I’m at my GF’s and her cat was just sort of foaming at the mouth. Well, as her mom described, there was saliva around his mouth and he seemed to be acting like he had a bad taste. She suspects he masy have eaten a plant they have in the house and is wondering if this plant could be harmful.
The plant is about a foot tall and looks a lot like a mini-palm tree with a wooden stem and leaves like, well, like a palm tree I guess.
Any ideas or advice?
The plant sounds like a Dracaena, my cats chew on mine all the time and have never been poisioned. If fact, it is one of their favorite plants of mine to chew. But to be safe, I would call the vet anyways. The foaming at the mouth part is scary, it might have been something else and not the plant that is causing that. Sometimes plants can have stuff sprayed on them (to kill bugs, fetilizer, etc) that isn’t very healthy for kitties.
My vet has a phrase, garbage-gut, that brings a lot of cats to his clinic. The way a cat’s skull is put together means Fluffy can’t see what he’s eating. That’s what makes him so amusing when he catches a mousie. Imagine, if you look at the center of your monitor, that you can’t see the keyboard. That what your cat sees. He’s also so curious that he’ll eat nearly anything. Cats eat many non-food items, but they’re pretty good at barfing them back up. If your kitty friend barfs for 2 days straight, THEN take him to the vet. Otherwise, you’ll probably pay an office call for a vet’s shrug. That’s what Dr. Rick Chaille says. In the meantime, check for excessive redness in the mouth, and blood in the vomit.
You might want to search the Indiana Plants Poisonous to Livestock and Pets databases. (They are organized by names and types and by photos.)
When you describe “palm like,” do you mean Dieffenbachia: DUMBCANE (pictured)? That one can cause problems. For the other plants on the list, you might use Google’s “Images” search engine based on the names on that list if you don’t know the actual plant.
Foaming at the mouth can be a sign of oral irritation - chemical(which can include a bad taste) or mechanical (from spiny plant parts or just roughness/abrasion). It’s possible the plat itself is not to blame (plant sprays or fertilizers, as mentioned above). If you can figure out what the plant is, you can at least call the vet and ask if it’s toxic; most vets have lists of toxic plants. However, I will point out that foaming at the mouth could be symptomatic of other problems; it’s the commonest sign of certain types of seizure, for instance, and occasionaly it will occur as a sign of electrocution (from chewing electrical cords - much more common in puppies, however.)If it persists, recurs, or develops new symptoms, I’d definitely see the vet. If you’re not sure, I’d at least call; often a vet can talk to you on the phone and at least steer you a bit, even though they can’t make a diagosis over the phone.
Thanks for your responses. The cat seemed to be all right as the night progressed, but I will forward this thread to my GF for her info.
BTW, I don’t believe that she uses any fertilizers of chemical treatments on her houseplants but I’m not sure.