PSA: Lilies are toxic

Those gorgeous lilies from my last post turned out to be our downfall! Yesterday was Labor Day, and we woke up late to find Ezzie hacking up her breakfast. It was an impressive showing. She also had orange dust all over her face, which led us to the lilies. Ezzie had gone to TOWN on them - she had eaten several petals off the blooms. We scolded her, and I took this picture.

I sent the photo to my mom, since Ez looked so pollen-tastic. A few hours later, when Mike and I were well into our drive to Big Sur for what we were sure would be a mind-melting Explosions in the Sky concert at the Henry Miller Library, my mom called to let us know that lilies are toxic to cats. Highly toxic.

We made some calls, found increasingly alarming information on the internet, and turned the car around for a very long drive back to the city. We were worried, and disappointed, and pissed. What kind of animal eats a bouquet of flowers, let alone ones that are poisonous? Did she not know how expensive the concert was, or how excited we were to spend Labor Day in Big Sur?

Obviously she didn't, and when we got home she was waiting by the door, as desperate for dinner as always. We shoved her into the carrier and took her to the emergency vet, and they got her on an IV right away. She spent the night there, and by their account had a wonderful time getting her belly rubbed and eating fancy food. This morning I handed over my credit card with my eyes closed, and we took her over to her regular vet, where she settled into looking adorably pathetic.

Aside from the awkwardness of still having the IV catheter in, she seemed fine. The vet is going to continue to flush her kidneys via IV, and tomorrow morning they'll do bloodwork to see how it's going. She may have eaten too much for treatment to help, she may be perfectly fine, or - most likely, it sounds like - she'll be ok but will have kidney problems that crop up later in life. So send nice nuzzling thoughts to poor cuddly hairless lily-eating Ezzie, and I'll keep you updated.