Thursday, December 16, 2010

Safe Plants For You, Poisonous For Your Pets

 According to the California Poison Control Center,  some plants that are not a problem for humans can be a problem for dogs and cats. The plants in this list are considered to be safe to humans, but can cause toxic reactions in your pets. However, even non-toxic plants can cause vomiting. Also children can choke on a plant piece, causing gagging or choking.

Notice that this list contains many pet-unfriendly plants that are houseplants or cut flowers, including the Corn Plant (and most other Dracaena species, including Lucky Bamboo), Cordyline (including the Good Luck Plant), Lilies and Schefflera.

 
Grapes
Also: you may enjoy munching on grapes straight from the vine...but those will cause adverse reactions in dogs and cats.  


 




Because dogs, especially, will eat large amounts, it is important to keep pets and these plants apart:

• Cordyline  Cordyline spp
• Cornplant   Dracaena fragrans
 
• Daylily  Hermocallis spp (poisonous to cats)
• Dracaena  Dracaena spp
• Dwarf schefflera  Schefflera arboricola
• Easter lily   Lilium longiflorum
• European grape  Vitus vinifera
• Good luck plant   Cordyline or Dracaena terminalis
• Grape, wild  Vitus californica
• Janet Craig plant  Dracaena deremensis
• Lily (most),  Lilium spp
• Lucky bamboo  Dracaena sanderiana
• Macadamia nut  Macadamia spp
• Ribbon plant   Dracaena sanderiana
• Ti plant  Cordyline or Dracaena terminalis 
• Tiger lily   Lilium spp
• Wine grape   Vitus vinifera

For a more complete list of poisonous and non-poisonous plants, click here.

Dracaena
Daylily

Call your state's poison center if a person or an animal has eaten a plant. 

The California Poison Control System is available 24 hours a day by calling 1-800-222-1222. 

If you are not in California, call 1-800-222-1222 to be connected to your nearest poison control center.

WHAT TO DO FOR A PLANT POISONING, KIDS OR PETS:

• Do NOT induce vomiting.
• Remove any plant parts from the mouth or hands.
• Wash around the mouth and hands and give a few sips of water.
• Check for any irritation of the skin, mouth or tongue.
• Call the California Poison Control System at 1-800-222-1222
• Even if you are not sure, call the poison center for help. It will not be a waste of
time.
• Do not wait for symptoms to appear. Treatment will be more difficult once
symptoms have developed.
• If you are advised to go to the hospital, take the plant or part of the plant with you.


4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the list, one of the plants that I never see on lists but more and more people are growing are hops. The cones are fatal to dogs and cats if eaten so special precautions need to made if your a home brewer.

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  2. Kristi, you are correct. Hops are on that larger list at the calpoison.org website. And it is the domestic or European hops that are most toxic.

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  3. An addemdum to my last comment. This is from a veterinary toxicologist.

    True lilies (Lilium spp.) like Easter lilies, tiger lilies, Asiatic/Oriental lilies and Day lilies (Hemerocallis spp.) can cause vomiting in dogs but no acute renal failure as they do in cats

    Peace lilies (Spathiphyllum spp.) and Calla lilies (Zantedeschia spp.) contain insoluble calcium oxalates and so cause oral and gastrointestinal irritation in dogs and cats but not acute renal failure.

    Heidi Napier, DVM

    ReplyDelete
  4. some say plant onion sets to just cover the roots only??? Last year I planted 2-4 inches deep and had good luck. What s the recommendation???

    ReplyDelete