Panic last night

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.

Oh my goodness! What a scare!!!!!
Glad everything turned out ok, though!
Kisses to the trouble maker and a
big glass of Chamomile Tea to his Mommy.

Here's kind of a 'funny' story--maybe it will help you to 'validate' your freaking out (though, in my mind it is PERFECTLY valid--I did the same thing when Sophie ate a leaf off of my ivy!)

A little while back a friend of mine called her vet on the weekend--she was COMPLETELY freaking out. Her cat was "seizuring" and "choking." (Needless to say, this was her first cat EVER!) Yup, you might've guessed it...they got to the vet, and the cat threw up a hairball. :rolleyes: Everyone got a good laugh from this--including the VET who was nice enough NOT to charge her!

Hey AmberLee! Glad that everything went well at the end, scary thought of what could have happened.
We have exactly two plants left anymore, and those are so high that our mons...ummm... cats can't get to them (we hope :D ). One plant they killed already, wasn't poisonous though since they are still here with us ;)
Which we are very grateful of course.

How scary!!! I'm so relieved that Cassy is OK! I have given up keeping just about any plant or flowers where Oliver or Mr. B might get to them. They want to devour everything green/flowers! I luckily had just posted the posison hotline # in my kitchen this summer when my lab Star started getting sick after eating some honeysuckle berries!! Just nausea and vomiting they said. Not anything serious. Still, I know just the panic you speak of! And it truly is like monitoring toddlers. These guys get into EVERYTHING! The other day I had just cleaned the wood floors with "Orange Glo" when I started to read the label! Harmful or fatal to humans or pets if swallowed. It does leave an oily coating for a while, and fearing the "kids" would lick it off their paws after walking on it, I spent an hour trying to wash it all off with water! Yikes!

Gosh, I'm so glad Cassy was not taken ill. I have many house plants, and Lily has never been the least bit interested, thankfully. However, it remains to be seen if Debra will follow in her footsteps; we have only had her home from the vet for about a week and she has not been allowed into Lilly's den which is where all the plants reside.

About 11 Christmases ago when our second Siberian Husky (Sadie) was just a pup, she became deathly ill on Xmas Eve. Ended up rushing her to the emergency vet and she was injected with sacks of liquid because of her dehydration. I had to saute ground beef and rice to feed her during the next few days, while holding her like a baby in my arms. We figured that she probably ingested a holly berry that had fallen from my fresh cuttings displayed over the fireplace mantle. Since holly berries are poisonous to dogs, I would think cats could be sickened as well. My beautiful holly tree NEVER gets pruned for decorative purposes anymore, that is unless some unscrupulous passerby finds it irresistible . . . :eek: :(

Silly kitty. Hasn't anyone ever asked him to "Please Don't Eat the Daisies"? Okay, I'm dating myself. I'm glad Cassie's okay. And get that poor starving boy some SNACKS!

Dear 4 Feline,

Yes, I remember PDETD, too, but it was a bit of a jolt to discover how little of the details I'd remembered from it when it showed up briefly on Nick at Nite. Here is a view of my furry crew waiting for snackies just beside the fridge. Do either of them REALLY look like they are starving? :D ;)

http://wsphotofews.excite.com/019/3E/rf/q5/Zx22136.jpg

[Rats, I wasn't going to let anyone see how messy my kitchen gets... Cassy has adopted the top of the roll-around thermos box as his 'snack spot' of choice. Livvy prefers keeping her options open on the floor.]

[ October 31, 2001: Message edited by: AmberLee ]

Silly Cassie! Well, I see your mom does give you snacks, but why hasn't she given you a nice little snack tray to enjoy them on? Sheesh, having to eat off the cooler! :D ;)

The only house plant we have we picked up at a local pet store, and its "cat grass". We do have a catnip plant outside, we give our cats a treat of some 'nip on occasion.

Anyone who wants to have a live house plant.
Try getting some stuff called Bitter Apple. Spray it on your plants - it wont hurt the plant and the animals hate it. Works for me :)