I’ve had a number of people tell me about recent poisonings of either their pets or pets of friends. First and foremost: Lilies and cats. A friend of mine called me a couple days ago to ask for Reiki for a friend of her’s cat who had chewed on lily leaves and went into renal failure. While it’s still touch at this time her liver and kidney numbers are stabilizing and we’ll know more by the end of the week. As the mother of seven little accidents-waiting-for-a-place-to-happen (remember Tigger’s fun this summer?) I take no chances so I have ZERO potted plants in my house. Cats will chew on anything green and with the holidays coming up please make sure your decorative greenery is plastic (which they will still chew so be aware). Chrysanthemums and Poinsettias are also toxic to cats and dogs.

Mushrooms are popping up all over and cats and dogs can ingest them while trying to eat grass. Clean your area of mushrooms if at all possible. These can be instant death to your pet.

Horse chestnuts are also toxic and can cause bowel obstruction.

Be careful what you compost and make sure your pet can’t get to anything in your compost pile. My friends here in Tuolumne County had their Aussie Shepherd back and forth to Turlock Animal Hospital all weekend. He was lethargic, stumbling, and vomiting. While they knew these were poisoning symptoms they couldn’t figure out what he got into. They finally found the cause: plums. An update just now:

“So I examined his poo this morning and found PLUM in it. A shriveled up plum. He got into my compost and probably ate 50! So then I googled and it turns out the pits are toxic to dogs – they contain cyanide and most dogs die within ONE HOUR of eating a few. Also, they of course cause obstructions. He had EVERY SYMPTOM. How lucky are we? I am so grateful and relieved to know what happened. I literally had a huge cardboard box of them composting in the yard, not knowing it was festering poison. That’s why he only felt better after the enemas – the poison was just sitting in my boy. “

It’s very hard to remove all dangers that your pets can get into (again – remember Tigger’s summer adventure) we can avoid the obvious. Who woulda thunk this guy would dig through compost to eat plums? No one. Just as I wouldn’ta thunk Tigger would impale himself on a gate latch. But we can be aware of the obvious dangers of potted plants and mushrooms and help our beloved fur children live long and healthy lives.

And with that let the Holidays begin!