Lilies can be lethal
Nothing beats getting a bunch of fresh flowers as an unexpected gift and the beautiful fragrant lily is often the centrepiece of an arrangement.
But did you have any idea that the lily family of flowers is extremely toxic to the feline members of your family?
All parts of the lily are dangerous, including the pollen which may fall onto your cat's coat and get cleaned off during grooming. Just a casual chew on a leaf can be enough to cause toxicity and all members of the lily family contain the same toxin, including Christmas, Calla, Tiger and Day lilies.
The initial symptoms of lily poisoning usually include a sudden onset of severe vomiting and then lethargy. If we are lucky enough to know that lily ingestion has occurred, then aggressive fluid therapy and treatment to rid the body of poison may be successful. After 24 hours in the system, the toxins can cause acute kidney injury; the treatment, if possible, is difficult and the prognosis for severely affected cats is very poor.
Acute kidney injury can occur in any aged cat and there are many different causes. The most commonly seen cases relating to toxins are due to lily ingestion, drinking radiator anti-freeze or are from a drug reaction, especially to anti-inflammatory drugs (either those prescribed to your cat by a vet or if human pain medications have been given). The sudden severe kidney injury is very different to chronic (long-standing) kidney disease that is most often seen in elderly cats. Often the kidneys stop producing urine at all, the kidneys themselves become painful and the electrolyte balance of the blood becomes very altered. The toxic by-products usually cleared by the kidneys accumulate in the body very rapidly and the cat often vomits profusely. Even with intensive veterinary care for many days, cats with acute kidney injury often die.
So that being said, prevention is obviously our goal, as in many cases treatment is unrewarding.
Be very careful where you display that lovely flower arrangement, dispose of it carefully and most importantly if you see your cat chew or ingest even a tiny piece of lily, then contact us at the Feilding clinic immediately so we can instruct you on what to do.
