Easter Lilies Poisonous to Cats

“Are Easter lily plants poisonous to cats?”.

The short answer is yes, yes they are.

In fact, the most potentially life-threatening lilies that cats can eat belong to the genera Lilium — true lilies — and Hemerocallis. Your Easter lily is a “true lily” in all its splendor and feline deadliness.

It is normal for cats to eat small amounts of plants or grass, but this behavior is definitely not okay when it’s a lily.

The entire lily plant — leaf, flower, and pollen — is poisonous to them. Even if they just lick a few pollen grains off their coats or eat a couple of leaves, cats can suffer acute kidney failure within a very short period of time.

Common signs that you’ll want to be watching for are:

Inappetence or anorexia (your cat can’t or won’t eat)

Lethargy or depression

Hiding

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Dehydration

Increased or decreased urination

So, are Easter lily plants poisonous to cats? Yes, and even more worrisome is that, if untreated, death can occur within seven days of ingestion. If your cat has consumed a lot of the plant, this could happen much sooner.

There are other types of lilies that can cause similar damage to your cat.

Among these are Asiatic, Japanese Show, rubrum, stargazer, red, tiger, Western, and wood lilies, which are all Lilium species. Additionally, daylilies (which are a Hemerocallis species), are also dangerous.