Poisonous indoor plants for dogs & cats

Some of our indoor plants can be poisonous for our dogs and cats. Here is some useful information on how risky situations are avoidable:

• Depending on the species, leaves, bulb or the whole plant may contain toxic substances that can be dangerous for our pets.
• Cats bear a particular risk as they are able to jump on furniture and tables and no place in the flat is safe to be visited by them. They even have an extraordinary preference in nibbling on mellow parts of plants and anything similar to haulms of grass.
• But also puppies, biting and pulling unsighted on several objects, are endangered. If adult dogs are bored they sometimes also start chewing on plants.
• Watch out with bouquets of cut flowers and flowers from meadows: especially popular arrangements with daffodils in Easter time could have – in worst case - a fatal effect. Poisonous plants like cypress spurge and baby’s breath are often used as greenery in colorful bouquets of flowers.
• Decoration plants with foliage should also be taken with caution. In Christmas time acutely poisonous plant like yew is very popular.
• Take also into consideration that the water in which the poisonous plants are put into (for example a bouquet of lilies of the valley) could be toxic as well. Especially cats tend to drink water out of vases. This is also valid for water from Christmas tree stands.
• Once a pet absorbed a poisonous plant the consequences are several. Starting with irritation of the mucous membrane to gastro-intestinal diseases, spasm, circulatory collapse and perilous damages to internal organs (for example the renal) to the point of apnoea or cardiopathy – the symptoms are diversified. Not all damages are reversible and some toxicopathies have a fatal ending.
• Better as any therapy is a good prevention! Check if your indoor plants are harmless. To protect your animal they should be replaced through an innocuous substitute in case of any doubt.

Here is a small range of popular, but poisonous indoor plants:

These plants have dangerous bulbs:

• Cyclamen
• Amaryllis
• Bush lily
• Lilium speciosum

These plants have dangerous chyle:  

• Paliurus
• Winter rose

These plants have dangerous trunks, leaves, sprouts or berries:

• Sausage tree
• Dieffenbachia
• Ivy
• Single blade
• Rubber plant
• Caladium
• Spider plant
• Aralia