Lilies are Deadly to Cats!
by Margaret Schill
Easter lilies, as well as other lilies, are highly toxic to cats. They cause kidney failure and death, and it happens fast. Consuming even a very small amount of lilies can be life threatening to a cat. The leaves are particularly toxic, although all parts of the lily plant are dangerous. Even if your cat just nibbles on the plant or licks the leaves, it can result in severe illness or even death.
After eating a part of an Easter lily, symptoms begin within 30 to 60 minutes. The first symptom is depression, followed by vomiting, and loss of appetite. The vomiting may subside, but the cat will not eat and will continue to become more depressed. If very prompt treatment is not done, the result will be kidney failure and death. If not treated within 18 hours of ingesting the plant, the damage to the kidneys will be irreversible. The more hours that pass before treatment, the lower the odds of survival. There is no antidote for lily poisoning. The cat will need the toxins flushed from its system by intravenous fluid.
If you even think your cat may have eaten part of an Easter lily, get the cat to the vet or emergency animal hospital immediately! You don't have time to "wait and see". If more than 18 hours has passed since the cat ate the lily, the cat may not survive even with the best emergency care.
Keep all lilies out of a house with cats!! You might think your cat won't jump up on a table or counter and then nibble a leaf, but many cats have done so, then died. Here is a tragic email sent to me:
"Last week my sister gave me a beautiful, small Easter lily arrangement from her yard. The next morning I found several flowers around the house wth the stems chewed on so, I threw the whole thing away (thank God). This was Thursday morning. I found one kitten (8 mo. old) dead that evening and another (5 mo. old) was very sick. She died about 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. Friday night another one seemed sick (a sister to the first one) .
I went pretty crazy that weekend trying to figure out what could have happened. I was at the Vet's office when they opened Monday morning with the third kitten and she was barely hanging on by that time. I told the vet my theory about the lilies and she at first said no, that they would make them sick but, not fatally. However, she left the room to do some research and came back to tell me I was right and she had not known it. They cause kidney failure in cats, only.
PLEASE tell anyone you know with house cats to not bring lilies into the house!"
You have now been told! Hopefully, any vet you may bring your cat to will be better informed than the vet mentioned in the above message.
Lilies that have been shown to cause kidney failure in cats include:- Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum)
Tiger lily (Lilium tigrinum)
Rubrum lily (Lilium speciosum)
Japanese show lily (Lilium lancifolium)
Day lily (Hemerocallis species)
For more information see:Show Cats Online Pet Education.comScience Daily
