| Many of our lovely garden plants are poisonous to | | | | (and painfully) if enough is eaten. It should be |
| children, but children don't usually go into the | | | | placed under something heavy such as rocks, logs |
| garden intending to eat them! We can warn our | | | | or pot plants. Another idea is to use a piece of |
| children away from pretty berries and they will | | | | metal pipe, so long as it is long and narrow enough |
| (usually) take notice. But what about our pets? | | | | to exclude animals' paws and noses. This is a |
| Some plants are absolutely toxic to cats and dogs | | | | good idea for positioning rat poison, too. |
| For instance, the bulbs or rhizomes of lilliums, iris, | | | | Always keep pets and children off lawns that |
| lily of the valley and agapanthus are lethal to cats. | | | | have been sprayed with weedkillers until the |
| The poison hidden away in these otherwise | | | | spray has dried and preferably for twenty-four |
| delightful plants will destroy your cat's kidneys | | | | hours afterwards. |
| completely, should they be ingested. While this | | | | Symptoms of poisoning in dogs and cats include |
| sounds like bad news, it's not very likely that | | | | stumbling, salivating, vomiting or having seizures, |
| pussycat will dig up the plants especially to have a | | | | or other unusual behaviours. Take the suspect |
| chew at the roots. On the other hand, some cats | | | | product or plant with you when you go to the |
| love to chew at anything, so if you dig the plants | | | | vet. |
| up for any reason just be aware of the problem. | | | | The shellback or paralysis tick, in those areas |
| There are also a range of plants that are | | | | affected by this little pest, can also cause some |
| extremely poisonous to dogs. These are called | | | | of the above symptoms. It is smaller than the |
| the dogbanes because they are the bane, or | | | | bottle ticks that have a metallic blue colour when |
| nemesis of dogs. In this case, it is the sap that is | | | | full of blood, and larger than the tiny grass tick, |
| the problem; so if you have a mischievous puppy | | | | which causes nothing more than irritation and itch. |
| or dog that likes to chew plants in your garden, | | | | If you are unfortunate enough to find one on |
| beware! | | | | your pet, it will have a wrinkled back, rather like a |
| Many of the dogbane family come from the | | | | shell. Often the first symptom you will notice is |
| tropics, flower for long periods and have sweet | | | | that your pet has difficulty walking, for the back |
| perfumes. They include such diverse plants as the | | | | legs quickly become paralyzed. These days, an |
| frangipanni, the mandevilla group, eg, Brazilian | | | | injection will save your pet's life so long as you |
| jasmine, oleanders, wintersweet and the vinca | | | | get it quickly enough. In the old days, coffee |
| family, including the periwinkle. While toxic to dogs, | | | | essence was used to stimulate the heart until the |
| this last plant is saved from a bad reputation by | | | | animal recovered. But that didn't always work. |
| being used in the treatment of diabetes and some | | | | It is wise to keep a tick collar on your dog or cat, |
| cancers. | | | | or use a pour-on tickicide - poisonous to ticks, but |
| Garden poisons can also adversely affect your | | | | not to our canine and feline friends. |
| pets. Snail bait can kill a dog or cat very quickly | | | | |