# The vet gave us garlic

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vet-gave-us-garlic/633291>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 31, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vet-gave-us-garlic/633291 "2012-08-31T18:22:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vet-gave-us-garlic/633291/1 "2012-08-31T18:22:14Z")

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We took the cat to the vet for shots and medicine refill. The vet has a nice garden, and she’d laid garlic from it out on a portable table and told us to take as much as we wanted.

Weird garlic. Some of it looks like regular garlic, only without the exterior ‘paper’ – like naked cloves. Some was purple and pea-sized. We both tasted one of the pea-sized cloves (without peeling it). _Very_ strong. It was actually a bit ‘hot’. I can’t wait to use it in something!

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**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vet-gave-us-garlic/633291/2 "2012-09-01T01:37:42Z")

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The small purple ones might actually be the topsets, which you don’t find in the store. They grow at the top of the stalk, as opposed to the bulb which grows at the bottom of the plant and is the part most people know as “garlic.”

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vet-gave-us-garlic/633291/3 "2012-09-01T03:10:19Z")

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Weird combination. Garlic is toxic to cats and dogs. More for you though, I guess. Probably, as Cecil explained in the chocolate column, it is worse for dogs, but only because cats have no use for garlic unless it’s part of a steak, whereas dogs will eat first and ask questions later.

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**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vet-gave-us-garlic/633291/4 "2012-09-01T03:32:17Z")

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Is your cat a vampire? Your vet is just trying to help. 😃