A Brush With Death

For the past four days, I’ve been worried my cat would not make it through the weekend. If you’ve been following my podcast Voz Memos, you know I just celebrated having Bobby for 6 months. Even when we beef, she makes every day so much better. From greeting me when I get home, to cuddling at night, to dance parties (I dance, and she tolerates me) she is the best cat ever. She is sweet, curious, and quite the foodie.

The Incident

Bobby has been known to give plants a little nibble, as most cats would. All summer, I diligently ensured my farmer’s market bouquets were cat-safe. Then over the weekend, while celebrating my 2-year anniversary with my boyfriend, I brought home a Trader Joe’s bouquet which included a single lily. At the time I didn’t think much of it and Bobby was more interested in some of her new Halloween-themed toys than the bouquet.

Thursday afternoon, the lily opened up and the pollen was exposed. Bobby jumped up on the windowsill; moments later, her shoulder was covered in the pollen. At first, I thought the brown smudge was burnt fur from a candle. I rushed over and inspected it and realized it was only pollen. My relief was short-lived. Brushing it off with a paper towel left a yellow stain. One Google search later I learned the stain was the least of my worries. It turns out lilies are not only toxic to cats, they can be extremely deadly.

The entire lily plant is toxic: the stem, leaves, flowers, pollen, and even the water in a vase. Eating just a small amount of a leaf or flower petal, licking a few pollen grains off its fur while grooming, or drinking the water from the vase can cause your cat to develop fatal kidney failure in less than 3 days
FDA – Lovely Lilies and Curious Cats

At this point, I was in panic mode. I rushed to wash off her shoulder with soap and water until she was soaking wet. When the stain was washed away, I called my vet who told me to escalate my questions to the pet poison helpline. They told me lily exposure should be taken extremely seriously. It was time to bring Bobby to my nearest emergency vet.

The Diagnosis

She was triaged in quickly but I was still spiraling. How could I have endangered her like this? There were no updates almost an hour after they had taken her to be examined. When it was finally time for the consultation, the doctor offered two options: a 1-2 night hospitalization with IV fluids or an outpatient monitoring period with daily bloodwork checkups with Bobby’s primary care vet. She wasn’t showing any symptoms of lily poisoning yet and her initial bloodwork was normal. I decided to take her home and follow the outpatient procedure. It was risky, there was no way to confirm she hadn’t ingested any pollen. I had to trust she was going to be ok. So after administering some activated charcoal to bind to any toxins in her system, we headed home.

Every move Bobby made over the next 24 hours came with questions. “Does she always act like that?” “Is she hiding her pain?” “Are these our last few hours together?” Ultimately after multiple check-ins, either the charcoal flushed out any ingested toxins or she never ate any to begin with. I’ll never know. All I know is I have my cat, she’s happy and healthy, and I’ll never bring a lily into my apartment again.

Reddit is full of stories that were not as lucky as me and Bobby. Even those that make it through this experience, end up with crazy vet bills (thank goodness for pet insurance). I want to share our story to help other pet parents. So if you know other cat parents, share this article, or better yet, share this zine that recaps the whole experience.