Onion Toxicity

[mariko]

Hello.
I am starting to get worried, and hoping someone here has an answer to my question.

I know that onions in any form are toxic to cats, if ingested.
But what about if they inhale cooking fumes from onions?
Or if oniony air comes contact with them - tiny amount of onion juice can be floating in the air while chopping... considering how they hurt our eyes.

A long time ago, when I chopped a large amount of onions, Ginger, one of my cats, came into the kitchen and started blinking like her eyes sting then got teary eyes.
Since then, I chop onions with a food processor whenever chopping a lot of them, so it is concealed.
Last night, I chopped a small amount of onions with a knife, and stir-fried them.
The cooking fumes had nowhere to escape because my range fan/vent is broken at the moment, but I didn't worry because I was stir-frying only half an onion for maybe 5 minutes or so.

Then Ginger came into the kitchen, and I noticed her eyes were watery!
This might be a coincidence, she does get teary eyes sometimes from something else, but then I do live in an apartment not a big house, so maybe the air here got onionier than I thought for cats.
This is now getting me worried that maybe onion gas (?) while chopping and/or onion cooking fumes are also toxic if inhaled.

Ginger is acting fine and eating fine, but I'm worried I might have done some damage to her kidney or something.
I think I'll never cook onions again!

Thank you for any input!

 

[BJM]

I did a Google search on "onion toxicty in cats". Here are the results.

According to this ASPCA article, it is ingestion which is the problem, not the airborne irritant effects of the odor.

This article explains why the airborne effects are an irritant.

 

[mariko]

Thank you very much, BJM.
That helps. I feel better now.
But I'm still thinking about banning onions in my apartment!

 

[Meya14]

Onions when ingested in a large quantity or low quantity over a period of time can cause a type of anemia in cats. The toxicity level varies from cat to cat, however, there's a lot of confusion as to how much is too much. There are even commercial cat foods made with onions and garlic, without harmful effects (Halo foods used to have onions in it - don't know if it still does). A little bit eaten is not a big deal. Fumes won't hurt a cat any more than they irritate a person's eyes.