12/12/2025
The holiday season is upon us!
A common gift this holiday is a heart felt bouquet/ lovely plant.
While it is never our intention to let our furry friends nibble on these delightful presents, sometimes they just can't help themselves. 🙄
For your information and to hopefully save you a trip from seeing us here is a list of common holiday flowers that could really put a damper on your celebrations.
🌺🎄🌺🎄🌺🎄🌺
1. Christmas Lilly: While not as toxic as other members of it's family (i.e. Tiger, Japanese show, Stargazer, and Easter lilies) they are still toxic to our four legged friends nevertheless. Acute kidney failure is the leading concern with these.
2.Holly: Will not leave your friend's belly very jolly. Aside from the risk of it's sharp edges causing injury to their mouth and esophagus, the saponins in it can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
3. Mistletoe: A sweet tradition to sneak a kiss under but should it's berries reach your pet's lips it could cause drooling, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. If excessive amounts are ingested they could likely experience an abnormal heart rate, low blood pressure, incoordination, collapse, seizures, and even death.
4. Cyclamen: These typically red, pink, or white beauties contain saponins in every part of it. Once again leading to an upset to the GI system. Ingested in large amounts abnormal heart rates, seizures, and death could occur.
5: Amaryllis: The alkaloids in these flowers when ingested in small amounts may cause mild GI upset. The roots and leaves ingested in large amounts can cause low blood pressure, lethargy, and excessive salivation.
6: Poinsettia: The most notorious of the Christmas flowers is unfortunately mildly toxic to our friends. It has a white sap which contains that saponin again. Both ingestion and skin contact to this sap can cause redness, swelling, and itchiness.
7: Pine: Last on this list is the Christmas tree! Our feline friends are notorious for scaling our beautifully decorated symbol of cheer. While not very toxic in small amounts too many needles ingested raise the risk of vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, abdominal pain, and trauma to the mouth and esophagus.
We hope this help to keep your beloved pets safe this holiday season!
Feliz Navidad!
Love, your friends at the Waterville Veterinary Clinic.
