The tra­di­tional Easter lily makes a beau­ti­ful spring time Easter arrange­ment or cen­ter­piece. How­ever, cat own­ers should be aware that Easter lilies along with many other lily vari­eties pose a poten­tial health haz­ard to their pets. With the Easter Hol­i­day approach­ing, this is a guide to learn the dan­gers of the Lily plant and how to keep your cats safe.

The vast major­ity of the pub­lic are not aware of the toxic dan­gers that lilies pose to cats, and that cats have been shown to be extremely sen­si­tive to all parts of the many vari­eties of lily and lily hybrid plants. It is impor­tant for cat own­ers to learn the toxic dan­gers that they cause and how to cor­rectly iden­tify a lily to avoid bring­ing it into their home. Some lilies are so dan­ger­ous that as lit­tle as nib­bling on 2 leaves or on a sin­gle flower can be fatal for the unsus­pect­ing kitty. The exact amount, or toxic dose of the plant to cause symp­toms is not known, but we do know that there is a quick onset of clin­i­cal signs that points to a rapid absorp­tion rate. It has been reported that symp­toms can start within 30 min­utes of ingest­ing leaves or flow­ers. What does this mean for the cat owner; if you even remotely sus­pect that your cat has been nib­bling on a lily plant, you need to con­tact your vet­eri­nar­ian immediately.

The major organ sys­tem that is affected by the inges­tion of lilies is the kid­neys and renal sys­tem. The renal tubu­lar epithe­lium, or the cells lin­ing the kid­ney, seems to be the main tar­get of the plant’s poi­so­nous affects. Once ingested you may see signs which include exces­sive sali­va­tion, vom­it­ing,
anorexia, severe depres­sion and dehy­dra­tion. Once these symp­toms are noticed and lily inges­tion is the sus­pected cause, acute renal fail­ure can progress rapidly if aggres­sive treat­ment is not started right away.

The main­stay of treat­ment con­sists of aggres­sive intra­venous fluid ther­apy to flush out the kid­neys as much as pos­si­ble to pre­vent poten­tially life-threatening anuric renal fail­ure (kid­neys com­pletely shut down and pet is no longer able to pro­duce urine). If it is known that the cat ingested the plant the vet­eri­nar­ian may have the option of induc­ing vom­it­ing or pump out the stom­ach to bring up any of the plant that remains undi­gested. This along with admin­is­ter­ing acti­vated char­coal will help slow down any fur­ther absorp­tion and help neu­tral­ize the toxin into the renal sys­tem. You should antic­i­pate your cat to be in the hos­pi­tal under close obser­va­tion for at least 24 to 48 hours while intra­venous flu­ids are admin­is­tered. Blood work, such as serum chem­istry pro­files will likely be per­formed every 12 to 24 hours to eval­u­ate kid­ney func­tion and to gauge the effec­tive­ness of the fluid treat­ment. If kid­ney fail­ure has already occurred then the only hope for recov­ery may be renal dial­y­sis and the prog­no­sis is poor.

In addi­tion to the fluid ther­apy to sup­port the kid­neys other symp­to­matic sup­port­ive care will be given as well. This could include gastro-protectants such as famo­ti­dine which inhibits stom­ach acid pro­duc­tion or any other antiemetic which will decrease vom­it­ing or nau­sea that may be present. Once the kitty is feel­ing bet­ter, no longer vom­it­ing, and well hydrated the goal will focus on mak­ing sure he starts eat­ing again. If he does not eat after 24 hours of no vom­it­ing then an appetite stim­u­lant may need to be given.

Although this type of tox­i­co­sis is life-threatening and the treat­ment can be daunt­ing and expen­sive for any pet owner, it is impor­tant to know that recov­ery is pos­si­ble and can hap­pen with care­ful mon­i­tor­ing. If may take weeks if not months for the kid­neys to return to com­plete nor­mal func­tion. If emp­ty­ing the stom­ach and admin­is­ter­ing med­ica­tions to pre­vent absorp­tion of the toxin are effec­tive, the prog­no­sis for recov­ery is excel­lent. How­ever, if enough toxin is absorbed to lead to acute kid­ney fail­ure, then the prog­no­sis is guarded to poor, and the mor­tal­ity rate is high. This makes it essen­tial to seek emer­gency care imme­di­ately after inges­tion of the lily plant.

Know­ing the dan­gers of lily plants can hope­fully poten­tially save the life of your cat if he tends to be mis­chie­vous and nib­ble on plants around the house. Even one lit­tle nib­ble can mean a death sen­tence for even the most inno­cent kitty. Although the Easter lily makes for beau­ti­ful arrange­ments dur­ing the Easter hol­i­day it is best to choose a plant that offers an attrac­tive non-toxic alternative.