On Tuesday, I went to the florist for a big bunch of flowers for a friend (45 years old who thought that buying glittery roller skates so she could sidewalk skate with her kids would be fun, and fell and broke both wrists) and found a pot of hyacinths on sale, so I bought it for me.
After delivering gifts to friend (who was wearing casts from fingers to upper arms) the hyacinths arrived home around 4 pm. The next morning, our Invisible Cat seemed to be slightly weirder than normal, but we didn’t really think much about it. We did our things and at kitty dinner time both agreed that IC wasn’t looking right and that he needed a vet visit.
The vet thought that IC looked great for a 16 year old cat, but thought he was dehydrated so did blood work and gave him some fluids.
On Friday, IC didn’t want to eat and started hiding more than normal. By this time, I was grasping at straws. The more I watched him, the more sure I was that he was going to die.
FINALLY, I started looking at the pretty flower on the kitchen island Where No Cats Are Allowed (and also which hadn’t been nibbled…I keep a close eye on that sort of nonsense.)
Despite knowing that the plant hadn’t been nibbled, I double checked and found that it was probably killing our “special” cat. Our other cat was just fine. Plants are outside and will not be allowed back in.
IC isn’t back to normal, but we think he’s going to be OK.
TLDR Do not have both living hyacinths and cats in the same home. I’d guess that if you had a dead cat and a living hyacinths that would be good, but I don’t think that a dead hyacinths and living cat would be a good match. Probably if they were both dead it would work, but that would not look very nice on the kitchen island.
Thanks for passing that on; stuff like that is always really good to know. And regarding what needscoffee said, we almost lost our cat because of Lillie’s that were in our backyard. Prior to that we had no idea
Wow. I had no idea. And now I’m wondering if this is what happened to my 16 year old cat Will. I was given three hyacinth plants when I retired last year. Two weeks later I woke to find Will dead. He was not in great health but I hadn’t noticed anything particularly off with him. He slept most of the time. The other two cats did seem to be especially attentive in his last few days. I think they knew he was dying and were trying to comfort him, one or both of them constantly cuddling with him. I didn’t realize the significance of that until he had died and felt kind of guilty that I hadn’t picked up on it. Now I have to wonder if it was the hyacinths. Of course, I’ll never know but thanks for this information. I will never bring hyacinths back in the house.
See @panache45 that’s kinda what happened here. I checked them when I got it home and learned about the bulb and leaves, but not the issue with the pollen until I was motivated to look further.
I keep a close eye on all plants in our home because we have a very bad cat that will get up on the kitchen island and nibble on plants, but she’s gotten better about it in her golden years. No more flowering bulbs of any kind in our house, I’m not going to risk this sort of thing again.
A friend’s cat was nearly taken out by a lily. I do not know if any was actually eaten, or if it was only pollen. Hyacinth, jasmine, lily, oleander, I would avoid all that stuff.
That is so sad, @aurora_maire. IC didn’t really “act” sick. He slept a lot and it wasn’t uncommon for him to not come out for dinner. I think I only picked up on it because we recently lost a cat to drawn out battle with FIV and am currently hyper-aware of what’s going on with our cats.
I was planning on planting my hyacinths in a pot outside, but our neighbors let their cats out. (Maybe I’ll plant it in my friend’s yard. She doesn’t have cats and doesn’t have cats around and wants pretty flowers. She also has broken arms, so won’t be able to do anything about the javalina digging it up but run around and scream. I don’t want her to get too bored, after all.)
Thanks for the heads up! Fortunately (?) the list of flowers I know I’m allergic to is much longer than the list I know I’m not, so my guys are only ever going to be around Christmas cacti which I’m only moderately allergic to (and people keep giving me), miniature roses and pansies which I’m not allergic to, all three of which are non-toxic to cats.
I’m so glad you followed your hunch and read up on it.
I love bulb-type plants but have known for years how toxic they can be for cats. But I didn’t know about the pollen issue. Remember, that onions are also bulbs and keep the cats away from foods that contain them.
