Plants and cats

[RightsaidFreud]

So MIL yesterday bought us a lovely peace lily. Lovely gesture I thought, our first house plant, comes in its very own ceramic pot. Currently residing next to the TV.

But something in the back of my mind thought 'hmmmm, i'm sure lilies and cats don't mix', went on the internet and lo and behold, peace lilies are poisonous to cats if they eat them.

Currently the cat hasn't taken any notice of it, and if it isn't covered in tuna he's often not interested in eating it. Should I get rid of the peace lily? Cat has access to all the rooms, so moving it to another room won't really make much difference. Does anyone have one and their cat just ignore it? Once I found it was poisonous I want to put it straight in the bin, but is that a bit drastic?

BIN IT. Please, please throw it away and never let another Lily in your house. PLEASE

This weekend, I had to PTS my gorgeous 4 year old black cat because he had kidney faliure caused by Lilies. The neighbours garden was full of them and we can only conclude that he chewed one or injested pollen from them. In a million years I don't want others to go through what DH & I have been through this last week with our dear boy.

I knew that Lilies were posionous - I never had them in the house. I had no idea my neighbour had them in his garden. Don't take the risk.

I think it's the pollen? So they just have to brush past it and get pollen on their fur which they then lick to clean themselves.

Oh my goodness, i'm so sorry Quiet. Going in the bin. RIGHT NOW.

I love lillies and used to have them with my old cat (until I found out they are poisonous). My old cat, Charlie, would never jump up on a table or kitchen counter so he was probably safe. My current cat also knows the rules and ignores them, I will not have a lilly in the house.

You can cut down the risk by pulling out the stemens (good idea as they stain) but you cannot get rid of the risk.

So sorry Quiet.

Having a look see, I found this list on the ASPCA site. Sorry it's American but I think some of the plants are universally known. Maybe someone else can find a similar list just for the UK?

\link{http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/poison-control/Plants?plant_toxicity=toxic-to-cats\plant toxicity}

Quiet I'm totally gutted for you reading that :(

OP if you don't want to upset MIL, is there somewhere very high up you can put it? I have to put all plants out of my cats' reach anyway and they both think plants are made to be destroyed...

Does anyone know whether lily of the valley also does this? We have some of this in my garden and now I'm scared. I love my moggies.