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5 Hazardous Plants To Keep Away From Your Pets
5 Hazardous Plants To Keep Away From Your Pets
We all love our pets, especially our dogs and cats. For some families, their cat or dog is a major part of the family. Dogs and cats have many habits, some of these are bad. Dogs and cats have been known to nibble on house plants, either because they are hungry or just bored. It would be tragic if anything were to happen to them after sampling a house plant during the joyous holiday season.
Plants make a great present. Amaryllis, Christmas cactus, and poinsettias, to name a few, are all lovely to look at, but each one has varying degrees of toxicity to our faithful pets.
How do you tell if your pet ate some leaves or other parts of a holiday plant?
The most obvious clue is if you see chew marks or it appears a bite has been taken out of a leaf. In most cases, if your pet takes a little nibble of a Christmas cactus or other holiday plant, they probably have not ingested enough to get that ill, outside of an upset stomach, diarrhea or a mild irritation of their mouth. Of course, the dose makes the poison, so it will take a teacup poodle a lot less plant chomping to get really sick than it would a larger dog, like a Great Dane.
Leaves that have fallen probably won’t attract much attention, but the bigger concern are the berries that may fall from a holly or mistletoe plant. They can be more toxic than the leaves of the plants, so do your best to keep those picked up.
Hazardous plants often found at this time of year:
Christmas cactus - chewing on the leaves can cause mild vomiting and diarrhea.
Amaryllis - this plant is more toxic to cats, but dogs can still suffer ill effects if eaten. The bulb is more dangerous than the leaves. Symptoms include: vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and decreased appetite. More severe symptoms include: tremors, kidney failure and convulsions.
Mistletoe – can cause depression and vomiting after eating.
Poinsettia - most likely your pets will not like eating this plant as it tastes bad. Stomachache, vomiting or diarrhea in dogs and excessive drooling in cats.
Cyclamen - this is another bad tasting plant, but if eaten can cause intestinal distress.
If you suspect your dog or cat has eaten any part of these plants, call your vet. Describe what was eaten and how much and describe any symptoms that your pet show. The chance of it being any worse than an upset stomach or a bad case of diarrhea is fairly small, but it's better to be safe than sorry.