Barking!
April 27, 2015Celebrating Military Dogs
May 24, 2015Summer is quickly approaching and our lovable pooches are prone to spending more time outdoors. Fun under the sun is a great way to enjoy fresh air and get some much-needed playtime with your pup, but there are quite a few garden plants and flowers that poise potential harm to your pets. While the list of toxic plant life is long, there are handful of usual suspects that are often found in parks, along trails, and in home gardens. We’ve rounded up the seven most common types of harmful plants and flowers. Take a moment to look over our list and ensure your dog’s experience outdoors is a fun and safe one.
Lilies
Lilies are among the most dangerous of garden plants, and ingesting any part of of this flower can induce kidney failure. Symptoms may appear as loss of appetite, lethargy, and vomiting.
Azaleas
Dogs who ingest even a small amount of an azalea can be at risk for oral irritation, diarrhea, and in extreme cases coma and death. These rhododendrons have been around for hundreds of years, and while they’re beautiful shrubs, they’re dangerous plant life.
Daffodils
Daffodils are poisonous in their entirety, but the bulb is the most dangerous culprit. Dogs who eat any part of a daffodil can experience abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, and the bulb can trigger the aforementioned symptoms in addition to convulsions and a serious drop in blood pressure.
Aloe Vera
While this plant has many friendly attributes for humans, it can be dangerous to dogs. Aloe Vera plants can cause vomiting, depression, diarrhea, anorexia, tremors, and change in urine color.
Chrysanthemums
This plant, albeit beautiful, can cause vomiting, diarrhea, hyper salivation, clumsiness, and dermatitis. Chrysanthemums come in multiple colors and can appear quite different from one another, so consider looking up this flower for reference points.
Oleander
This decorative shrub is toxic and can cause fatal heart abnormalities, muscle tremors, clumisness, vomiting, and blood in the stool. Arguably the least common on this list, oleander’s are dangerous despite their beauty.
Cycads
This group includes Sago palms and cardboard palms, and all parts of these plants are poisonous. Symptoms include vomiting, lethargy, black or tarry faces, jaundice, thirst, bloody stool, bruising, and even liver failure and death.
There are many plants that can be harmful to pets, both indoor and outdoor. For a full list of hazardous plants from the ASPCA visit https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants.