Your cat can be highly sensitive and even medically susceptible to certain decorative plants. In many cases, even a small nibble at the leaves or the bud can cause significant health problems or even death. Hence, while decorating your home, ensure you avoid these decorative plants if you have cats at home.
1. Autumn Crocus
This meadow saffron or naked lady is an attractive ornamental plant that adds beauty to your home. However, it’s extremely toxic to cats due to its alkaloid colchicine content. Cats that ingest autumn crocus show severe signs of GI issues like vomiting and blood in stools. It also leads to seizures, kidney and liver damage, and even death.
2. Daffodils
These springtime beauties add a soothing touche to your home surroundings with its deep yellow and white combination. However, their bulbs and leaves can be highly poisonous to cats. They can cause stomach upsets and vomiting and can lead to life-threatening complications, including mental health deficiencies.
3. Azaleas and Rhododendrons
These are small shrubs of flowering plants and small trees that have different species with different levels of toxicity. They have a component called grayanotoxins that cause serious health complications even with a small nibble. Your cat can show signs of vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, and a severe loss of appetite. Specific species of the flowers cause heart arrhythmias, tremors, transient blindness, and can lead to coma and death.
4. Hyacinths
These sweet-smelling flowers are amazingly beautiful to keep in your home. These Eastern Mediterranean-native flowers have bulbs with components like alkaloids that can prove fatal for cats. While causing severe gastrointestinal complications, these flowers can lead to other health issues in cats that diminish their performance physically and mentally.
5. Dieffenbachia
This unique plant is a significant part of a species of tropical flowering plants that have different names. It’s a popular houseplant that is loaded with insoluble calcium oxalate crystals that cause extreme oral irritation and complication. Your cat will develop a burning sensation in the mouth and start vomiting, drooling, and will find it very difficult to swallow food.
6. Oleander
It’s a very popular flowering shrub that grows in warm climates and is an attractive addition to your house. However, it contains high doses of cardiac glycoside toxins that can attack the heart muscles in cats. Disturbing and dangerous symptoms include drooling, diarrhea, vomiting, tremors, and seizures. It also causes fatal heart abnormalities in cats and can lead to death.
7. Mistletoe
These plants are proved to bring good luck to the house where it’s kept. However, for cats, it only leads to serious health issues and causes cardiovascular complications that are fatal.
8. Sago Palm
It’s a very common plant found in tropical and subtropical regions. This plant is highly toxic for cats, and its seeds are the most dangerous. It contains cycasin that damages the liver and attacks the immune system. Symptoms include vomiting, dark tarry stools, liver failure, lethargy, and bruising. If left untreated, it can lead to death.
