I received a phone call today from a concerned owner. Her cats have been with her for three years now and have never bothered her lily plants. Today though, a leaf was on the floor with multiple tooth marks. Neither of her cats fessed up to who had been the culprit.
The scary part about lilies (ie Stargazer lily, Easter lily, Tiger lily and Asiatic hybrid lily and daylily [not a true lily]) is their ability to cause nephrotoxicity in cats. Basically the cats develop acute renal failure and if not treated have a 50-100% chance of dying! If we can treat them by making them vomit if pieces of the lily have been eaten, administering activated charcoal and started diuresis (IV fluids at two times maintenance) before hitting the 18 hour mark after eating the lily, they generally have an excellent prognosis.
All parts of these beautiful flowers are toxic. This includes the pollen. So, minor exposure such as a small amount of pollen getting on their coat or whiskers can have deadly consequences.
An excellent source of information on lilies and cats is at website started by two veterinarians. The name is www.noliliesforcats.com (I apologize for not being able to make the link work cause it is a very well done website.)
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