Poisonous Plants and Pets

With the summer evenings drawing nearer, you are soon likely to be spending more time in the garden, and, if you are a pet owner you, you will probably be encouraging your pet to keep you company. However, what you may not know is that the garden is a potentially hazardous playground for pets, with as many as 700 seemingly harmless common garden plants being poisonous to cats and dogs. It is obviously impossible to be aware of all of them, yet, some are more poisonous and more common than others, and so these should be known about by all.

If you enjoy gardening, be aware that the bulbs of popular flowers such as daffodils and tulips can be fatal if eaten by cats or dogs and other popular flower such as snowdrops can cause serious internal problems.

Lilies look beautiful in the garden and the home and yet their pollen is very poisonous to a cat and can cause irreparable kidney damage.

Consider researching a more comprehensive list online, and then you can decide how you should respond according to your own situation and the behaviour of your pet. If you have a number of these plants in your garden but they are, or you can make them, unreachable then you probably need not worry. Also, if your animal has never shown an interest in eating any garden plants, it is probably not going to start now. However, if you your pet does like to munch on greenery and you cannot corner off any toxic plants, you should consider either removing the danger or ensuring you supervise your pet every time they venture out.