Fed cooked chicken fed to cat... Am I poisoning him?

[overboard]

Please don’t murder me here… I feel bad enough as it is!

Neighbor’s cat, an older ginger fellow, comes by often and regularly gets treats from us. Owner is aware and says he has no dietary issues (“eats like a horse,” she says ).

I routinely roast chicken for my lunches, and sometimes will give him a tiny amount - maybe a couple of grams/fingernail sized bites at a time, 3-4 times a month - as a special treat.

Thing is, I sometimes stick one or two cloves of unpeeled garlic under the skin of the raw chicken before I roast it… And today found out via the interwebs that garlic is toxic to cats.

The garlic clove remains whole while the chicken cooks, so it’s not like it’s split open and oozing all over it, and I don’t do anything with it after the chicken is done (e.g., I don’t squeeze it out onto the meat after or anything). He’s never shown any symtoms of hemolytic anemia, but I’m horrified to think that I might have unintentionally harmed him.

How bad is it? Should I pay for a trip to the vet as I might have caused irreparable damage? I feel like the worst person ever!

[wsmoak]

I wouldn’t feed a dog or cat onions or garlic intentionally, but I am certain the cats have had meat flavored with garlic over the years, and absolutely nothing happened.

I would tell the owner what you learned, stop doing it, and buy a bag of cat treats to give him instead.

[2DogsFarm]

Don’t beat yourself up.
Honest mistake & you can do as @wsmoak suggests from now on.

My own 8# of housecat begs for food & I use garlic in a lot - okay most - of my cooking.
He rarely eats more than the tiniest (pinky finger nail size) amount before he loses interest.
Weirdo

[hoopoe]

garlic and onion can be harmful to cats. It causes a disfunction in the maturation of the red blood cells. It is unlikely that your small treat is harmful, but if you want to continue treats, trim a small bit of flesh off and simply poach it briefly

where the garlic issue use to become an issue is when we recommended the use of baby food in treating and rehabbing sick or injured cats. My boss ( an internal med / feline only practitioner) found out that “flavor enhancers” in some baby food were actually from garlic and onion family. After that we were very specific in our recommends

[CHT]

It is good of you to be worried, but that sounds like such a miniscule amount. I don’t know how much garlic would even make it into the chicken.

[Simkie]

He is fine. That little garlic will have no effect.