Cat sensitivity to water lily?

[tenuki]

This year I brought two lilies in to try to overwinter.  I put them in a large bucket with water with declor added.  One is doing well the other NOT.  My 2 year old cat has presented with severe dehyration.  Blood work, x-rays, urine tests all normal.  Except that the blood work showed the normal signs of dehydration.  They gave her fluids and I brought her home on Saturday.  She still is not eating or drinking.  My sister, who worked for a vet for years suggested she got into something. The only thing I can think of is the lilies I brought in.  Does anyone know if lily roots could cause some sort of reaction?  I am bringing her in again tomorrow for more fluids.  Thanks

[LeeAnne151]

Highly doubt it.

Easter lilies are very poisonous to cats but they are not related to waterlilies. Easter lilies have grassy leaves and are commonly chewed by indoor only cats with no access to grass.

Lily poisoning causes kidney failure and would show up on bloodwork.

Very sorry about your kitty. Try Fancy Feast wet food, it is highly stinky and almost all cats love it, even if they don't want to eat their own food. Wet food is good for dehydrated kitty too.

[tenuki]

Fancy Feast, wholesome Goodness, Friskies, people tuna in a can, boiled chicken, ham - she won't eat anything.  The lilies were a guess as to what, if anything she could have gotten into.  The lilies are the only different thing I have in my house.  The one lily died so I disected it and the dirt and roots did sit in my basement for a day or two.  Thought maybe she may have tried to eat some of the roots.

[Kittyzee]

Did she drink the water with the dechlor in it?  My cats will drink water from the humidifier when I'm filling the tanks or from any strange dish I bring into the house.  I don't know anything about dechlor, so I was wondering about that. 

[tenuki]

I don't know if she drank the water or not.  I have 4 cats, 3 go outside and one drinks from the pond all the time.  She does not go outside.  I will ask the vet tomorrow when I bring her in to re-hydrate. 

[miguynmkoi]

Sorry your kitties are not well.  I'm not sure what kind of waterlily bulbs are aten in Asian cuisine but I know they are very tasty and of course edible.  There should be something that shows up in their blood test.  Maybe they got into and ingested a cleaning agent or mild chemical.

Hope they feel better soon!

[Joyce]

I would IMMEDIATELY tell your vet that she possibly drank water with dechlor in it. 

[tenuki]

I will bring the jar of declor with to the vet.  Thanks

[Roark]

If the dechlorinator is sodium thiosulfate, the cat will be fine.  It's virtually non-toxic.  (In fact, it's used at high dose rates to counteract some metals and cyanide poisoning in both humans and cats). And it's somewhat bitter too.  Take this compound off your list of worries.

Another dechlorinator would be Amquel (and related analogs) all of which are pretty low toxicity.  And the stuff tastes gawd-awful, so I'd be surprised if this compound caused any problems, either.

Now if the dechlor is based on some of the other (old-school) compounds like aldehydes, then you could very easily kill a cat with small doses.  These are NASTY campers indeed, but they're pretty rare these days.  It's getting hard to even find the stuff anymore.

My guess is Kitty got into something else...

Roark

[tracey_shafer]

Do you use Frontline on your kitty? I did, and mine ended up with a similar outcome. Not right away but it always had a bad reaction to it and would drink tons of water after it was applied.  Then we had this outcome with no know cause, I did not relate the two at first. He has been underweight since and losing weight year after year, again the vet could not find a reason. I finally asked for a safer flea product this last summer and am hoping the damage is not to late.

[Kittyzee]

You may even want to check some of the pet food recalls:  there have been sooooo many and they cause liver failure.

[tenuki]

No frontline, the dechlor is OK according to the vet - it is the trisulfate or something like that.
The cat food is a good possibility and will check on that
She ate 4 pieces of dry food today and one taste of wet food.  So maybe on the mend.  Glad to hear it probablly is not anything from the pond because the other three cats do go outside and they do drink from the pond.
Thanks everyone