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My dog has anemia. Is onion poisoning the cause? How can I tell?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Pomeranian | Male | unneutered | 3 years old | 3.3 lbs

tired with pale tongue,I took him to the vet &was diagnosed with anemia (HCT 18). Vet did a blood transfusion &variety of tests..He said the causes are: blood parasites Or autoimmune desease, 1 extra test will confirm (results in 1 week). He put him on prednisone &granudoxy meanwhile. Knowing that he has been eating vegetable soup containing onion for like 2 months,do you think that his anemia may be caused by onion poisoning due to the accumulated amount of onion he consumed? How can we know?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Dayna, DVM, CVA

Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

Published on December 19th, 2017

It is certainly a possibility, especially with as small as he is. I would continue the prednisone and doxy. Obviously I would stop any onion or garlic consumption as well. Hopefully his bone marrow is already kicked into high gear and is producing lots of new red blood cells. If this is due to onion toxicity he will recover and be able to wean off the prednisone much faster then if it is truly immune mediated. Best of luck and I hope he improves soon! Thank you for using Pet Coach.

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    Answered By Jenny, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on December 21st, 2017

    Your vet can place blood and saline on a slide and see if auto agglutination occurs... this proves auto immune disease. You can also send off a Coombs test... of positive then it is auto immune. All anemia’s may need a blood transfusion if severe enough and toxin take time to pass through their systems to be gone. Auto immune disease can take months to be into remission

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