Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
The litter tray

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

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:
Poppins2016 · 15/02/2022 21:09

[quote thecatneuterer]**@Enough4me* @Nomoreusernames1244* I've just discovered I was wrong about something. I said upthread I didn't think you would find foxgloves in bunches of flowers. Well I was wrong it seems. I was in Tesco today where there were masses of massively discounted valentines bouquets - and loads of them had foxgloves in! I had no idea they were common cut flowers.

However the cat would still have to eat them, which is a lot less likely than ingesting lily pollen after brushing past them, but still ...[/quote]
Foxgloves are very unusual in florists bouquets, let alone supermarket bouquets... I would put money on the flower being antirrhinum (the cultivated cut flower looking rather more striking than the bedding plant)!

sweetkitty · 15/02/2022 21:16

I’ve known this for about 20 odd years but always seem to get flowers with lilies, my best friend is very grateful for the bouquets as I drive to her house and give them straight to her as they never even enter my house.

I currently have one sad little aloe Vera plant with chewed leaves

Pudmyboy · 15/02/2022 21:16

Just going to say this! I have received a lovely mixed bouquet which includes snapdragons (antirrhinum), and an unopened lily which is now in the bin, thank you @thecatneuterer as I was just going to cut the stamens out once it opened

Pudmyboy · 15/02/2022 21:18

Oops meant to quote Poppins2016!

Poppins2016 · 15/02/2022 21:25

@spongedog @thecatneuterer

Peruvian lilies (alstroemeria) are only lilies by name, not by classification. They may cause some irritation or gastrointestinal upset, however they won't cause fatal kidney failure like lilies do.
More info found at Pet Poison Helpline and Bloom and Wild. 🙂

PostThenGhost · 15/02/2022 21:27

It didn’t occur to me that foxgloves were such a danger to my cat as I didn’t think she would eat them. I’ve got hundreds of them, self seeded, all over the back garden!

I dug up my hemerocallis last year when I discovered that lilies were dangerous to cats. Even the water in a vase that has had lilies in is dangerous.

I also have alliums, I’m going to be busy this year digging everything out!

spongedog · 16/02/2022 09:37

@Poppins2016 thank you! (As they are about the only flower I grow successfully in the garden and bring into the house!)

Nomoreusernames1244 · 16/02/2022 09:49

*It didn’t occur to me that foxgloves were such a danger to my cat as I didn’t think she would eat them. I’ve got hundreds of them, self seeded, all over the back garden!

I also have alliums, I’m going to be busy this year digging everything out!*

Cats don’t usually eat plants. Foxgloves are common, but poisoning cases are rare.

Reason why lillies are such a big problem is the pollen is sticky, so cats don’t need to actively eat them. If they walk past, then groom the pollen of their coat, that is when they ingest it. Which is also why we likely don’t see the same scale in dogs, they don’t self groom in the same way.

Allium I’d leave unless they’re persistent plant eaters. It’s chronic, so they need to eat it regularly over a period of time to cause issues. Again plant poisoning is rare, more likely it’s when owners cook for their dogs and add onions/garlic to the meat.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 16/02/2022 09:59

Exactly @Nomoreusernames1244 And that was my original point. If we start looking at everything that could harm a cat the message about just how deadly lilies are (and it seems to only be the big blowsy lilies that really look like lilies) gets a bit lost and diluted.

In practice, from what is seen in vet clinics, the two things that poison cats are lilies and anti-freeze. And I personally am pretty relaxed about everything else. And I certainly have aliums in my garden, and arum lilies, and tulips (well, tulips don't seem to do particularly well, but I sometimes attempt to have them).

And I've never thought about foxgloves just because they aren't that common (and it seems I was right after all about them not being seen in florists' bouquets) and a cat would actually have to eat them. And, outside, there is generally grass around, and I cat will always chew on grass as a first choice.

So the thing to keep on stressing is just keep lilies away from your cats (and you can probably afford to relax a bit about the other stuff).

OP posts:
SirVixofVixHall · 16/02/2022 10:20

A friend’s cat had lily poisoning from the polled off a bouquet. Thankfully she did survive after time on a drip but it was touch a go. I agree that there should be sticky labels on all bouquets warning of the danger to cats. My friend had no idea that the pollen could potentially kill her cat.
I don’t have cats any more but I don’t grow lilies in the garden as my next door neighbour does have a cat. I do have Alstroemeria, eg Day Lilies, as they are a different plant family but it seems from this thread that they might also be an issue ?
I do have Foxgloves, and other plants that are toxic to mammals if eaten, although I avoid Monkshoods as they are so incredibly poisonous that I worried about my dds and dog when they were all much younger.

RaelImperialAerosolKid · 16/02/2022 10:21

We had suspected lily poisoning a few years ago - luckily we got them to the vets in time and the insurance dealt with the £1000+ bill for dialysis.
I have noticed that there are some warnings on flowers now - but you have to look carefully.

Fuzzy303 · 16/02/2022 10:25

I was horrified when my DH specifically ordered Cat Safe flowers for valentines day & came back the most beautiful huge bouquet of mainly Lillies - cue huge row, flowers in the bin & i'm ungrateful

Poppins2016 · 16/02/2022 11:03

@spongedog I'm jealous, I never have any success growing alstroemeria, so I have to buy it!

And just to add my 'two pence' to the general message... I'm another cat person (I have 3) who grows all sorts of flowers in the garden that could affect cats if they ate them, however they don't seem to go near the foxgloves, tulips, daffodils, alliums, etc. The only absolute blanket ban I have (both house and garden) is lilies. It doesn't matter if cats brush up against a tulip or allium for example, but lily pollen is so dusty (so easily caught by fur) and so toxic that it wouldn't be worth the risk.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 16/02/2022 13:51

@Fuzzy303 That's terrible! I hope you complained to the florists - publicly preferably. And I certainly hope you got a refund.

OP posts:
Fuzzy303 · 16/02/2022 13:59

I was absolutely disgusted & I told DH he really should complain but he insists it was probably just a mistake. It caused such a row between us as I was livid

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 16/02/2022 14:01

Of course he should complain!! Florists need to be educated about this and be careful! If customers do nothing about it nothing with change. Do you know which florist it was? Can't you make the complaint yourself? (Or do you think he just forgot to mention the cat thing and is now blaming the florist?)

OP posts:
KittensTeaAndCake · 16/02/2022 22:45

@Fuzzy303

I was horrified when my DH specifically ordered Cat Safe flowers for valentines day & came back the most beautiful huge bouquet of mainly Lillies - cue huge row, flowers in the bin & i'm ungrateful

That is shocking!!
Please complain to the florists, you may save another cat's life.

KittensTeaAndCake · 16/02/2022 22:50

(Or do you think he just forgot to mention the cat thing and is now blaming the florist?)

Yes I bet this is what happened because even if the florist didn't know what flowers were safe for cats you think they'd goggle it (unless they were a cat hating psycho Confused).

FantasticFebruary · 16/02/2022 22:55

@LittleSnakes

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.
Give them to someone without cats.
Ibizafun · 16/02/2022 23:04

Does anyone know about orchids? We have alliums growing in our garden every summer.. haven't had a problem yet but perhaps that's just luck?

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 20/02/2023 14:00

I just bumped the wrong thread. This was the one I intended to bump. With Mothers' Day coming up we need to get the message out there again.

OP posts:
OhNoNotThatAgain · 20/02/2023 14:15

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.

Peace lilies aren't actually in the lily family botanically, we just call them that. It is why botanists use Latin names and not common names. They are not dangerous to cats in the way that true lilies are, although they are harmful if chewed and eaten.

Poppins2016 · 20/02/2023 18:39

Giving this 'public service announcement' a bump! 🙂

CatAssTrophic · 20/02/2023 19:00

I have only read the first page of this thread (sorry, I hate it when people don't read to the end) and just wanted to say, it's not just the pollen that can kill, it is all parts of the plant.

Ludo19 · 20/02/2023 21:41

If anyone is in any doubt .....all parts of the lilies are toxic. I'm a vet nurse and I've seen first hand the effects that ingestion does.

Also cats protection do a good online guide, well they used to on indoor and garden plants that are cat safe.