Are poinsettias bad for cats

Holiday Plants Poisonous to Cats

Many people decorate their homes with festive plants around the holidays. Others may give a plant or floral arrangement as a gift.

Although cats may see them as a treat, some of these decorations and gifts may be harmful. Before bringing any plants into your home, it’s essential to know which popular holiday plants are poisonous to your cat.

Which Holiday Plants Are Toxic for Cats?

Holiday Trees

While artificial trees are gaining popularity, many people still prefer getting a real tree for the holidays. If you’re one of those people and you own a cat, opt for a fir or spruce tree over a pine tree.

The oils in pine trees can be harmful to cats, potentially leading to liver damage and even death. Meanwhile, pine needles are sharp and can damage a cat’s internal organs if ingested. They also pose a hazard to paws if stepped on.

Cover the tree stand so your cat won’t drink the water. The water inside the plant stand could contain harmful bacteria and other pathogens.

Regardless of which tree you choose, be aware of the potential for the tree to tip over. Cats often get curious about decorations and will climb the tree to get a closer look.

To prevent an accident, secure the tree to the ceiling or wall using some fishing line to prevent the tree from falling over. Otherwise, try putting the tree in a location that can be closed off so your cat can’t get to it when you’re not home.

Poinsettias

“Are poinsettias poisonous to cats?” These eye-catching red holiday favorites have gained a bad reputation amongst cat owners. The bad news is that, yes, poinsettias are toxic to cats.

These festive plants contain a sap inside their leaves that can irritate a cat’s mouth and esophagus. If ingested, cats may experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or excessive drooling.

The good news is a cat would have to eat a large amount of poinsettia to get seriously ill. So, while poinsettias aren’t as toxic as some other plants, cat owners should leave them out of their holiday celebrations.

Amaryllis

Similar in appearance to the poinsettia plant, amaryllis is a popular flowering holiday plant that is a member of the lily family. Unfortunately, whether it’s the bulb, leaves, stem or flowers, this plant poses a threat to cats if ingested.

Amaryllis plants contain the chemical lycorine, which can cause adverse effects to cats such as vomiting, diarrhea and tremors.

Holly & Mistletoe

When it comes to poisonous house plants for cats, neither holly nor mistletoe comes to mind. After all, the holidays wouldn’t feel complete without holly decking the halls or kissing beneath the mistletoe. However, if you have pets, it’s best to go with the artificial route rather than risk it with these cat-unfriendly holiday plants.

Holly contains harmful chemicals that are toxic to cats. If ingested holly can cause vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and drooling. This spiny leaved, berry-producing plant can be lethal to cats and should not deck the halls of your home during the holidays.

Like holly, avoid using mistletoe if you own cats. Mistletoe contains phoratoxins and lectins, which can cause similar reactions to holly. In larger amounts, severe reactions may occur, including a drop in blood pressure and heart rate, breathing problems, seizures and death.

Lilies

Another holiday plant cat owners should keep out of their homes are lilies. Unfortunately, the entire plant and even the water in the vase, can be toxic to cats and can cause serious harm or death. Even small amounts of this plant can cause arrhythmia or kidney failure.

Azaleas

Azaleas, which are also sometimes known as rhododendron or rosebay, are another holiday plant cat owners should never allow in their homes. However, be on the lookout because they often appear in holiday bouquets or floral arrangements.

Azaleas contain a toxin called grayanotoxin, which can adversely affect the sodium channels within a cat’s body. Azalea toxicity can cause a wide range of symptoms, including excessive drooling, decreased appetite, weakness, vomiting, diarrhea and even cardiac failure. Note that all parts of the azalea plant are toxic to cats.

What if Your Cat Ingests a Poisonous Plant?

The best way to keep your cat safe is to avoid bringing plants poisonous to cats into your home at all. If you do bring them into your home, keep them well out of reach. If you suspect your cat ingested any amount of a toxic plant, call your veterinarian immediately. You can also contact the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) at (888)426-4435.

Explore other pet safety tips for the holidays to find out which decorations and other festive items pose a risk. To get more information and advice from our pet experts, visit our Pet Expertise page.

Pretty Poinsettias are Bad for Cats!

If you are a cat owner, then you should be careful this holiday season with what plants you bring into your home. Poinsettias, lilies, holly berries and mistletoe are all problematic to your feline family members.

Of all of these festive plants, lilies are the most toxic and are potentially fatal if ingested by cats. Any part of the plant, including the pollen, flower, stems and leaves are poisonous. These plants belong to the Lilium or Hemerocallis family, with examples being the tiger, day, Asiatic hybrid, Easter, Japanese Show, rubrum, stargazer, red, Western, and wood lilies. If ingested, these lilies can cause kidney failure in cats, with sudden onset of lethargy, decreased appetite, vomiting and either increased or decreased thirst and urination with dehydration. If you suspect your cat has eaten any part of a lily plant then take him directly to your veterinarian as emergency care is needed. The best advice is not to bring any lilies into your home if you have cats, and be sure to inspect any bouquets of flowers that are delivered to your home, as lilies are the #1 flower used by florists!

Poinsettias are not very toxic to cats, but the milky white sap found in poinsettias contains chemicals called diterpenoid euphorbol esters and saponin-like detergents. If ingested, these substances will cause digestive upset, such as vomiting, drooling, or rarely, diarrhea may be seen. If the milky sap is exposed to skin, dermal irritation (including redness, swelling, and itchiness) may develop. Rarely, eye exposure can result in mild conjunctivitis (“pink eye” secondary to inflammation). Signs are self-limiting and don’t require medical treatment unless severe.

Other yuletide plants such as holly berries and mistletoe can also be toxic to cats. When Christmas or English holly is ingested, it can result in severe gastrointestinal upset thanks to the spiny leaves and the potentially toxic substances (including saponins, methylxanthines, and cyanogens). If ingested, most cats lip smack, drool, and head shake excessively due to the mechanical injury from the spiny leaves. As for mistletoe, most of us hang it high enough, so it’s out of reach of our cats – nevertheless, it can also be toxic if ingested. Thankfully, American mistletoe is less poisonous than the European varieties of it. Mild signs of gastrointestinal irritation are seen, although if ingested in large amounts, collapse, hypotension, ataxia (walking drunk), seizures and death have also been reported. If you suspect your cat has ingested either of these plants, he should be seen by your veterinarian.

If you want more information on toxic plants for cats, you can visit the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Poison Control website at https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Written by Tiffany Lennox, DVM

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03/06/2020

We create comfort in the house in many ways. Including we decorate window sills and shelves with a variety of house plants. Some attract with their bright flowering, while others simply delight the eye with rich green leaves. But in a house where there are cats, every green leaf can be potentially dangerous. There are houseplants that are toxic to cats. Some of them are so popular that they are in almost every home, and the owners believe that pets are smart enough to understand which of the leaves should not be chewed. Unfortunately, it is not. In this article, we will provide a list of houseplants that are dangerous for cats. Familiarize yourself with it and look around: is there a poisonous decoration on your windowsill?

Why do cats eat plants?

The reasons may be different. Sometimes the behavior of pets is driven by banal interest. Also, eating grass and plants may be associated with a lack of certain vitamins, the cat will want to empirically find their source. But most often, chewing greens is not a whim, but a physical necessity: in this way, the animal removes wool from the stomach or tries to quench its thirst if there is no access to drinking water.

Which houseplants are dangerous for cats?

There is a very long list of plants that are toxic to your pets. The degree of their danger is also different: some cause only vomiting and diarrhea, others burn the mucous membrane with their juice and cause inflammation, and some depress the central nervous system, can lead to convulsions and even death. If you have plants from the following list in your home, limit your cat's access to them.

Azalea. Beautiful flower with oval emerald leaves and large pink buds. Alas, the beauty of this plant is directly proportional to its danger. Azaleas contain a poisonous alkaloid - andromedotoxin glycoside. This substance depresses the central nervous system and the work of the heart, causes convulsions, swelling of the larynx and kidney failure.
Begonia. A small flower with carved large leaves and small red, yellow or orange petals. This flower contains a critically large amount of oxalic acid, which irritates and burns the mucous membranes. By swallowing part of this plant, the cat runs the risk of swelling of the larynx.
Dieffenbachia. An evergreen plant with large oval leaves, pointed at the tip, which are rich green at the edges, fading to lighter shades towards the center. The plant is dangerous, even if the cat does not swallow, but chews the leaf. The juice is extremely toxic and causes irritation of the oral mucosa, swelling of the larynx is possible up to respiratory arrest. Once in the eyes, the poison irritates the delicate skin of the eyelids and conjunctiva.
Dracaena. A plant on a dense woody stem with a "shock" of long narrow leaves. The leaves of this plant attract cats, but for a pet, this is fraught with swelling of the larynx, vomiting and difficulty breathing.
Peperomia. The poisonous substances contained in the round dark green leaves of this plant can cause swelling of the larynx and incoordination, and even acute heart failure.
Ficus, spurge, poinsettia. For cats (and even for humans), flowers from the genus Euphorbia are dangerous. Their milky juice causes deep non-healing burns, blindness, an allergic reaction, diarrhea, affects the nervous system, leads to inflammation and ulcers.
Philodendron. The large emerald leaves of this evergreen plant contain many toxic substances in their juice, including caustic acid. Contact with the juice on the mucous membrane causes severe inflammation and burns.
Cyclamen. Indoor flower with heart-shaped leaves and delicate petals of various colors (pink, white, red, purple, etc. ). The juice of this plant contains alkaloids that cause cardiac and respiratory arrest.

This list does not include absolutely all indoor plants dangerous to cats. You should find out the names of all the flowers growing in the apartment and find out how dangerous they are for your pets.

How to protect a cat from houseplant poisoning?

The most radical and reliable way is to leave in the apartment only those flowers that will definitely not harm the cat. If you are not ready to part with your favorite plants, place them in the apartment in such a way that pets cannot reach them, for example, place them in hanging planters on the wall. You can also use special sprays that, with the help of smell, will reduce the cat's interest in the flower. If the cat feels a physical need to eat greens, give her the opportunity to do so. Plant seeds of cat-friendly grass or buy ready-made sprouted bushes. Having access to the coveted green leaves, your pet will agree to leave the houseplants alone. On the page with this article, you can find products that will help you wean your pet from the bad habit of chewing and eating homemade flowers.

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Is the beautiful poinsettia poisonous and can it poison you and your cat?

Useful information

Admin, November 23, 2018 - 17:00

Poinsettia, also known as the Star of Bethlehem, is without a doubt a flower loved by many. It has entered the "canon" of obligatory holiday decorations, almost like a traditional New Year and Christmas tree. Although the plant beautifully decorates our homes, many fear that the poinsettia is a poisonous plant and can cause allergies.

Many negative opinions have accumulated around her, which, however, do not always correspond to reality. Find out if the poinsettia is poisonous or not, in whom it can cause allergies, and what threatens contact with the juice flowing from the shoots of the flower.

Poinsettia - Christmas star - poisonous to humans or not?

The tissues of the poinsettia contain a poisonous white milky juice, just like all other members of the family. This juice contains euphorbic acid, euphorbin and cyanogenic compounds, which can painfully burn the skin, cause inflammation, and if it gets into the eyes, even temporarily blind a person.

Poisonous juices are found in the root, leaves and stems. It is also worth knowing that the bracts that delight us (those that turn so beautifully red) owe their color to dyes belonging to anthocyanins.

All this sounds menacing. And so much so that some believe that the name of the plant comes from the English. the word poison, meaning "poison". But this is just complete nonsense! The name "poinsettia" comes from the surname Poinsett of a man named Joel Roberts who brought the Star of Bethlehem from Mexico to the United States.

In practice, as it turns out, information about the strong toxic effect and toxicity of poinsettia is greatly exaggerated. Although the Star of Bethlehem can cause gastrointestinal distress, nausea, and vomiting after ingestion, in practice, this accounts for less than 10% of human consumption of the plant. The ailment is usually very mild and rare.

However, if a poinsettia flower has appeared in the house, it is worth placing it in a place inaccessible to small children, and while caring for the plant, avoid direct contact with juices that can leak out, for example, when breaking a branch. But there is no need to exaggerate. The sheer number of indoor plants grown in our apartments can be far more poisonous than the Star of Bethlehem.

Can poinsettias cause allergies?

Growing poinsettias should be avoided by people who are allergic to latex. Almost every second person with this type of it has symptoms of sensitization upon direct contact with the Star. The result of such contact can be inflammation of the skin, mucous membranes, and much less often - an attack of allergic asthma.

In this regard, the damaged parts of the plant, from which the juice flows, should be handled with care, try not to get dirty, and even more so - do not rub the eye with milk. Wash your hands thoroughly after work, just in case.

Will the Christmas star be poison to your cat or dog?

Poinsettia is not very toxic to pets. So, for example, in the case of cats, the risk can generally be defined as small. Plants such as azalea, oleander, clivia, Persian cyclamen or the very popular ficus benjamin are much more dangerous for a cat.

However, it is worth knowing that if the juices of the Christmas star come into contact with the mucous membranes of the animal, they can cause severe irritation and pain.