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Pets & Avocados

 


 

 

 

Did You Know? Avocado contains a toxic ingredient that could cause illness or death in horses and unwanted symptoms in cats and dogs. Toxic Ingredient While it doesn’t matter what it’s called, experts with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals names the toxic ingredient in avocados as persin. It is believed to be present in all parts of the plant: fruit, bark, skin and leaves, whether they’re fresh or dried. This means if your horse can reach an avocado tree over the fence, move the tree or move the horse.

Symptoms in Horses For mares, or female horses, eating a small amount can cause mastitis, which is an infection in the teats. If the horse is nursing a baby, she will likely produce less milk and the quality will range from poor to downright disgusting with curdling. If you notice swelling in any horse’s neck — male or female — respiratory distress or colic, it’s likely the horse ingested a higher dose of the toxin. Call your vet even if you think she ate only a small quantity.

Dogs and Cats You can count avocados among the many things that cause your dogs and cats to throw up and have diarrhea. To make it even more interesting, it can also cause constipation. Even though the toxicity is more mild in dogs and cats, this isn’t something you want going on in their bodies — or your house. Definitely keep dogs away from the large seed, as it can get lodged in the esophagus, stomach or intestine.

Benefits of Avocado For all the harm it can cause to pets, smart scientists have figured out a way to properly extract a beneficial ingredient from avocado and combine it with a soybean extraction to create avocado/soybean unsaponifiables. ASU is popular in pet joint supplements, so if you notice it as an ingredient, don’t panic. Some dog and cat foods contain avocado meal and oil, but again, really smart people have carefully extracted these ingredients and only use small amounts to avoid harming your pets. www.equiderma.com

 

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