Toxic vegetables that dogs should never eat

Garlic and onions

Dogs and onions are not a good mix. Any type of onion or garlic powder, whether it’s mashed, powdered, cooked, or even is just a part of other meals can cause huge complications in a dog’s health if ingested.

This is because previously mentioned vegetables in high doses are highly poisonous to dogs.

Symptoms

Signs of dog poisoning caused by garlic, onions, or both are:

• vomiting
• weakness
• breathing problems

There is a chance of these symptoms being delayed for 2-3 days.

Causes

By ingesting previously mentioned toxic vegetables, dogs will have their red blood cells killed – causing anemia.

The fatality rate caused by onions in dogs is very small. Therefore, dogs will have to ingest a lot of onion or garlic to die, which is not common.

Treatment

Inducing vomiting after eating garlic will help the dog because it will clear its stomach.

The best thing to do is getting your dog to a veterinarian. He or she will help by removing toxins from the dog’s body.

A blood transfusion may be needed to heal anemia. However, a local veterinarian should take care of this.

Make sure to remove all the dog’s access to garlic from your home. If you have a garden, make sure to build or patch its fence.

Unripe tomatoes

Ripe tomatoes may carry the same substances as unripe tomatoes do, but in a lot smaller quantities – making them somewhat safe for dogs.

Out of all toxic vegetables on this list, tomatoes are the most exposed to dogs.

That being said, unripe tomatoes are very toxic to dogs, as well as their stems and leaves.

Symptoms

Unripe tomatoes, due to the high presence of tomatine, can cause damage to the nervous system, kidneys, and digestive tract.

Tomatoes, unfortunately for dogs, are one of the most commonly grown vegetables worldwide. Therefore if you own a dog and grow tomatoes where the dog can access them, make sure there is a fence separating the garden from the dog.

If your dog has developed tomatine poisoning, it may show some of the following symptoms:

• diarrhea
• vomiting
• lethargy
• weakness
• confusion
• loss of coordination
• dilated pupils
• loss of appetite
• hypersalivation

Listed symptoms can be more or less intense for different dogs, usually depending on their size. Bigger dogs may show no symptoms at all after eating unripe tomato, but that does not mean you should not be concerned.

You should also avoid giving access to any other tomato product, such as ketchup or sauce because they both contain substances that are unhealthy to dogs.

Causes

Tomatine is glycoalkaloid, found in the stems and leaves of tomato plants. It’s also highly toxic to dogs, making unripe tomatoes food that dogs should never eat at all.

Strong wind may blow off unripe tomatoes to the ground, making them accessible to dogs. If you have a garden, you should check it (possibly before watering) if there are any unripe tomatoes on the ground.

Treatment

If your dog ate unripe tomato recently, the veterinarian will most likely induce vomiting, if there are no other illnesses with the dog such as trouble breathing.

Activated charcoal may help the dog to remove toxins in the stomach. It’s doing so by binding with toxins, making the body unable to absorb them.

Possibly the best decision to do is informing your veterinarian about your dog eating unripe tomatoes. The same goes if a dog ingested tomato stems or leaves.

The veterinarian will also make sure that the dog is not dehydrated and proceed with more treatments if needed.

Rhubarb

This is one of the toxic vegetables that can be divided into two parts – stem and leaves. Although stem can be considered safe, rhubarb‘s leaves are poisonous for your dog.

Your dog can become very ill if it eats a lot of this plant, especially its leaves.

Symptoms

There are many signs you should watch for:

• drooling
• loss of appetite
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• lethargy
• weakness
• bloody urine
• changes in thirst and urination

There can be more symptoms, even fatal ones if your dog has developed rhubarb poisoning.

Causes

Rhubarb is most commonly found in pies. Therefore, you should never give them to your dog to eat.

As people may grow rhubarb in their backyard garden, dogs have a chance to eat them.

In conclusion, you should put a fence for your garden to make sure the dog cannot get in.

Treatment

Make sure to rinse the dog’s mouth and face. By doing this, you are removing the plant’s pieces and liquid, relieving pain.

If the dog starts whimpering out of pain, get advice with your veterinarian if it should get a pain reliever.

The safest option is visiting your local veterinarian. There, the dog will receive special care and possibly intravenous fluid treatment in order to support the dog’s kidneys and prevent dehydration.

The veterinarian may also attempt to remove toxins from the dog’s body with intravenous fluid treatment as well.

Potatoes

Raw potatoes, including their skin, contain a toxin called solanine. Because of this, out of all toxic vegetables from the list potato is most likely the most fatal to dogs.

The same toxin solanine is found in tomatoes and eggplants.

Symptoms

There are many symptoms, but not all of them may be present if your dog has developed potato poisoning.

• trembling
• bleeding
• weakness
• cardiac dysrhythmia
• diarrhea
• abdominal pain
• difficulty breathing
• poor vision
• burning sensation of the tongue, mouth, and lips
• fever
• slowed breathing
• seizures
• dilated pupils
• paralysis
• burning of the throat
• vomiting
• low body temperature
• excess drooling
• headache
• slow pulse
• dizziness

Potato poisoning can be fatal, therefore if your dog has eaten potato you should immediately take him to a veterinarian. Do not wait.

Causes

Solanine may prevent the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, causing the reduced function of the nervous system and bodily organs. It’s doing so by building itself up in the organ tissues.

This substance is toxic to dogs in high doses and it’s common for toxic vegetables to contain it.

Dogs are smaller than humans and therefore more sensitive to such toxins. Therefore the best advice is not to feed dogs any potatoes, especially the ones that are still unripe or have greenish skin.

Even if your dog has not eaten the whole potato, it’s skin, foliage or sprouts can still cause listed symptoms.

Treatment

As said before, potato poisoning can be fatal and you should take him to a veterinarian as soon as possible.

It’s important to tell the veterinarian how much potatoes the dog has eaten, when and what symptoms does he have.

The veterinarian will take care of the dog by inducing vomiting, thus removing as many toxins from the body as possible, as well as potato parts. He may also use activated charcoal on the dog so it can absorb as many toxins as possible.

However, gastric lavage may be performed on the dog to attempt to remove any more toxins from the dog’s stomach.

After treatment has been finished, make sure to notify the veterinarian if any symptoms come back.

Meanwhile, you can get your dog some healthy snacks that smell good in order to bring back his appetite.