse, but no luck 
yet.

However, I would recommend that anyone who has a horse that turns up anemic 
stop garlic supplementation until the PCV goes back to normal.
                           CMNewell, DVM