Oh my goodness! HELP!!!!!! I am about to cry!!

5 years ago, I rescued a dog and named her Lily.  She passed away suddenly and a friend of mine sent me an arrangement of lilies in her memory.  I had no idea then that they were toxic to cats and I cut the stems and out them in a vase.  My bridge kitty, Sissy, go one of those stem pieces and knawed it a little and wandered off.  She spent the next 2 weeks fighting for her life!  She made it through, but it was touch and go for a lot of the time and we won't even talk about the vet bill.

I now have 5 cats in my home and I am very particular about flowers.  My cats are mostly young (1-3 yrs) and healthy, with the exception of Blue who is almost 16...he has skin cancer and thyroid issues.  Well, a week ago, my pastor and his wife came to eat at our home.  They brought us flowers...with lilies.  I didn't want to be rude, so I cut the flowers (took the trash out immediately) and put them in a vase in a place where my cats could not reach them even if they wanted to.  All was fine.  I was watching the flowers for any signs of wilting, etc.  This morning, I got up and there was a chewed lily leaf in the floor!    My heart sank.  None of the leaf is missing.  It looks as if it was just bitten and then left alone...but it was definitely moved from where it fell over to a nearby rug because it couldn't have possibly fallen that far.  I have NO IDEA which cats chewed it, which ones came in contact with it, or when they got hold of it (between when I went to bed and woke up this morning - so a good 10 hours or so).  I called two vets in the area and neither were very helpful.  One said that I needed to bring in all 5 cats for a shot that costs $40 per shot.  I said, "Great...and this will protect them!"  She said, "no...it will make them vomit!."  ???  I can do that at home...but if they ate on it 10 hours ago, they can't vomit anything up!  It is digesting by now.  She agreed and told me to just give them peroxide and see what happens.  I also brought up the point that none of the leaf was actually ingested, so what would they be vomiting for?  I called the other vet and he said, "just watch them."  Watch them for what???  Signs of death?! 

Someone, please help me!  Surely I am not the first to ever experience something like this with multiple cats!?  I am about to CRY!!

I'm so sorry this happened, not knowing who makes it worse.

Here is a link about Easter lilies, though it applies to all lilies.  Based on this article, if any of your cats started to act in any way different, I'd be taking them to the vet ASAP.

I think that's all you can do... watch them. How fast did your other cat show symptoms?

Let's hope since none was ingested, everyone will be fine. Good luck!
 

My other cat took about 12 hours to start showing symptoms.  I gave 3 of the 5 cats hydrogen peroxide to make them vomit and none of them did.    Now we just have to wait and see.  I am so upset!

I don't blame you for being upset!  And frantic.  From what I read, it doesn't take much at all to cause harm.  (don't want to scare you, but also want you to be aware).  Let's home that whoever did it just put their tooth thru it to drag it and didn't actually lick it or anything. 

Next time you are given lilies, the best thing to do is give them to a neighbor or something as soon as the giftor leaves.  Or you could always send them back home with the giftor...they probably would enjoy them themselves, and should understand perfectly why you can't keep them.

Please keep us posted on what happens.  Hopefully nothing

Wow, I had no idea. I need to read about these hazards for my new kitties.

BTW, the same caveats may or may not apply to dried flowers.  I tried to get a definitely answer to the question:  does drying flowers change the chemicals that make the flowers/plant toxic? I couldn't get an answer yes/no.

I make dried flower wreaths and since I have a purple thumb, I alo have dried flower arrangements in vases. 

So to play it safe I only use dried flowers in vases that I know are non-toxic, like sea oats and roses.  My dried flower wreaths are hung high and away from any jumping off places, like bookcases or sofa.  So far, no problems. 

I'd like a list of toxic insects, the ones we might not think of.  For example, obviously black widow spiders are a no-no, but how about daddy long legs?  Ritz liked to chase/eat DaddyLong Legs (free) more than the crickets I bought at Petco (44 cents each).