Warning to cat owners - Lilies can kill!

We had a terrible night, and terrible fright on Saturday / Sunday. We'd been given a bunch of flowers by a friend earlier in the week, and there were a couple of lilies in them.

One of our cats took a shine to the lilies, and started to lick the leaves, it seems.

He was suddenly violently sick, much more than a usual hair ball. He then went back for more in some kind of kitty craze.

Fortunately another friend we had over at the time saw him going for these flowers, and realised she knew them to be toxic to cats. We certainly did not know this, made sure that the flowers were removed, and looked this up on the interweb straight away.

We found that kitty was in a severe state of peril and he may have been about to suffer catastrophic kidney failure, which would have been incredibly nasty for him, and very sad for us.

We took him to the emergency vets in Belsize Park, and he was immediately admitted as per recommendations from any page we could find on the internet. They had him on a drip to clear out any poisons from his kidneys (as best they can), and monitored his blood and urine Sunday, Monday and again today (Tuesday).

Our big strong puss has made it through seemingly unscathed, he and we are all very lucky indeed. However, at least 50% of cats will not recover from lily intoxication, as the vets call it, and there will be little that vets can do other than make the poor animal as comfy as possible waiting for the inevitably horrid end.

We count our blessings, feel awful, and feel suitably punished both emotionally and financially, for our ignorance. I am going to get him this evening and will see what the final bill is then, but it’s sure to be over £500 - not that this is the point of the warning.

We feel the need to tell everyone with cats, DO NOT HAVE LILIES IN YOUR HOUSE. Let our harsh enough lesson be your caution if you too didn’t happen to know this… Seriously, throw them away even if someone does bring them as a kind gift! Contrary to any beliefs that some have it’s not just the pollen that can kill; the vets we’ve spoken to since our puss was admitted are all firm that any part of the plant can be deadly. Enough said, don’t take the risk!