Written by Dr. Anna, Camden Pet Hospital
Spring has sprung! I love seeing our patients smiling and reveling with muddy paws and twigs stuck to their fur as they lope along the parkway or bounce around in the dog park with their equally messy furry friends. Spring brings new life outside and in; we can all appreciate the regrowth and pop of green sprigging through the dingy brown remnants of the winter gone by.
We often can’t help but bring some of that beauty inside with a beautiful bouquet to appreciate and enjoy. But be careful, I beg you, if you have any kitties in your house make sure to avoid any lilies, easter lilies especially – and they are all over the stores around the Easter holiday. But LILLIES KILL KITTIES. Say it with me folks… Lilies KILL kitties.
Our state veterinary association (MVMA) has an ongoing campaign we run alongside the Pet Poison Hotline (a national 24-hour pet poison call center based in Bloomington) to help raise awareness and hopefully save the lives of many beloved cats in our households.
I appreciate that one of the things that’s so great about living in Minnesota is thankfully there are very few plants, insects and animals in our environment that can kill you, or your pet.
The weather may be a little nicer in Australia or Florida, but giant snakes, poisonous spiders and hundreds of varieties of poisonous plants all around makes the winters here seem a little more tolerable!
Lily toxicity is one of the only very common toxicities we see and it’s by far one of the worst. One nibble of a petal, sniffing the pollen, even licking the water that the plant is in will often cause fatal kidney failure to a cat.
As veterinarians, we see this every year around this time and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. The cat comes in with a history of vomiting and not eating for a day or two, we run bloodwork and see that their kidney values are through the roof. We do all the things we can, we try and flush, flush, flush those kidneys to get them working again, but they are usually beyond repair and it is just an awful, painful, achy and uncomfortable way to go.
This is why we veterinarians care so much and do our best to warn people to steer clear of Easter lilies! We even have little signs that we print out and put on store displays as our own veterinary guerilla warfare to save cats and heartbreak! Please do not give Easter lilies as gifts to cat owners, and check your bouquets for lilies too if you are giving them to someone. They sure are beautiful, but they are just so deadly. Sorry for the sad column this month, but thank you for reading and helping do your part to save cats from deadly lily encounters!