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Hi
I have to apologise that my weekly message is a few days late. It's been an emotional wreck of a week but things are starting to calm down. If you have a beloved pet you'll know how I feel. What happened also relates to something those of us who grow plants need to be aware of.
Last week I noticed that my little cat Cheebies wasn't eating, was obsessed with drinking water, and didn't seem to be eating. Her breath was terrible too. Not normal cat bad breath but something that smelled terribly wrong.
The first vet I went to -- her usual one -- thought it was tummy issues and sent us home to try to wait it out. By the time I took her back in a few days after she'd lost even more weight and her eyes were sunken. They then thought to do a blood test which told us that she was suffering massive kidney failure. After 24 hours on a fluid drip they told me to put her down. I was devastated.
I took Cheebies home to say goodbye. There are about a million photos of her on my phone right now. Her looking cute but quiet and me looking an absolute wreck. She did seem a little improved though. I just couldn't give up on her.
The next morning I took her in to a country vet that came highly recommended by about a dozen friends. I drove her out to a farm in the north of the Island and waded my way past chickens to carry my little cat inside. After an examination, the vet, Ruth, was more hopeful and put her back on fluids for two more days.
I took her home after and she seems to be better -- eating, drinking less frantically, and even playing. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to manage her kidney damage but only time will tell. She's not in pain, which is the important thing.
Her first blood results show off the chart levels of Creatine, Urea, and Phosphorus in her blood. Her red blood cells were normal. This indicates that Cheebies ate something toxic and it went straight to her kidneys. This brings us back to gardening.
Though the vet thinks that Cheebies may have walked through a puddle of antifreeze and then licked it off later when grooming. It's also possible that she ate part of a toxic plant.
All true lilies are deathly toxic to cats -- leaf, pollen, and flower. They don't even need to eat them to be affected either. The pollen that falls from the flowers can get on a kitty's paws. Like the anti-freeze scenario, they ingest the pollen when they groom themselves. From there they suffer catastrophic kidney failure. It kills them.
I live in an area where most of my neighbours have large gardens and I'll probably never know if it was lilies or not. I suspect it though.
If you have cats or cats that wander through your property, please be aware that all true lilies can be fatal to them. These include Easter lilies, Tiger lilies, Asiatic lilies, Day lilies, and Japanese Show lilies. If you grow them and your cats are fine, you are just lucky. It could be a matter of time before your beloved puss rubs against one and gets snowed on with pollen.
If your cat is a nibbler of plants, you should also watch out for toxic house plants. There's some photos of Cheebies (and Louis) plus a list of toxic houseplants over on Lovely Greens.
I'll keep you updated on Cheebies' progress in Friday's newsletter. Thank you so much for being understanding of my tardiness in sending you a message too. It's been a tough week.
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