Article written by The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center
While chocolate and flowers are traditionally considered romantic Valentine’s Day traditions, dogs, cats and other pets who nibble on their owner’s gifts definitely won’t be feeling the love.
The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center has gathered a list of common and not-so-common Valentine’s Day toxicities to help you provide the best possible care to your patients.
Chocolate
Get ready for the next wave of chocolate cases, since Valentine’s Day is a biggie!
Often chocolates contain additional fillings which increase the risk of pancreatitis but may limit the amount of actual chocolate ingested. While not common, keep an eye out for raisins and xylitol in chocolate.
Flowers
Roses are certainly the iconic flower of Valentine’s day, but mixed bouquets are also common. Unfortunately, lilies that can cause acute kidney injury in cats (Lillium sp. or Hemerocallis sp.) are commonly used in mixed bouquets.
Don’t trust the affected pet’s owner to identify flowers in the bouquet—instead, request a picture or have the owner call the store/company where the flowers were purchased and get a list of what was in the bouquet.
And if you’re not good at identifying flowers, there are many apps and websites with pictures of common flowers used in bouquets.