Can Cats Drink Alcohol?

Updated 18 October 2026 · Researched against PDSA, Cats Protection and International Cat Care guidance

Ethanol depresses the nervous system. Cats are much smaller than people and their livers clear alcohol slowly, so an amount that is trivial for a person can cause wobbliness, vomiting and, at higher doses, dangerously slow breathing and collapse.

It is rarely a deliberate act: a cat laps spilled beer, licks a wine glass, eats liqueur chocolates, or gets into raw bread dough that ferments into alcohol in the stomach. Christmas and parties are the predictable settings.

What to watch for in the UK

• Do not leave glasses on the floor at parties or half-finished drinks on a coffee table.
• Liqueur chocolates and rum-soaked cake combine alcohol and chocolate.
• Raw bread dough ferments into alcohol in the stomach — a double hazard.
• Antifreeze has a sweet taste and is a separate, lethal poisoning risk — keep it locked away.

If your cat has already eaten it

1. Phone your vet with the drink type and rough amount.
2. Do not give coffee or try to 'sober up' a cat — that makes things worse.
3. Watch for wobbliness, vomiting, slow breathing or collapse; go to an emergency vet if any appear.

Out of hours, use your practice's emergency number. If you can, take the packaging with you — the ingredient list often tells the vet more than the description does. This page explains risk; it cannot diagnose your cat, and it deliberately contains no doses or home treatments.

If your cat is already vomiting, see the cat vomiting guide and vomiting blood. For the wider red-flag checklist, use sick cat symptoms. If a plant rather than a food is involved, the toxic plants checklist is the right page.

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