AmberLee
10-19-2001, 02:45 PM
Hi all,
First of all, everything's okay with my cat now but I'm still nervous and unstrung and want to get it out of my system.
Last night I was running errands and bought a bouquet of cut flowers on impulse. Later, I was smelling their wonderful spicy scent and Cassy came sniffing, too. I was thrilled and thinking all sorts of sentimental, naive guff about the beauties of nature, and innocence, and such. Cassy leaned in and munched off a bud. Immediately I switched into panic mode remembering the enormous list of common plants which are poisonous to cats and screamed. Snatched the bud out of his munchy jaws and all the bits that had fallen on the floor... Put the vase atop a cabinet he can't get to and went hunting for my garden book to find out whether these flowers are among the many poisonous ones. [Just to ruin your moment of suspense, they were. Yeeeks!]
Ransacked the place and couldn't find any of the books or get my computer working. Cassy was perky and seemed to enjoy the excitement of a yelping human. (Aren't you glad you're not my neighbor? I can be very noisy.) Finally thought of a local friend who's more cat-savvy AND garden-savvy than I, who was wonderfully calming to talk with. She was under the impression that cats are too smart to eat something poisonous to them, but her research eventually blew this warming theory out of the water. It turns out neither of us knew what the name of the flowers I bought were. We'd both always thought of them as baby carnations. [Note: they are Dianthus. Heck of a way to find out.] We weren't sure precisely what they were, but knew enough that they were in the dianthus family of flowers that are feline poisonous. One website she found stated that we should make the cat drink a glass of water, but not to force water into his mouth. [Apparently forcing water can go into the lungs and cause other problems.] I was freaking over how to interpret this when we decided I really should be calling the local emergency vet service. In the mean time, Cassy got bored and went to sleep.
The emergency vet said not to worry unless Cassy's paws were tender (nope), stomach tender (nope), and he was lathargic (uh, he was his usually sleepy self for that hour of the night). If anything developed I should bring him and a sample of the flowers in, otherwise not to worry. At five minute intervals I'd talk to his sleeping form in his basket and relax when his ears swivled to my voice: at quarter hour intervals I'd palpatate his paws and tummy and verify that they weren't tender and that he could wake up. All things considered he seemed to mildly enjoy the attention.
As of this morning he's bright and perky, I'm rattled and sleepy, and the Dianthus are at work. All's well that ends well. (Though I do feel like a dope for panicking so.) :o
Lessons learned: keep the emergency vet number handy; lethargic cats means 'doped up', unresponsive cats not sleepy cats; be aware of the plants/flowers I bring into the house; and Dianthus isn't dangerously poisonous -- munched is no problem apparently, if he'd eaten a couple full blossoms it could have been another story.
First of all, everything's okay with my cat now but I'm still nervous and unstrung and want to get it out of my system.
Last night I was running errands and bought a bouquet of cut flowers on impulse. Later, I was smelling their wonderful spicy scent and Cassy came sniffing, too. I was thrilled and thinking all sorts of sentimental, naive guff about the beauties of nature, and innocence, and such. Cassy leaned in and munched off a bud. Immediately I switched into panic mode remembering the enormous list of common plants which are poisonous to cats and screamed. Snatched the bud out of his munchy jaws and all the bits that had fallen on the floor... Put the vase atop a cabinet he can't get to and went hunting for my garden book to find out whether these flowers are among the many poisonous ones. [Just to ruin your moment of suspense, they were. Yeeeks!]
Ransacked the place and couldn't find any of the books or get my computer working. Cassy was perky and seemed to enjoy the excitement of a yelping human. (Aren't you glad you're not my neighbor? I can be very noisy.) Finally thought of a local friend who's more cat-savvy AND garden-savvy than I, who was wonderfully calming to talk with. She was under the impression that cats are too smart to eat something poisonous to them, but her research eventually blew this warming theory out of the water. It turns out neither of us knew what the name of the flowers I bought were. We'd both always thought of them as baby carnations. [Note: they are Dianthus. Heck of a way to find out.] We weren't sure precisely what they were, but knew enough that they were in the dianthus family of flowers that are feline poisonous. One website she found stated that we should make the cat drink a glass of water, but not to force water into his mouth. [Apparently forcing water can go into the lungs and cause other problems.] I was freaking over how to interpret this when we decided I really should be calling the local emergency vet service. In the mean time, Cassy got bored and went to sleep.
The emergency vet said not to worry unless Cassy's paws were tender (nope), stomach tender (nope), and he was lathargic (uh, he was his usually sleepy self for that hour of the night). If anything developed I should bring him and a sample of the flowers in, otherwise not to worry. At five minute intervals I'd talk to his sleeping form in his basket and relax when his ears swivled to my voice: at quarter hour intervals I'd palpatate his paws and tummy and verify that they weren't tender and that he could wake up. All things considered he seemed to mildly enjoy the attention.
As of this morning he's bright and perky, I'm rattled and sleepy, and the Dianthus are at work. All's well that ends well. (Though I do feel like a dope for panicking so.) :o
Lessons learned: keep the emergency vet number handy; lethargic cats means 'doped up', unresponsive cats not sleepy cats; be aware of the plants/flowers I bring into the house; and Dianthus isn't dangerously poisonous -- munched is no problem apparently, if he'd eaten a couple full blossoms it could have been another story.