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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Cat owners and lilies: AGAIN

103 replies

thecatneuterer · 06/02/2022 13:06

I know this has been mentioned on here plenty of times, but as it seems so many people are unaware of the dangers I wanted to flag it up yet again.

This has been sparked by a visit this morning to a house with cats, where they had a big vase of lilies, on the floor!, dropping pollen everywhere. When I expressed my horror, and explained why, they said they had no idea it was dangerous.

Lilies kill cats. A lot. A cat doesn't need to eat the lily - it only has to brush past them and get pollen on it's coat, or walk on dropped pollen, and it will ingest enough poison when cleaning itself to die. And as soon as symptoms of poisoning are evident it is too late to save the cat.

I feel the water is somewhat muddied by the long lists of plants on the net that are dangerous to cats. With most of those the cat needs to actually eat the plant and even then is unlikely to die. I've never seen a case of poinsettia poisoning in our clinic for example. The flower that, in practice, actually kills cats is the lily. Lumping the lily in with all those other plants dilutes the message.

And that message is, if you have cats, don't have lilies in the house (or garden).

OP posts:

Ladywoodster · 07/02/2022 18:05

Thank you for posting.
Agree - too many people don't know this.
I often sit for a cat whose human frequently has cut flowers. Last time there were lilies in the bouquet. I shut the bouquet in an unused room and explained why I had done this when the owner got home. She had no idea that they could be harmful.

RoyKentsChestHair · 07/02/2022 18:18

I wish florists and supermarkets would stop putting them in all their mixed bouquets.

My ex used to regularly buy me flowers and no matter how many times I told him no “lilies” he would forget and buy them anyway. Then I’d be seen as churlish for making the point again !!

I think some people just think as above that unless the cat is actually chomping on the flowers they’ll be fine, or that it might give them a bit of a tummy ache etc.

RoyKentsChestHair · 07/02/2022 18:19

“No lilies” even!

DestroyerOfHouseplants · 07/02/2022 18:26

Is it ok if you chop out the stamen?

nzeire · 07/02/2022 18:29

I was one who didn’t know and have often had Lillies in the house. My darling girl was poisoned, highly likely by Lillies and passed away last week. I am beyond devastated.
I will be spreading the word too.

AppleButter · 07/02/2022 18:54

Thank you for the reminder. I learned about this on mumsnet many years ago, but because it was mentioned quickly so often I wasnt sure if it was actually true. I have removed all the day lilies from my garden, years ago, and also all the autumn crocus - not sure whether these are poisonous to cats too, but they are poisonous without antidote to humans.
Are gladioli lilies too?

DramaAlpaca · 07/02/2022 18:57

Wow, thanks TCN. I've had cats all my life but I didn't know this. I dislike lilies and won't have them in the house, but it's good to know.

spongedog · 07/02/2022 19:02

Do you include Alstromeria? (I knew about lilies but the point you make regarding eating vs pollen is interesting.)

sadpapercourtesan · 07/02/2022 19:03

OMG I had no idea! Does this include all lily-type plants? The big orange ones, for example?

Thank you for posting this!

LiveFromNewYork · 07/02/2022 19:06

Well said. Too many cats die unnecessarily due to lilies. And anti freeze.

KittensTeaAndCake · 07/02/2022 19:18

I've been a cat owner my whole life and only found out last year. I had bought some bulbs, planted them in my garden and got the most beautiful orange lilies come up. I was so proud of them I sent a photo to my sister. She immediately told me they kill cats, her DD is a vet nurse and has seen so many cat deaths from them.
Well, that was the end of my beautiful Lilies, I dug them up and threw them away.

More needs to be done to spread the word because I had no clue.

LittleSnakes · 07/02/2022 19:20

Which type of lily? What about peace lillies, the houseplant? Or just outdoor ones?

SunnyHens · 07/02/2022 19:25

I had no idea about this. Thank you so much 🙏

kissmelittleass · 07/02/2022 19:26

I've had cats forever and never knew this I don't have flowers in the house often but when I have it's nearly always a bouquet with lilies in, thanks for putting the word out there I'm sure I'm not the only one who never knew this!
Is it the same with dogs??

Original poster

thecatneuterer · 07/02/2022 19:29

@nzeire I'm so sorry to hear about your girl.

@DestroyerOfHouseplants I think it's less risky if you get out the stamens, but they could still chew the leaves. Really why would you even consider having something so deadly in the house? Better just not to bother at all.

@sadpapercourtesan it definitely includes the big orange ones - I think they're the oriental lilies - they're very bad indeed. In theory it also includes day lilies, but we don't tend to hear about them that much, maybe as they aren't really included in florist bouquets.

@AppleButter I've never heard of death by gladioli. As I said in my post, there are lots of flowers and plants listed as poisonous to cats, but it's lilies that really kill, and often.

@sadpapercourtesan The only lilies that don't seem to be problematic are arum lilies - the white ones that grow in big clumps of glossy green leaves in gardens. A cat would actually have to eat them, and even then would only get an upset stomach, and in practice they don't seem to eat them.

@spongedog I actually don't know. I've googled and they certainly look like lilies. I wouldn't want to risk it but I really don't know for sure.

OP posts:

Original poster

thecatneuterer · 07/02/2022 19:30

@kissmelittleass I know nothing whatsoever about dogs I'm afraid.

OP posts:

Original poster

thecatneuterer · 07/02/2022 19:34

@LittleSnakes I'm not sure how bad peace lilies are. I suspect not as bad as the big, blowsy, florist type lilies, but I don't know for sure. Personally I wouldn't risk it but it's something I sure you could research in depth if you are particularly fond of them.

OP posts:

LittleSnakes · 07/02/2022 19:36

I’ll look into it. I’d heard about lillies but had assumed it was about eating the leaves. I didn’t know it was about pollen. I have a few lillies indoors. I actually don’t like them but can’t bear to get rid. Maybe this will be the perfect excuse.

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 07/02/2022 19:43

I would never have lilies in the house although I do love them - our cat is entirely disinterested in any flowers, but I wouldn’t risk pollen dropping. Per pp they do turn up in so many mixed bouquets. I got such beautiful flowers from some students last year and had to give about half of them to my neighbour. She was delighted!

Itsnotdeep · 07/02/2022 19:49

I didn't realise they were so dangerous. My cats don't show any interest in flowers and I can't stand lilies so I get them taken out of my Freddies Flowers subscription. But no, I didn't know they were so high risk.

AnnaMagnani · 07/02/2022 19:52

I have a cat that likes to chew on plants so I'd never risk lilies indoors or outdoors.

I was given some in a bouquet as a leaving gift once - thanked everyone profusely, took it home, DH and I admired it for a minute and then it went straight in the wheelybin. Couldn't risk it.

Original poster

thecatneuterer · 07/02/2022 20:07

I think maybe I should bump this thread every couple of months ...

Yes I wish florists didn't use them as standard, and that they routinely asked if the recipient had cats so that they could avoid using them in bouquets. And that supermarket bouquets carried big, prominent warnings.

And while we're at it lets get Bittrex added to antifreeze.

OP posts:

KittensTeaAndCake · 07/02/2022 21:24

I think maybe I should bump this thread every couple of months ...

Good idea. I've been on here years but managed to miss it.

RoyKentsChestHair · 07/02/2022 21:46

This will be outing to anyone who knows me - one day I noticed some lilies on the grass verge outside my neighbour’s house. (It’s not technically her land if that helps ) I knocked to tell her that they were dangerous for cats, and that she should probably pull them up, but she didn’t answer.

I knew that I’d probably forget about it if I left it, so I pulled them up and put them in the wheelie bin. She has cats so I figured I was doing her a favour too. Anyway, as I put them in the bin she leant out of an upstairs window asking what I was doing. I told her they were poisonous to cats and that I was getting rid of them as I didn’t want to risk it.

“They’re tulips”