Featured News 2012 Springtime Flowers Could be Your Pet’s Poison

Springtime Flowers Could be Your Pet’s Poison

With the advent of spring, flowers start to blossom bringing the outdoors a renewed sense of bright color. The smell of springtime sends people into a spring-fever frenzy. However, springtime could cause your pet to get a fever too, and this one isn't curable with a bit of spring cleaning and gardening in the sun. When your garden starts to blossom and your prized flowers start to bud, make sure to keep your pets away from these harmful plants.

Tulips are a beautiful flower that symbolize spring, but they could prove to be a toxic poison if your dog takes a bite. If a dog ingests one of these flowers it can cause intense vomiting, depression, diarrhea, hyper salivation and a lack of appetite. Hyacinth, a pretty purple spring flower, can result in vomiting depression, tremors and digestion problems in both dogs and cats. When a dog eats a daffodil it results in severe gastrointestinal problems accompanied by convulsions, seizures, low blood pressure, and tremors.

While it's called a peace lily, these long stemmed white flowers can give all animals ulcers in their mouths as well as digestive issues. When an animal nibbles on Easter cactus, it can cause in vomiting, diarrhea, and depression. Cats that eat this plant may start staggering. Crown of thorns is a pretty Easter blossom that is characterized by small pink petals, but your pet will vomit if he or she swallows some. Azalea is one of the most dangerous plants a pet can ingest. When any mammal eats azalea, it results in vomiting, hyper salivation, weakness, CNS depression, a cardiovascular collapse, a coma, or death. Rhododendron will cause similar symptoms, and is fatal as well. Crocus is another hazardous floret which causes vomiting, excessive drooling, abdominal pain, gastro-intestinal disorders, convulsions, tremors, and seizures.

Ironically, Tiger Lilies are dangerous for cats. When a feline takes a nibble, a tiger lily will induce vomiting, kidney failure or lethargy. Day lilies will also bring on these uncomfortable symptoms. Clematis can give any animal painful ulcers in the mouth, vesicant action or ataxia. Foxglove is a particularly poisonous plant, which can bring on heart conditions like cardiac arrhythmias or failure. Ingesting a foxglove can be deadly. Lily of the Valley can also bring on dangerous heart problems, and may cause your animal to contract ataxia. Ataxia is a neurological disorder where the animal's movements are affected and coordination becomes awry. American bittersweet has bitter consequences when eaten; a pet who snacks on these small flowers may suffer weakness, convulsions, or gastroenteritis.

Narcissus is a small yellow flower that causes serious gastrointestinal disorders. It can also cause an animal to have convulsions, shiver uncontrollably, suffer hypotension and dermatitis, or deal with muscular tremors. Morning glory is also a harmful plant. It causes the animal to hallucinate and become weak. In order to keep your animals from harming themselves by grazing in your garden, make sure to surround your plants in plenty of mulch. Supervise your animals when they are roaming around the yard. If your dog is especially adventurous, you may want to consider purchasing a tie out, or fencing in your plants to keep Fido from finding them.

Also, if you plan to put pesticides on your plants to keep them from damaging bugs, make sure to keep your dogs and cats away as well. Ingesting pesticides can be fatal. In order to avoid dangerous situations, try to keep your pet from eating any sort of plant. Even if the vegetal is harmless, it is not a good habit for your pet, and he or she may make a mistake and ingest something dangerous in the future. Make sure to keep flowers out of reach, and if you are disposing of your buds put them in a trash can that your dog cannot access. That way, you can rest assured that your pet is safe from the dangers of these toxic springtime plants.

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