Yew Hedge and cats - experiences please?

[9GreenBottles]

I know that Yew is very poisonous, but do any of you have a Yew hedge and encountered problems with cats eating it and becoming ill (or know of anybody whose cat has done this)?

Trying to risk assess the garden, I've read long lists of plants that are poisonous, but does anybody know of any website that ranks plants from "will kill if ingested" to "will make cat off colour for a couple of days"?

The only animal I have heard of eating yew and getting I'll is horses. I don't think cats bother with chewing it, they won't get I'll from just climbing it.

Cats are not that daft. I've been a vet for nearly 20 years and the only plant related problems I have seen are are lily toxicity ( tends to be they brush past, get polllen on themselves and then lick it off) and a variety of grass blades stuck in pharynx.
I've come across a few Siamese and oriental cats that have pica (eat non food items) but exclusively in bored indoor only cats.
Don't worry about the hedge.

This might be helpful icatcare.org/advice/poisonous-plants

That's really reassuring about the yew, although looking at the list of hazardous plants in the garden, I think I had about half of them in my old garden . Since the cats never had any problems, that confirms your experience Milo. Cheers!

I'm just about to dig up my Hemerocallis (Day Lillies) that have been in tents for a year as Ernie cat is stupid and eats plants

I agree with Milo yew is not a problem I have seen. I have seen other ingestion cases to lilies. Even farm animals and horses only ever eat yew if it is left as loose clippings on the ground, but it is rapidly fatal ( usually the clippings are still in the mouth). So if you gave yew hedge please pick up all trimmings carefully and dispose of them correctly.

That's really useful to know about the trimmings Lonecat. I'm not sure the cats would try to eat them, but they often do things you don't expect!

I've got some Hemerocallis in an 18inch high pot that have never attracted attention so I'm not going to worry too much about them.