Woman Warns About Keeping Lilies In Your Home After Her Cat Was Poisoned

Coming into spring we can look forward to a renewal of all the pretty flowers. However, spring also means that we pet owners need to be on high alert since some of these pretty plants can actually pose a danger to our precious pets. Most of us pet owners probably already know which plants are a toxic problem, and which ones might not be an issue. However, many of us assume that so long as well keep the dangerous ones out of reach of our pets that we have nothing to worry about – and that is where we’d be wrong.

Sadly, one woman posted a warning about that not being enough, after she lost her cat who died without having directly touched the lilies that she kept in her home.

28-year-old Brittany Lynne Schurz from Houston, Texas, shared the important PSA to her Facebook page because she didn’t want other cat owners to be unaware of the dangers that come with lilies being in the home – even if they’re out of reach.

When Brittany’s husband, Jamie, surprised her on Valentine’s Day with a bouquet of lilies, Brittany didn’t think it would be a problem. She knew that they were poisonous to cats, so she figured that so long as she took precautions and kept the flowers out of reach from her cat, Liffey, everything would be ok.

Sadly, that was a fatal mistake and six-month-old Liffey ended up dying.

As Brittany shared on her post, “We watched them bloom and enjoyed the way the entire room would fill with their aroma. They killed our kitten, Liffey. Unlike sago palms, oleanders, and other common, yet extremely toxic plants, a cat doesn’t need to eat or chew a lily for them to get sick. Keeping them away from her did nothing.”

The reason being is because the lilies dropped some of their pollen on the ground. From there, Liffey must have stepped on it, and then ingested the pollen later while she was grooming herself. She didn’t have to directly come in contact with the plants in order to get sick from the toxicity.

Unfortunately, Liffey didn’t show any symptoms of poisoning until 12 hours later, when it was already too late. Sadly at that stage, Liffey was going into complete renal failure, and she had ulcers in her digestive tract. She then began to start twitching, at which point the couple rushed her to the animal hospital. Vets put her on an IV and began administering medication, but there was no guarantee that she would recover.

She eventually had to be put to sleep when it became apparent that she would not be recovering.

Brittany was heartbroken by the tragedy, but she made the decision to share her story in hopes that it would bring awareness to other pet owners and could potentially save a life.

She said, “My poor, beloved girl was killed by a beautiful flower without her ever having to touch it. Do not put lilies in your home if you have a cat – even up high in a place the cat cannot reach. We learned this the hardest way possible and had to put down our six-month-old angel before she went into the final stages of suffering, at 5:30 AM Saturday morning.”

Don’t let the same thing happen to your beloved cat. Rest in peace sweet Liffey!