Ahhh Spring!! Finally!!! The grass is turning green, the weather is turning beautiful…then horrible and snowy… and then beautiful again! The robins are out and at least in my part of the world we are starting to see baby bunnies. And let’s be real…as soon as my kids see baby bunnies, we are immediately transitioning to Easter discussions, their main focus being their future baskets. When I hear Easter though, I immediately start thinking…Ope! It is lily toxin time and I start planning to prep the team for lots of hospitalized cats.

Easter is a great time and definitely one that is associated with well… Easter lilies. And this is where the trouble begins. Lilies, as a whole, are toxic to cats and while we are very much an inclusionary group as veterinarians – this is one where it really is just cats that are affected. When dogs eat lilies, they may experience GI upset, but that is the full extent of their exposure response. Cats, well good lord they do their best to be taken out by a delicate flower. So, let’s get into the nitty gritty of lilies.

In the veterinary world when we think of lily toxicity, we are referring to the development of kidney failure. First there are about a million different types of lilies, and the majority are going to be toxic. I think it’s actually easier to focus on the lilies that don’t cause kidney failure in terms of helpful identification since that’s a much shorter list. Lily of the valley, the peace lily and calla lilies are not going to affect the kidneys, but you should know these plants still have the potential to be problematic as they can cause severe oral irritation or cardiac abnormalities. So really… is there a good lily when it comes to cats? That’s just a no dawg, I mean cat. How lilies cause this kidney failure to develop is still not understood. We appreciate that they cause damage to the architecture of the kidneys, but there is also trauma that occurs to the pancreas and thought that the mitochondria (remember…the powerhouse of the cell…yeah you do 8th grade biology stud!) are also damaged. All parts of the lily are toxic, the petals and the leaves being the most toxic, but the pollen, even the water the lilies are in…toxic. This is a no joke, level 5 toxicity for cats. Lilies don’t even come into my house when I get a bouquet, they’re in the outside garbage can before I walk in the door.

But that’s it… the how of why it occurs is a mystery. But I’m an ER doc, not an Internal Medicine Specialist… which means I don’t get too pressed about the how, I’m here to hit with the hammer of lets just fix this. And we fix this with supportive therapy. You were hoping I was going to say we fix this with a little pill that is cheap and easy, and sadly that is definitely not an option. When kidneys are traumatized, it results in a sequela of issues including nausea, GI ulceration, pain as well as the obvious kidney dysfunction that includes an inability to concentrate urine but can be severe enough that urine is no longer produced. The cornerstone of treating these cases is intravenous (IV) fluids. We are basically going to turn on the firehose and flush these kidneys as much as we can, being conscientious not to fluid overload our patient. We next lean into antinausea medication, antacids and pain medication and we give them time. Typically, we are expecting 48-72 hours of hospitalization required for treatment. We check kidney values once every 24 hours and the goal is to get values back within normal limits. And to clarify, lilies are so toxic to cats that any level of known exposure, even with normal kidney values, is recommended to have 48 hours of hospitalization with IV fluids. Recovery of kidney function is not a guarantee with treatment and once those babies are gone…well…life gets a lot harder…as in it continuing.

So moral of the story, Lilies, while beautiful… are deadly. I’m often described the same way. No. That’s never happened, but it would be cool. Lilies and cats together though, not cool. Happy Spring! Happy Easter! And as always, we are happy to help you and your furred family in any way that we can!