May 7, 2024 • 18 mins
Don't let your floral decor turn into a danger zone for your cats. Join Dr. Sugerman in 'Lily Toxicity: The Silent Killer of Cats' as he navigates the alarming risks associated with lilies, from kidney damage to life-threatening consequences. Gain actionable insights into early detection, treatment options, and proactive prevention strategies to keep your furry companions safe and healthy. Learn how to safeguard your beloved pets and create a safer environment, especially during occasions like Mother's Day.
In this episode you will:
- Recognize the hidden dangers lilies pose to cats, especially during occasions like Mother's Day
- Understand the toxic components of lilies and their detrimental effects on feline health
- Learn to identify symptoms of lily toxicity in cats, such as vomiting, lethargy, and decreased appetite
- Discover the diagnostic procedures involved in confirming lily toxicity in cats, including blood work and kidney value assessments
- Explore the urgent treatment options available for cats exposed to lilies, including inducing vomiting and IV fluid therapy
- Gain insights into the prognosis of lily toxicity in cats and the importance of timely intervention
- Acquire practical tips and preventive measures to create a safer environment for cats, such as avoiding lilies in bouquets and gardens
Resources:
ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List
ASPCA Animal Poison Control
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Sugerman (00:00):
Did you know that lilies are responsible for a
significant number of catpoisoning cases, especially
during this time when people arereceiving Mother's Day bouquets?
This is a serious issue thatneeds immediate attention.
I'm Dr.
Sugerman and in this episode ofVetsplanation, we'll delve deep
into the dangers of lilies andhow to ensure the health and
(00:21):
happiness of both your moms' andtheir cats.
Lily toxicities can be extremelydangerous and lethal to cats.
The worst part about this toxinis that they're sold in stores
like all around the world withno warning signs to these
unsuspecting cat parents.
They're found in bouquets,people keep them in their house,
(00:42):
and they even are grownoutdoors.
So this makes this a highlytoxic plant found just about
anywhere.
Let's talk about what a lilyactually is too.
So don't worry, I'm not abotanist, nor am I even a very
good gardener.
So I'm not going to delve deepinto the facts.
But the fact is that there areactually two types of lilies.
There are true lilies, and thereare false lilies.
(01:06):
Did you even know that there wasa false lily?
For our purposes, we need toknow that true lilies are the
ones that can actually hurt ourkitty's kidneys.
False lilies have their problemstoo.
Now that's another podcast foranother time.
So let's go over what these reallilies actually are.
They are from the plant genuscalled Lilium, and the most
(01:26):
common true lilies are theEaster Lily, Japanese Lily, the
Ornamental Lily, the StargazerLily, the Casablanca Lily, and
the Tiger Lily.
There are also Day Lilies, whichare not truly in the Lilium
family.
but they still cause kidneyfailure as well.
Like I said before, I do nothave a green thumb, so I likely
(01:48):
would not be able to pick out acouple of these lilies if you
showed them to me.
Therefore, there are two greatresources.
You can go to the ASPCA website,and they have a list of toxic
plants, which we'll add a linkto in our show notes.
It has pictures next to them soyou can see what type of plant
it might be and identify them.
You can also call the ASPCA PetPoison Control and email them a
(02:11):
picture of the plant.
I do like to let people knowthat there is a fee for talking
to the ASPCA.
It was$95 the last time Ichecked.
It is not government funded, sothey have to pay their
veterinarians and their staffwith those funds.
Some insurance companies,though, will cover the cost, and
even some microchip companieswill cover the cost as well.
(02:31):
So just another perk to havingpet insurance and microchips.
They will look at the plantthough and they'll let you know
if it's toxic and if you need totake your cat to the vet
hospital.
They'll also give you a casenumber, which you should bring
with you to give to us becausethen we call and talk to the
veterinary toxicologist.
They'll let us know like howtoxic is this plant and what do
(02:53):
we need to do to treat it.
All right, now that we know whattrue lilies are, let's talk
about the plant's toxiccomponents and how they affect
our unsuspecting kitties.
So unfortunately, literallyevery part of the plant is
toxic.
Eating a leaf, chewing on aleaf, chewing on a flower, the
pollen from the flower, and eventhe water that the lily is
(03:14):
sitting in are all highly toxicto cats.
Even just the smallest amount,like chewing on the plant but
not swallowing it, or justgetting the pollen on their
nose, not even eating it, ishighly toxic.
You might be wondering, like,how lilies can cause such a
toxicity in cats and not otherpets and not us, right?
We touch the lilies all thetime.
(03:36):
We're not 100 percent sure why.
We do know that the lily willbreak down into smaller
components called metabolitesthat will directly affect the
cat's kidneys.
We have to assume it is becausethey have certain enzymes or
basically things that breakother things down, like lilies
being broken down intometabolites, that we and other
species do not have.
(03:58):
We also don't know what thetoxic versus lethal doses are.
Or in other words, like how muchof the plant will cause sickness
versus death.
Some cats react differently thanothers.
Some cats eat two leaves andthey need minimal treatment,
while other cats just bite theleaf and they're so severely
affected they have to beeuthanized or put on dialysis
(04:18):
until their kidneys somewhatheal.
And unfortunately, there's justno way to know which cat is
going to be affected in whichway.
So in a nutshell, every part ofthe plant and water is highly
toxic to cats.
So let's talk about our symptomsnext.
Initially, after ingesting thelily, you might see vomiting,
(04:39):
lethargy, or meaning likeweakness, not wanting to move,
drooling, and some decreasedappetite.
If they vomit up the plant, thenthat is great.
That means that they're going toget less of the toxin than they
would if they didn't vomit itup.
But it also means they havestill absorbed some of that
toxin.
This is the most common way thatpeople find that their cat ate a
(05:01):
lily, by the way, is usuallythey see it in the cats that
vomit.
The second most common way isthat they see the pollen on
their nose.
Anyways, in about 12 to 24 hoursafter ingestion is when we start
to see that the toxin affectedthe kidneys.
They have an increased thirst,they're urinating more, and
they're really dehydrated.
Because that is so fast.
(05:22):
I work about a 14 to 16 hournight shift.
If I bought my wife or mydaughter flowers, there could
already be too much damage tothe kidneys before I even return
home.
Alright, next we have truekidney failure.
We see that when the cat can nolonger produce any urine.
Unfortunately, death can occurwithin about 36 to 72 hours
(05:44):
later.
So that's about 3 to 6 daysafter eating the plant.
That is such a short amount oftime.
Alright, let's talk about how wecan diagnose lily toxicities.
I've said this before butthere's really no test that we
can do that's going to be anencompassing toxicology test.
At least not when they're aliveas we've learned with Dr.
(06:04):
Watson on the necropsy episode.
Therefore we have to look atwhat the lilies affect.
So we perform blood work andlook at the cat's kidney values,
which are called the creatinineand the BUN.
There are other important bloodwork factors like how dilute the
urine is, meaning, like, howclose is it to water?
Or how high the potassium is?
(06:25):
Or another test that's calledthe SDMA?
But the creatinine and the BUNare usually what we monitor the
most.
So if those are elevated then weare suspicious for our lily
toxicity along with severalother things like kidney
infections or even antifreezetoxicity.
The best way that we know thatit was a toxin is by your
(06:45):
history as a pet parent.
Knowing that lilies are in thehouse or that the cat had
vomited up some lily pieces.
Alright, what is the treatmentfor this?
If you know that your cat dideat part of the lily, the first
thing we attempt to do is to tryto make your cat vomit, if
they've eaten it within a coupleof hours.
Cats just don't read thetextbooks though.
(07:06):
We try to make the cats vomitbut usually they only vomit up
about 50 percent of the time.
It's not for a lack of tryingeither.
It's just that these drugs workmore on dogs than they do on
cats so they just don't work aswell on cats.
Some people will give activatedcharcoal afterwards to help bind
it.
That's a little controversialdepending on who you ask.
(07:26):
Some people feel it doesn't bindthe toxin while other people
feel that it does.
So if the cat has pollen onthem, then we wash it off with
Dawn dish soap, which you can doat home as well.
If you see that your cat gotinto pollen on their face, then
wash them up well with Dawn dishsoap and then bring them in.
It's just going to limit thetoxic exposure.
(07:47):
Next we need to help flush outthose toxins.
We do this by placing your caton IV fluids, meaning fluids
that go directly into the veins,which lead to the kidneys.
We want to dilute out as much ofthat toxin as possible.
You know how you use like thelast bit of soap and you just
don't have enough time to go tothe store to so instead you just
put water into the bottle, shakeit up really well, and then use
(08:10):
it, right?
But it's not quite as potent.
Then you've used up all the soapagain, you still didn't go to
the store, you put more waterinto it, that's really not as
soapy as it was, but it'll do.
And then you do this over andover again until basically all
you have is water in the bottle.
So that's basically what we'retrying to do to dilute the toxin
from the bloodstream and thekidneys.
(08:31):
We want to put as much fluidinto their body as possible, as
much as it can handle, to makeit more like water and less like
that toxin.
People have asked too, can't Ijust have my cat drink more
water?
Unfortunately, there's no wayfor them to be able to drink as
much water as they would need.
Their body is going to tell themthat they are not thirsty
anymore.
(08:52):
Even if you try to like forcewater down them, it's not going
to be enough.
So the best way we can get itinto them is putting it directly
into their IV.
So it's recommended to do thisfor about 48 hours at least.
We'll talk about that reason whyhere in just a second.
We always want to get initialblood work.
We want to see what your cat'skidney values look like.
(09:12):
That BUN and that creatinine.
If your cat is not having anyclinical signs or you caught it
really early, then I suspectthat those kidney values will
look normal because the kidneysare not affected yet.
But this gives us a startingpoint or what we call baseline
blood work.
We need to know what your cat'snormal is to see if those values
(09:32):
do increase.
We draw blood again every 24hours to see if the kidney
levels rise.
So here's the crazy thingthough.
The kidneys have to have abouttwo thirds of their function
damaged in order for the bloodwork to show any increases in
those values.
That's a lot of damage before itshows up in our blood work.
(09:53):
When you think about what twothirds is, like really that
means more than one kidneybecause you have two kidneys, if
one kidney is affected, that's50 percent of it.
So you have to have more thanone kidney affected.
You have to have both kidneysaffected in order for this to
show up in their blood work.
So some cat parents feel if theblood work is normal at 24
hours, then they should be fine,and they usually want to take
(10:13):
their cat home.
Maybe those kidney values areonly 50 percent affected at that
time, though.
If they're taken off IV fluids,then their kidneys will
definitely become damaged.
Instead, we want to wait that 48hours.
If their values are normal at 48hours, then we can most likely
say that they should be okay.
Some toxicologists recommendsending them home and then
(10:35):
having you bring your cat backafter 24 hours of being off of
IV fluids to recheck that bloodwork in case they do go up after
being off of IV fluids.
If they don't go up, then theyshould be in the clear.
So this is the best casescenario.
You see your cat eat a lily.
We make them vomit.
We hospitalize them on IV fluidsfor 48 hours, and the blood work
(10:58):
looks great.
So they get to return home.
24 hours later, you bring yourcat back, and we just recheck
the blood work to make sure it'snormal.
But what happens though when itdoesn't go well?
The longer the treatment isdelayed, the worse the prognosis
is.
If treatment is delayed by 18hours or more, it generally
leads to irreversible kidneydamage.
(11:20):
Some cats go on dialysis ifthey're near a specialty
hospital or a teaching hospitalthat does that, but most
hospitals don't have that.
Some cats though have kidneylevels that are too high and
their kidneys just stop working.
This means they've stoppedproducing urine.
And without dialysis, thisunfortunately means that they
should be humanely euthanized sothat they don't suffer.
(11:42):
I do have a case to talk about.
It was this little orange kitty.
His name was Marmalade.
He was very cute.
Best name for an orange kitty Ithink I've ever heard.
He had jumped up on the kitchentable at home, and his cat
parents saw that he had orangeon his face.
They didn't really think toomuch of it at first because they
thought that he'd just gotteninto maybe their kid's Play Doh
or something.
(12:04):
It wasn't until hours later thatthey were cleaning up and
realized that there was nothingout that was orange that he
could have gotten into.
They also noticed that Marmaladehad vomited multiple times
around the house.
So dad brought him in while momcleaned up all of the vomit.
When I walked into the room, Isaw his orange nose and I asked
if there was any way that therewere any lilies in the house.
(12:27):
People think of yellow being thepollen, but it just depends on
which type of lily it is.
Some lily pollen is yellow andsome of it is orange.
So, dad said no, that thereweren't any lilies in the house,
and I asked do you have anybouquets in the house?
And he told me that he did justbuy a bouquet for his wife last
night for her birthday.
(12:48):
I asked him if it had a lily init, and he asked his wife, she
sent over a picture, and thereit was.
One single lily in the middle ofa bunch of other flowers, which
I feel like is the most commonthing that I see.
So we talked about how thiscould be the cause of all of
this, and I recommendedhospitalizing him.
At first, Dad was like prettyhesitant, but I explained why
(13:11):
this was so important, and Icould tell he really did love
Marmalade and was worried.
He talked to his wife and theydid agree to hospitalize him
luckily.
I didn't make him vomit since hehad already been vomiting so
many times at home, it wasn'tgoing to produce anything else
for me.
The first blood work weperformed, luckily, showed that
he had normal kidney values.
(13:31):
So hopefully that meant itwasn't 18 hours ago when he had
bought those flowers.
We started him on IV fluids andat a fairly high rate and then
we just waited for his 24 hourrecheck.
When I talked to him in themorning, his cat mom did find
pieces of flower in his vomit,so we know that he did
definitely get into it.
(13:51):
So we talked more about like theoutcomes and possibilities of
what could happen and understandthat this could be really bad.
So at 24 hours, we rechecked hisblood work and his kidney levels
did go up.
So we knew definitely he hadgotten into that lily.
They were obviously heartbrokento hear this.
But we talked about how itwasn't over yet.
(14:11):
We still needed to give him moretime on IV fluids.
And just monitor to make surethat he's still producing urine.
If he wasn't producing urine,that's not a good sign.
At 48 hours, his kidney levelswere even higher though.
But again, he was stillproducing urine, so I told them
this may not be the end, and wereally could potentially still
(14:32):
have some hope because he isstill urinating.
So I got the 72 hour blood work,and I was really worried to look
at it.
But to my surprise, his kidneyvalues were actually down.
Not even close to normal, butless than they were at 48 hours,
and this was a good sign.
So if we could get his kidneylevels down to normal or close
to normal, that would be thebest news for him and his
(14:53):
family.
That also meant, though, he wasgoing to need to stay in the
hospital on IV fluids for much,much longer.
And his pet parents weredefinitely worried about funds.
But they were able to talk toseveral organizations who
donated to his cause and wereable to get him to stay in the
hospital.
Within six days, Marmalade'skidney values were almost normal
(15:13):
again, and he was able to returnhome.
Everyone at the clinic was likeso excited, just incredibly
happy to see this super cute andfriendly little Marmalade be
able to go home to his family.
I can't imagine if they hadwaited any longer to come in,
they may not have been able totake him home.
Luckily, everything worked outin the end.
(15:33):
Let's talk about prevention.
Really, the best way to preventthis from happening is to not
have any lilies around at all.
Don't plant them in your gardenif you know that your neighbors
have cats that go outside or youhave cats that go outside.
Don't bring them in your houseif you have cats.
And also if your mom has cats,please make sure the bouquets do
(15:53):
not have lilies in them beforeyou bring them to her.
The last thing that you want todo on Mother's Day is to have to
bring your mom and her cat tothe ER.
So I'm going to do a quickanimal fact for everybody who
loves to hear them.
Today we're going to do one onzebras, since we did actually
have a zebra escape inWashington.
(16:13):
So first of all, zebras are partof the equid family, meaning
that they are related to animalslike horses.
That also means that they have alot of similar traits.
They can be really playful.
They have a very powerful kick.
So powerful that they couldactually injure a lion.
The lead male is also called astallion.
Females are also called mares.
(16:35):
Babies are also called foals.
Some interesting things thatpeople may not know is that
there are actually three kindsof zebras.
There's the Grévy's zebra, whichis the largest of them,
measuring up to five feet talland weighing 770 to 990 pounds.
They have really large roundears that make them look mule
like.
(16:56):
There's the Mountain Zebra,which has a dewlap on their
throat that actually looks likean Adam's apple.
Plus their stripes runvertically on their neck and
torso.
And then there's the PlainsZebra, which is the most
abundant and actually thesmallest of them.
Some of these guys have brownishshadow stripes between their
black stripes, which is superinteresting.
(17:17):
And of course, everybody knowsthem for their stripes.
Most of the people know thatthey do use those stripes for
camouflage and that they havestripes that are really just as
unique as human fingerprints.
The stripes differ thoughdepending on where you are.
The further south you go on theAfrican plains, the further
apart those stripes actuallyget.
They also use their stripes foridentification too.
(17:40):
So this is especially true tothe foals or the babies who need
to know what their mom's stripeslook like in order to be able to
identify her.
Other mares usually will notadopt a foal.
Therefore, if the foal losesmom, then they're likely not
going to be able to eat.
So to ensure the foal recognizesmom, she'll distance herself
from the herd so that way thebaby can just see her and
(18:03):
imprint on her.
Once Mom knows that her foal hasimprinted on her, then she and
the baby will usually return tothe herd for protection.
All right.
Hopefully you learned somethings about our zebras and lily
toxicities, so thank youeveryone for joining us and
please share this with all yourfriends that you know who are
cat parents so that we can helpkeep our kitties safe.
(18:25):
As always, thank you to ShawnHyberg for editing the podcast
and Kelly Reopelle Dwyer forworking on the website.
Tune in next week as we talk toDr.
Brantman, the ophthalmologist,about what to watch for with
your pet's eyes.
Thank you everyone, and please,as always, keep your pets happy,
healthy, and safe.
We'll see you next week.
Did you know that lilies are responsible for a
significant number of catpoisoning cases, especially
during this time when people arereceiving Mother's Day bouquets?
This is a serious issue thatneeds immediate attention.
I'm Dr.
Sugerman and in this episode ofVetsplanation, we'll delve deep
into the dangers of lilies andhow to ensure the health and
(00:21):
happiness of both your moms' andtheir cats.
Lily toxicities can be extremelydangerous and lethal to cats.
The worst part about this toxinis that they're sold in stores
like all around the world withno warning signs to these
unsuspecting cat parents.
They're found in bouquets,people keep them in their house,
(00:42):
and they even are grownoutdoors.
So this makes this a highlytoxic plant found just about
anywhere.
Let's talk about what a lilyactually is too.
So don't worry, I'm not abotanist, nor am I even a very
good gardener.
So I'm not going to delve deepinto the facts.
But the fact is that there areactually two types of lilies.
There are true lilies, and thereare false lilies.
(01:06):
Did you even know that there wasa false lily?
For our purposes, we need toknow that true lilies are the
ones that can actually hurt ourkitty's kidneys.
False lilies have their problemstoo.
Now that's another podcast foranother time.
So let's go over what these reallilies actually are.
They are from the plant genuscalled Lilium, and the most
(01:26):
common true lilies are theEaster Lily, Japanese Lily, the
Ornamental Lily, the StargazerLily, the Casablanca Lily, and
the Tiger Lily.
There are also Day Lilies, whichare not truly in the Lilium
family.
but they still cause kidneyfailure as well.
Like I said before, I do nothave a green thumb, so I likely
(01:48):
would not be able to pick out acouple of these lilies if you
showed them to me.
Therefore, there are two greatresources.
You can go to the ASPCA website,and they have a list of toxic
plants, which we'll add a linkto in our show notes.
It has pictures next to them soyou can see what type of plant
it might be and identify them.
You can also call the ASPCA PetPoison Control and email them a
(02:11):
picture of the plant.
I do like to let people knowthat there is a fee for talking
to the ASPCA.
It was$95 the last time Ichecked.
It is not government funded, sothey have to pay their
veterinarians and their staffwith those funds.
Some insurance companies,though, will cover the cost, and
even some microchip companieswill cover the cost as well.
(02:31):
So just another perk to havingpet insurance and microchips.
They will look at the plantthough and they'll let you know
if it's toxic and if you need totake your cat to the vet
hospital.
They'll also give you a casenumber, which you should bring
with you to give to us becausethen we call and talk to the
veterinary toxicologist.
They'll let us know like howtoxic is this plant and what do
(02:53):
we need to do to treat it.
All right, now that we know whattrue lilies are, let's talk
about the plant's toxiccomponents and how they affect
our unsuspecting kitties.
So unfortunately, literallyevery part of the plant is
toxic.
Eating a leaf, chewing on aleaf, chewing on a flower, the
pollen from the flower, and eventhe water that the lily is
(03:14):
sitting in are all highly toxicto cats.
Even just the smallest amount,like chewing on the plant but
not swallowing it, or justgetting the pollen on their
nose, not even eating it, ishighly toxic.
You might be wondering, like,how lilies can cause such a
toxicity in cats and not otherpets and not us, right?
We touch the lilies all thetime.
(03:36):
We're not 100 percent sure why.
We do know that the lily willbreak down into smaller
components called metabolitesthat will directly affect the
cat's kidneys.
We have to assume it is becausethey have certain enzymes or
basically things that breakother things down, like lilies
being broken down intometabolites, that we and other
species do not have.
(03:58):
We also don't know what thetoxic versus lethal doses are.
Or in other words, like how muchof the plant will cause sickness
versus death.
Some cats react differently thanothers.
Some cats eat two leaves andthey need minimal treatment,
while other cats just bite theleaf and they're so severely
affected they have to beeuthanized or put on dialysis
(04:18):
until their kidneys somewhatheal.
And unfortunately, there's justno way to know which cat is
going to be affected in whichway.
So in a nutshell, every part ofthe plant and water is highly
toxic to cats.
So let's talk about our symptomsnext.
Initially, after ingesting thelily, you might see vomiting,
(04:39):
lethargy, or meaning likeweakness, not wanting to move,
drooling, and some decreasedappetite.
If they vomit up the plant, thenthat is great.
That means that they're going toget less of the toxin than they
would if they didn't vomit itup.
But it also means they havestill absorbed some of that
toxin.
This is the most common way thatpeople find that their cat ate a
(05:01):
lily, by the way, is usuallythey see it in the cats that
vomit.
The second most common way isthat they see the pollen on
their nose.
Anyways, in about 12 to 24 hoursafter ingestion is when we start
to see that the toxin affectedthe kidneys.
They have an increased thirst,they're urinating more, and
they're really dehydrated.
Because that is so fast.
(05:22):
I work about a 14 to 16 hournight shift.
If I bought my wife or mydaughter flowers, there could
already be too much damage tothe kidneys before I even return
home.
Alright, next we have truekidney failure.
We see that when the cat can nolonger produce any urine.
Unfortunately, death can occurwithin about 36 to 72 hours
(05:44):
later.
So that's about 3 to 6 daysafter eating the plant.
That is such a short amount oftime.
Alright, let's talk about how wecan diagnose lily toxicities.
I've said this before butthere's really no test that we
can do that's going to be anencompassing toxicology test.
At least not when they're aliveas we've learned with Dr.
(06:04):
Watson on the necropsy episode.
Therefore we have to look atwhat the lilies affect.
So we perform blood work andlook at the cat's kidney values,
which are called the creatinineand the BUN.
There are other important bloodwork factors like how dilute the
urine is, meaning, like, howclose is it to water?
Or how high the potassium is?
(06:25):
Or another test that's calledthe SDMA?
But the creatinine and the BUNare usually what we monitor the
most.
So if those are elevated then weare suspicious for our lily
toxicity along with severalother things like kidney
infections or even antifreezetoxicity.
The best way that we know thatit was a toxin is by your
(06:45):
history as a pet parent.
Knowing that lilies are in thehouse or that the cat had
vomited up some lily pieces.
Alright, what is the treatmentfor this?
If you know that your cat dideat part of the lily, the first
thing we attempt to do is to tryto make your cat vomit, if
they've eaten it within a coupleof hours.
Cats just don't read thetextbooks though.
(07:06):
We try to make the cats vomitbut usually they only vomit up
about 50 percent of the time.
It's not for a lack of tryingeither.
It's just that these drugs workmore on dogs than they do on
cats so they just don't work aswell on cats.
Some people will give activatedcharcoal afterwards to help bind
it.
That's a little controversialdepending on who you ask.
(07:26):
Some people feel it doesn't bindthe toxin while other people
feel that it does.
So if the cat has pollen onthem, then we wash it off with
Dawn dish soap, which you can doat home as well.
If you see that your cat gotinto pollen on their face, then
wash them up well with Dawn dishsoap and then bring them in.
It's just going to limit thetoxic exposure.
(07:47):
Next we need to help flush outthose toxins.
We do this by placing your caton IV fluids, meaning fluids
that go directly into the veins,which lead to the kidneys.
We want to dilute out as much ofthat toxin as possible.
You know how you use like thelast bit of soap and you just
don't have enough time to go tothe store to so instead you just
put water into the bottle, shakeit up really well, and then use
(08:10):
it, right?
But it's not quite as potent.
Then you've used up all the soapagain, you still didn't go to
the store, you put more waterinto it, that's really not as
soapy as it was, but it'll do.
And then you do this over andover again until basically all
you have is water in the bottle.
So that's basically what we'retrying to do to dilute the toxin
from the bloodstream and thekidneys.
(08:31):
We want to put as much fluidinto their body as possible, as
much as it can handle, to makeit more like water and less like
that toxin.
People have asked too, can't Ijust have my cat drink more
water?
Unfortunately, there's no wayfor them to be able to drink as
much water as they would need.
Their body is going to tell themthat they are not thirsty
anymore.
(08:52):
Even if you try to like forcewater down them, it's not going
to be enough.
So the best way we can get itinto them is putting it directly
into their IV.
So it's recommended to do thisfor about 48 hours at least.
We'll talk about that reason whyhere in just a second.
We always want to get initialblood work.
We want to see what your cat'skidney values look like.
(09:12):
That BUN and that creatinine.
If your cat is not having anyclinical signs or you caught it
really early, then I suspectthat those kidney values will
look normal because the kidneysare not affected yet.
But this gives us a startingpoint or what we call baseline
blood work.
We need to know what your cat'snormal is to see if those values
(09:32):
do increase.
We draw blood again every 24hours to see if the kidney
levels rise.
So here's the crazy thingthough.
The kidneys have to have abouttwo thirds of their function
damaged in order for the bloodwork to show any increases in
those values.
That's a lot of damage before itshows up in our blood work.
(09:53):
When you think about what twothirds is, like really that
means more than one kidneybecause you have two kidneys, if
one kidney is affected, that's50 percent of it.
So you have to have more thanone kidney affected.
You have to have both kidneysaffected in order for this to
show up in their blood work.
So some cat parents feel if theblood work is normal at 24
hours, then they should be fine,and they usually want to take
(10:13):
their cat home.
Maybe those kidney values areonly 50 percent affected at that
time, though.
If they're taken off IV fluids,then their kidneys will
definitely become damaged.
Instead, we want to wait that 48hours.
If their values are normal at 48hours, then we can most likely
say that they should be okay.
Some toxicologists recommendsending them home and then
(10:35):
having you bring your cat backafter 24 hours of being off of
IV fluids to recheck that bloodwork in case they do go up after
being off of IV fluids.
If they don't go up, then theyshould be in the clear.
So this is the best casescenario.
You see your cat eat a lily.
We make them vomit.
We hospitalize them on IV fluidsfor 48 hours, and the blood work
(10:58):
looks great.
So they get to return home.
24 hours later, you bring yourcat back, and we just recheck
the blood work to make sure it'snormal.
But what happens though when itdoesn't go well?
The longer the treatment isdelayed, the worse the prognosis
is.
If treatment is delayed by 18hours or more, it generally
leads to irreversible kidneydamage.
(11:20):
Some cats go on dialysis ifthey're near a specialty
hospital or a teaching hospitalthat does that, but most
hospitals don't have that.
Some cats though have kidneylevels that are too high and
their kidneys just stop working.
This means they've stoppedproducing urine.
And without dialysis, thisunfortunately means that they
should be humanely euthanized sothat they don't suffer.
(11:42):
I do have a case to talk about.
It was this little orange kitty.
His name was Marmalade.
He was very cute.
Best name for an orange kitty Ithink I've ever heard.
He had jumped up on the kitchentable at home, and his cat
parents saw that he had orangeon his face.
They didn't really think toomuch of it at first because they
thought that he'd just gotteninto maybe their kid's Play Doh
or something.
(12:04):
It wasn't until hours later thatthey were cleaning up and
realized that there was nothingout that was orange that he
could have gotten into.
They also noticed that Marmaladehad vomited multiple times
around the house.
So dad brought him in while momcleaned up all of the vomit.
When I walked into the room, Isaw his orange nose and I asked
if there was any way that therewere any lilies in the house.
(12:27):
People think of yellow being thepollen, but it just depends on
which type of lily it is.
Some lily pollen is yellow andsome of it is orange.
So, dad said no, that thereweren't any lilies in the house,
and I asked do you have anybouquets in the house?
And he told me that he did justbuy a bouquet for his wife last
night for her birthday.
(12:48):
I asked him if it had a lily init, and he asked his wife, she
sent over a picture, and thereit was.
One single lily in the middle ofa bunch of other flowers, which
I feel like is the most commonthing that I see.
So we talked about how thiscould be the cause of all of
this, and I recommendedhospitalizing him.
At first, Dad was like prettyhesitant, but I explained why
(13:11):
this was so important, and Icould tell he really did love
Marmalade and was worried.
He talked to his wife and theydid agree to hospitalize him
luckily.
I didn't make him vomit since hehad already been vomiting so
many times at home, it wasn'tgoing to produce anything else
for me.
The first blood work weperformed, luckily, showed that
he had normal kidney values.
(13:31):
So hopefully that meant itwasn't 18 hours ago when he had
bought those flowers.
We started him on IV fluids andat a fairly high rate and then
we just waited for his 24 hourrecheck.
When I talked to him in themorning, his cat mom did find
pieces of flower in his vomit,so we know that he did
definitely get into it.
(13:51):
So we talked more about like theoutcomes and possibilities of
what could happen and understandthat this could be really bad.
So at 24 hours, we rechecked hisblood work and his kidney levels
did go up.
So we knew definitely he hadgotten into that lily.
They were obviously heartbrokento hear this.
But we talked about how itwasn't over yet.
(14:11):
We still needed to give him moretime on IV fluids.
And just monitor to make surethat he's still producing urine.
If he wasn't producing urine,that's not a good sign.
At 48 hours, his kidney levelswere even higher though.
But again, he was stillproducing urine, so I told them
this may not be the end, and wereally could potentially still
(14:32):
have some hope because he isstill urinating.
So I got the 72 hour blood work,and I was really worried to look
at it.
But to my surprise, his kidneyvalues were actually down.
Not even close to normal, butless than they were at 48 hours,
and this was a good sign.
So if we could get his kidneylevels down to normal or close
to normal, that would be thebest news for him and his
(14:53):
family.
That also meant, though, he wasgoing to need to stay in the
hospital on IV fluids for much,much longer.
And his pet parents weredefinitely worried about funds.
But they were able to talk toseveral organizations who
donated to his cause and wereable to get him to stay in the
hospital.
Within six days, Marmalade'skidney values were almost normal
(15:13):
again, and he was able to returnhome.
Everyone at the clinic was likeso excited, just incredibly
happy to see this super cute andfriendly little Marmalade be
able to go home to his family.
I can't imagine if they hadwaited any longer to come in,
they may not have been able totake him home.
Luckily, everything worked outin the end.
(15:33):
Let's talk about prevention.
Really, the best way to preventthis from happening is to not
have any lilies around at all.
Don't plant them in your gardenif you know that your neighbors
have cats that go outside or youhave cats that go outside.
Don't bring them in your houseif you have cats.
And also if your mom has cats,please make sure the bouquets do
(15:53):
not have lilies in them beforeyou bring them to her.
The last thing that you want todo on Mother's Day is to have to
bring your mom and her cat tothe ER.
So I'm going to do a quickanimal fact for everybody who
loves to hear them.
Today we're going to do one onzebras, since we did actually
have a zebra escape inWashington.
(16:13):
So first of all, zebras are partof the equid family, meaning
that they are related to animalslike horses.
That also means that they have alot of similar traits.
They can be really playful.
They have a very powerful kick.
So powerful that they couldactually injure a lion.
The lead male is also called astallion.
Females are also called mares.
(16:35):
Babies are also called foals.
Some interesting things thatpeople may not know is that
there are actually three kindsof zebras.
There's the Grévy's zebra, whichis the largest of them,
measuring up to five feet talland weighing 770 to 990 pounds.
They have really large roundears that make them look mule
like.
(16:56):
There's the Mountain Zebra,which has a dewlap on their
throat that actually looks likean Adam's apple.
Plus their stripes runvertically on their neck and
torso.
And then there's the PlainsZebra, which is the most
abundant and actually thesmallest of them.
Some of these guys have brownishshadow stripes between their
black stripes, which is superinteresting.
(17:17):
And of course, everybody knowsthem for their stripes.
Most of the people know thatthey do use those stripes for
camouflage and that they havestripes that are really just as
unique as human fingerprints.
The stripes differ thoughdepending on where you are.
The further south you go on theAfrican plains, the further
apart those stripes actuallyget.
They also use their stripes foridentification too.
(17:40):
So this is especially true tothe foals or the babies who need
to know what their mom's stripeslook like in order to be able to
identify her.
Other mares usually will notadopt a foal.
Therefore, if the foal losesmom, then they're likely not
going to be able to eat.
So to ensure the foal recognizesmom, she'll distance herself
from the herd so that way thebaby can just see her and
(18:03):
imprint on her.
Once Mom knows that her foal hasimprinted on her, then she and
the baby will usually return tothe herd for protection.
All right.
Hopefully you learned somethings about our zebras and lily
toxicities, so thank youeveryone for joining us and
please share this with all yourfriends that you know who are
cat parents so that we can helpkeep our kitties safe.
(18:25):
As always, thank you to ShawnHyberg for editing the podcast
and Kelly Reopelle Dwyer forworking on the website.
Tune in next week as we talk toDr.
Brantman, the ophthalmologist,about what to watch for with
your pet's eyes.
Thank you everyone, and please,as always, keep your pets happy,
healthy, and safe.
We'll see you next week.
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