Cat ate something cooking with onion

February 16, 2021 5:09 PM

My cat ate a couple of small pieces (about 1 tsp total) of meat that had been sauteed in a pan with plenty of onion. Cat did not eat any actual onion. Onion is toxic to cats; do I need to be worried?
posted by Frowner to Pets & Animals (7 answers total)

This is actually easy to google. This article posted by the NIH says that as little as 5g onion per kg of weight in cats can result in clinically important impacts. Onion toxicosis is consistency noted in animals that ingest more than 0.5% of the their body weight in onions at one time. If you scroll down to the section on onion toxicosis, you will learn more than you probably wanted to know about why and how onions are a problem.

In your case, the cat less one tsp of meat that may have been in contact with onion but no actual onion. Sounds like you are way below the danger threshold with this one.
posted by metahawk at 5:16 PM on February 16, 2021 [20 favorites]

Concur with @metahawk. 1g of actual onion per 5 pounds of cat's body weight is the usual cited number. Basically the oxidant in allium family (onion, leeks, garlic, scallions...) can destroy cat's red blood cells, leading to anemia. If your cat didn't consume onions, but merely some stuff cooked AROUND onions, I would not worry about it.

FWIW, you may want to google "common human food dangerous to cats" and check for them around your pantry to take advantage of the Baaden-Meihof effect. Dark chocolate, caffeine, Avocado, alcohol, grapes and raisins, mushrooms...
posted by kschang at 4:54 AM on February 17, 2021

Response by poster: Thanks! I did google, but I was very anxious and really wanted reassurance that was, uh, not a reliable post from NIH?

The thing about our cat is that she never likes human food - we have known her for eleven years now and she will maybe deign to accept a little canned salmon or tuna or a small bite of plain chicken, but she is robustly uninterested in dairy products, eggs, most meats, prepared foods, fruit. We will never make a cute "my cat eating potato chips" video. (We have been vegetarian-leaning-vegan almost all that time, but various housemates have eaten meat.)

We have been cooking a little meat during the pandemic for various reasons (although perversely just last week decided to go back to vegetarianism once we use up what we have) and we had some bison, and apparently she's just crazy for bison. She would have eaten the whole dish if I'd let her. I didn't expect her to be interested, so she got a head start.
posted by Frowner at 6:54 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

oh gosh no, the most you'll have to worry about is some nasty farts.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:18 AM on February 17, 2021

Oh, NIH is VERY reputable.

The POINT here is your cat did not consume any onion, merely stuff TOUCHED by the onion. So cat is not at risk.
posted by kschang at 7:41 AM on February 17, 2021

Response by poster: Sorry to be unclear - I am well aware of NIH, most of my job history is providing administrative support to federally funded researchers. I was trying to make a funny about even a post from NIH not being enough.
posted by Frowner at 8:24 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Well, if you need to find some food to entice your cat to eat or take a hidden pill, now you know to go for bison. So at least you learned that! (When my dog was very sick, it was hard to find enticing foods so it is always good to know what will get their attention when their appetite is low.)
posted by metahawk at 5:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]