The poisonous plants to keep your dog away from

Dogs will eat anything – your shoes, dead things, rocks, your dinner, your plants. Mostly this is charming, smelly or irritating, depending on the day and the dinner. But sometimes it is deadly for the dog.

The list of poisonous plants grown in gardens is long. Many plants have spent eons developing a toxic array of chemicals to deter would-be browsers and grazers. For the most part these cause general gastrointestinal upset to dogs, rather than a serious threat, but some plants can be lethal.

Top of the list, according to Mara Hickey, a specialist in emergency and critical care in the School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, is the sago palm, Cycas revoluta. This is a popular plant indoors because it looks strikingly architectural, grows slowly and doesn’t get too big. For the same reasons, it is also popular in low-maintenance garden plantings, as well as gardens searching for a Santa Fe, mid-century kind of vibe.

All parts of the plant are poisonous and can cause liver failure.

Also potentially deadly is the charming old-fashioned shrub Brunfelsia pauciflora, known as yesterday, today and tomorrow for the way its purple flowers fade to lilac and then to white. The flowers have a delicious perfume, enough to put it near the top of my favourite fragrant plants. But all parts of the plant are lethal to animals, causing neurological abnormalities including drooling, unsteady walking, muscle tremors, seizures and cardiac arrhythmias that can lead to death. As for cycas, there is no antidote for brunsfelsia poisoning.

Indoors, the toxic threats include philodendrons, pothos, monstera and peace lilies. Outdoors there are oleander, foxgloves, azaleas, kalanchoe, daffodils and weird funghi, not to mention fertilisers (dogs go crazy for organic fertilisers like blood and bone and will chew through packaging to get at it), pesticides and mouldy mulch.

“The risk of poisoning is not only dependent on the plant species, but also on the part of the plant ingested, the amount ingested, the animal species involved and the size of the animal.”

Pet owners concerned about what their dog just ate can get advice from Animal Poisons Helpline, a charity established in 2020 by poisons specialist pharmacists Nick Merwood and Kasra Ahmadi. While working in human poisoning centres Merwood and Ahmadi were struck by the number of calls they received from pet owners and vets looking for advice. Unable to offer support due to lack of relevant training, resources and funding they set up a support service for poisoned animals.

“The risk of poisoning is not only dependent on the plant species, but also on the part of the plant ingested, the amount ingested, the animal species involved and the size of the animal,” explains Merwood.