The Easter lily may be a symbol of rebirth and resurrection, but it can mean death to a domestic cat, says Dr. Jeff Hall, poison information specialist at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
If you have Easter lilies and cats, one has to go, Hall says, as the lilies likely will prove to be a fatal attraction to houseplant-nibbling felines.
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”In the week preceding Easter,” Hall says, ”we had 12 cases of poisoning by Easter lily, and of those, four of these cats are dead of renal failure. There are three additional cats in renal failure that are in kidney failure and two will probably not make it. One is on dialysis and is doing well. The rest we got to early enough that we got them decontaminated and they are not showing any permanent effect.”
This information may be new to cat owners, Hall says, as the Easter lily currently is not listed in poison indexes. Many cat owners who have noticed symptoms have called human poison hotlines and been told Easter lilies are safe, he says, and as a consequence they have delayed treatment and their pets have died.
Rapid treatment is critical to saving the cat`s life if it has ingested lily leaves, Hall says.
”The severity of the disease will depend on how fast the cats get the plant material out of their stomach.”
The cat should be taken immediately to a veterinarian, where vomiting will be induced and the cat will be given fluids for 24 hours to keep the kidneys flushed.
”If you get the cats into treatment within the first 8 to 10 hours, you can save 100 percent,” Hall says.
Hall will present a paper on the subject at a national toxicologists meeting later this year.
”We have not yet isolated the compound that is poisonous,” he says,
”but we are confident it is a plant compound.”
Tiger lilies cause the same syndrome of kidney failure, he says.
Cat owners can get more information by calling the university`s animal poison hotline at 900-680-4000 at a charge of $2.95 a minute. If the animal already is affected and university toxicologists need to consult with the cat`s veterinarian, or with the owner of the cat, call 800-548-2423, at a one- time fee of $30 a case, chargeable to a credit card. There is no additional charge for followup calls to see the cat through treatment.