Its Valentines Day tomorrow and there will be hundreds of thousands of bouquets given and received containing Lilies; did you know that Lilies are highly toxic to felines?
Cats can be poisoned by eating any part of the Lily plant or flower, all parts of the plant are considered to be toxic, even the pollen.
How are they poisoned????
Cats are poisoned by ingesting ANY part of the Lily flower.
Small cats and kittens are especially prone to being poisoned due to their inquisitiveness and the tendency to chew things in their environment.
Older cats are often poisoned by simply brushing against the pollen stems when sat on a mantelpiece or window ledge.
The pollen sits on their coat, they go to groom themselves and voila ingestion of pollen.
How does the Lily effect my cat?
The poisons main effect is on the kidneys and is absorbed into the system very quickly.
The first clinical sign of ingestion is typically severe vomiting, but others can include loss of appetite, excessive salivation (dribbling), twitching of muscles, depression or sudden collapse.
The biggest complication of Lily poisoning is irreversible kidney damage; alot of cases will unfortunately die due to this.
What should I do if I think my cat has ingested any part of the Lily?
If you think that your cat has either eaten or come into contact with a Lily get them to a Veterinary Surgeon ASAP, the quicker that treatment is started the better chance there is of reducing the severity of kidney damage.
To prevent your cat from rubbing the pollen onto their fur you can easily cut the stamen and pollen off of the flower but this does not prevent them from chewing or eating the plants.
Lets get this message out to all cat owners so we can try and minimize the effects of Valentines Day on cats!!!
Oh no I wasn't aware of this at all! Luckily we don't have cats but my mum has 4 do will be letting her no! Thanks for the post x
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of this however, my cats have never tried to eat flowers??
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