Cats Elmo and Kira each used up one of their nine lives when they came into contact with a bouquet of flowers.

Their owners had the arrangement in the bathroom which the cats didn’t normally have access to. When they came home one evening, they found the door open and the flowers disturbed by the cats.

Elmo had vomited a couple of times so the owners didn’t delay and contacted Paragon Veterinary Group.

Our coordinator Karen took the call and asked if there were lilies in the bouquet. There were.

Lilies are extremely toxic to cats and can cause kidney failure and death. This is not widely known but all our staff are aware of how serious it can be.

Karen advised Elmo and Kira's owners to bring them straight to the surgery.

Graham the vet's heart sank when he examined them.

They had both obviously been at the lilies as they had staining from the pollen around their mouths and paws.

“I was concerned as this could have happened a few hours ago even though the owners had acted really quickly. If the cats were already showing signs of kidney disease, then the outlook for them was grave even with treatment,” he said.

The cats were kept at the surgery after Graham explained what needed to be done.

They both had blood samples taken to check their kidney values and under sedation they had all the lily pollen washed and cleaned off them.

They were started on intravenous fluids to support their kidneys and made comfortable in the kennels as they would be staying for a couple of days at least.

Luckily, the blood samples showed no changes to their kidneys which meant that with the correct treatment, their prognosis was a lot better.

Over the next few days Elmo and Kira continued to do really well and were very happy to go home.

Paragon Vets is contacting florists to let them know the danger associated with lilies and is hopeful this campaign will raise awareness and perhaps prevent illness in cats in the future. <script>var hideInlineMPU=1;</script>