Important! Please read if you have any Cats!

[Gaspode]

Hiya,

Just read a very disturbing article in the news on the way in to work regarding a poor kitten that died after trying to lick lily pollen off its fur. Apparently (and I never knew this) lilies and some other flowers are toxic to cats and cause kidney failure

Lilies are my favourite flowers and I often have stargazers or easter (those long white ones) in my house. We have three cats. The people at work kindly gave me a bunch of flowers for our engagement which had two stargazers in and Cosmo (our little boy kitten) ended up with yellow fur from brushing up against them! Thankfully he is fine but I never knew just how dangerous they can be. I shall be most likely avoiding lilies in future or at the very least keeping them in a room the kittens do not enter.

I've found this useful article on the Net: Link which gives more information.

I wanted to let you know and I will certainly be letting as many people as possible know as in Britain certainly it is not widely known. Although it did say the USA was more aware of these problems.

Please help spread the word
Gaspodé

 

[Dreamer04]

Thanks for the info!

 

[disneysnowflake]

I didn't know that. I've an avid gardener. I love lilies. I even cut them and bring them inside during the Summer. Thank goodness my cat never bothered them. She's inside, but is always attracted to the flowers I bring in.

 

[SetzKitten]

Thanks for the PSA. It's amazing how much knowledge I gain from the DIS. That poor kitty.

 

[PhotobearSam]

I had no idea...Thank you for helping keep Moozer and BeBe safe...They are my kids even though they are cats. Anything to protect them is good info.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

MY DH took our kitty to the vet the other day. He scheduled her surgery to be spayed. I was planning on allowing her to be an outdoor cat once she got spayed. Vet says we should keep her an indoor cat. (wouldn't they all?)

He told my DH that the life span of an indoor cat is 16 years, where the life span of an outdoor cat is 3-5 years. This surprised me. Maybe all the "dangers'" of the outdoors is what brings the average down. This story kind of confirms it.

 

[Rasta_Chik]

OMG!! Im taking my baby to the vet asap we live across the street from a church and they have lillies growing out front and sebastian is always playin and rolling around over there!

 

[golfgal]

huuummmm...do you think it would work for a yippy, VERY annoying dog next door?????

 

[Beastlover]

OMG!!! I had an easter lilly in my front window around Easter, and Laila used to always mess with it. She is fine, but I will definately be more careful...

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

That's good to know,Gaspode. Thankfully my cat is an indoors-only cat.

TOV

 

[Towncrier]

The flower shop where my wife used to work once delivered an Easter Lily plant to a house. Nobody was home, but the front door was unlocked, so the (inexperienced) driver just left the plants inside the front door. Unfortunately, the owner had a couple of Siamese cats who both got into the lilys and subsequently had to be rushed to the vet. The cats survivied, but the flower shop owner was hit with a $700 bill for his mistake.

 

[grinningghost]

Thanks for the info Melissa. I have two kitties and I'm a lily lover as well.

 

[Tinkerbelle739]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. We have several varieties of Lillies in our yard and 2 kittens. They don't go out, but the lillies come in! I will have to keep them away or not bring in the lillies.

 

[Keli]

I did not know this. We have tons of daylilies in the yard and the garden because dh is working with a friend and they are creating hybrids or something. Our cat loves to dart around the garden! Eeeek!

 

[nuke]

I was going to buy some lillies this Easter and the flower shop had a big sign that said "Warning- Tiger Lillies can be toxic to household cats" So I didnt' buy any.

 

[Gaspode]

You are all very welcome, this needs bringing to ppls attention!

nuke - after this recent kitten death some British cat charities have vowed to campaign for all lilies to be marked with this warning. At present there is no mention of it anywhere (even the link I gave in my OP was from Australia!).

To those of you planning to cut off the pollen I have two things to say: 1) just mind that your kitties don't chomp on the leaves and stuff too... I believe that can be just as bad as ingesting the pollen and 2) did you know that the best way to clean up pollen which has spilt is with a dry cloth? I never knew this but my florist told me. Basically if you use a damp cloth it spreads the pollen and helps it stain your work surfaces more!

Best Wishes,
Gaspodé

 

[angel_of_music]

thanks for the info, is there any more toxic flowers we should know about, becuase my cat tigger loves to destroy any flowers we get.

 

[Pebble]

Poor Cat . Last month I was vollenteer painting a fence at an animal shelter, and some kid takes my brushes and paints a cat brown! This was toxic paint so I took the cat to the owner saying that the cat would lick the paint off and died, he said "Oh well we have enough cats!", took the cat and went back into the building and never gave it a bath.

 

[milkabum]

Lately I heard mistletoe could be dangerous for your cat or dog too.

 

[luvwinnie]

Thanks so much for this info.