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A Tasty Treat?

While doing a little fall cleaning the other day, I had the dog with me in the yard. While I love having my dog with me in the garden, I get very little done because I have to pay as much attention to what the dog is doing as I do to gardening. The dog I have now is very curious, so I have nicknamed her “Goofy” (not her real name) because she is such a clown. She started running in circles along the paths. To the untrained eye, she would have been getting some exercise. Ah, but I knew better. She was running circles looking for something – anything - to eat.


She came to a halt when she found some hardy fuchsia seed pods lying on the ground. And it wasn’t long before she was scooping them up like they were candy. In a panic, I chased her and tried to remove the pods from her mouth. Too late. My next move was inside to the computer to see just how toxic fuchsia seeds can be.


Into my search engine I typed “Dogs eating fuchsia seeds.” Imagine my surprise when I found several articles on this topic. The internet never ceases to amaze me with its vast “knowledge” and a lot of information written on this topic originates from the United Kingdom and we all know how much they love their dogs.


Turns out, according to several websites, no part of the fuchsia plant is poisonous to humans, dogs or cats. In some cases, recipes were given for making a jam or jelly from them, although there were mixed reviews as to the taste of such concoctions. I would imagine it would have something to do with the amount of sugar added. But I digress.


The search engine also led me to informative articles about plants that are toxic to pets. And I was surprised how many were common in many gardens. Begonias, clematis, daisies, dahlias, some ferns, hellebores, Hosta, hydrangea, lobelia, lupines, marigolds, wisteria and verbena were just a few on the list in the UK’s Daily Mail gardening column. I was dismayed to realize most of the plants on the list are also in my garden. Of course, each plant has different level of toxicity and would affect our pets in different ways. But if your pets digest any amount of toxic plants, do call your vet right away and try to be attentive as to what they were eating and how much.


But information like that isn’t helpful unless we can find replacements for our toxic plants. According to the website of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), non-toxic plants include sunflowers, impatiens, and African daisies as all harmless to dogs. Most day lilies, heuchera, alyssum, bachelors’ buttons, Gerbera daisies, sword ferns, and baby tears are safe, too. In fact, the list of safe plants is actually longer than the unsafe ones, which was reassuring.


The list for cats was only slightly different. The ASPCA has a disclaimer that their lists are compiled of the most commonly toxic plants and is not all-inclusive. You can find photographs and printable lists of both toxic and non-toxic plants for dogs, cats and horses on the ASPCA website at http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants.


Now, here comes an interesting tidbit. As I have said before, Goofy will eat anything she comes across in the garden from slug bait to fertilizer to bird droppings. Once she discovered that the hardy fuchsia seeds on the ground were tasty, she started harvesting them from the shrubs. At least that will keep down the amount of “volunteer” seedlings that would sprout next spring. But Goofy has so far left all the poisonous plants alone. The Hosta, the hellebores and the daisies are all within easy reach for chomping. And yet she will climb over those to get to the fuchsia seeds.  I wish I could say she was smart enough to know what will harm her and what won’t, but in reality, I think it must be a long-ago inherited gene where she acts instinctively and only eats non-toxic plants. And she is a full-grown dog. I would certainly be more careful with a curious puppy who might think it a game to sample several poisonous plants and wind up in serious trouble.


Of course, that doesn’t explain why Goofy wants to eat the slug bait, but then again, for those ancient wolves from whence all dogs come, slug bait wasn’t really an issue. I just have to be extra careful in the type of slug bait I use and find ways to make it inaccessible to her.



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