I was surprised to learn today that iris can be fatally toxic to dogs. Has anyone heard of a case of a dog getting sick from ingesting iris?

Our dog never chewed on any plants other than grass, so no.

I have never heard this either. I used to have a dog that got in my flower beds all the time, occasionally digging, but mostly sniffing and searching. Back then I had, lots more toxic plants, foxgloves etc, including lots of iris. I have cats too, none have ever bothered those plants. My cats play ricochet off the flowering iris in the spring but no harm to them. Animals seem to know what is bad for them. I imagine the plants don't taste good enough to take more than a taste. And lots of times when you hear deadly toxic, a goodly amount has to be injested to cause death.

Our dog never chewed on them either.

My dog never met a grass he didn't like (and I have a $898+ emergency vet bill to prove it ), but he leaves the irises and daylilies alone.

Editing to add that IF you have a pup or young dog that is teething, or IF you have an older dog who is a dedicated chewer, THEN I could see that maybe the dog might get it's mouth on anything and everything in order to satisfy that chewing urge. This is why you keep your dog well supplied with safe chewing alternatives such as bully sticks and rawhide squares. (Yes, Warp is a dedicated chewer and is kept well supplied.)

I just googled it and there are a few websites that mention it. They say that the rhizome is most toxic part.

Here's my experience. We have two blue heelers in our fenced in back yard and they keep the 4 large clumps of a very old noid ate down to the rhizomes unfortunately. The noids send up new growth every spring and the dogs eat away, must be yummy. They have never been ill to the best of my knowledge, and they have yet to eat a rhizome.

My goodness so many plants are poisonous to animals.... rhizomes, mmm... then why didnt all those mice that ate my iris rhizomes over wintered stored in the barn die? Even the moles chomp on them in summer not to mention my beautiful dahlia tubers. It's like planting critter food? Mice and gophers love them. Wouldn't that be nice if they eliminated all my gophers...yet my daffodils continue to grow over the years those are poisonous to critters. They come up every year. How do the critters know what not to eat?

My collie gets jealous over all the attention I give my garden plants , and she will look at me to be sure I am watching her and take a pretend bite of any plant she is near just to tease me... like she's sayin, "I can get your attention too without a single bloom on me"!

Ok mabe I got a bit off track...

bumplbea said:My collie gets jealous over all the attention I give my garden plants , and she will look at me to be sure I am watching her and take a pretend bite of any plant she is near just to tease me... like she's sayin, "I can get your attention too without a single bloom on me"!

Gee, my cat does the same thing! She will jump in a large pot of irises or in the raised beds, and wait for a reaction. I think if I left the gate open, she would never even go in there...but the deer will!! And turkeys, too!

Evelyninthegarden... cats are notorious for loving to nest in soft cozy pots....isn't it funny how our animals learn just how to get our attention...

Iris toxicity to dogs is news to me; thanks for sharing. Luckily my two dogs leave the irises alone.

In January I learned the hard way that Horse Chestnuts are toxic to dogs too. One of my dogs had a seizure-like episode after ingesting horse chestnuts from last summer. That tree will be coming down this year. Thankfully the compound causing the toxicity isn't retained in their bodies, so lasting or chronic effects aren't expected.

Yikes, Scott! Glad that your dog will be okay!

Scott ~ It's a good thing you found about that. And how wonderful that there are no long-term health issues connected with horse chestnuts.

Scott - Yikes! I'm guessing you knew (s)he ate them? So scary.

So...

Last summer I had a few iris orders come in around the same. Laid them out on the kitchen floor to organize and photograph.

Then I went back outside to work in the garden.

I came in about an hour later and discovered I left the gate between the kitchen and dining room open. Our sweet little puppy tore her way through the rhizomes. I knew the rhizomes were toxic (researched it before we got her) and called our vet immediately. Since I had just taken pics, I was able to identify how many were "missing" and was told to give her hydrogen peroxide until she expelled them, and keep an eye on her. That did the trick, she had just eaten lunch and only consumed two smaller rhizomes. We consider ourselves lucky.

Casey, glad to hear your puppy turned out OK and that you acted promptly!

No, I had not known that our 5-year old dog had consumed the horse chestnuts. The vet began speaking to us about the escalating tests (and escalating costs) to try to rule out various potential causes of the seizure. We brought her home for the night, and when we arrived home, our 8-month old dog had vomited extensively while we were gone. The vomit was full of horse chestnuts at which point I immediately googled horse chestnut toxicity and became educated.

I'm thankful that the puppy tipped us off to the cause... but since our 5-year old dog had never had seizures before or vomited horse chestnuts, I'm thinking our 8-month old "showed" the older one to eat them.

bumplbea said:My goodness so many plants are poisonous to animals.... rhizomes, mmm... then why didnt all those mice that ate my iris rhizomes over wintered stored in the barn die? Even the moles chomp on them in summer not to mention my beautiful dahlia tubers. It's like planting critter food? Mice and gophers love them. Wouldn't that be nice if they eliminated all my gophers...yet my daffodils continue to grow over the years those are poisonous to critters. They come up every year. How do the critters know what not to eat?

My collie gets jealous over all the attention I give my garden plants , and she will look at me to be sure I am watching her and take a pretend bite of any plant she is near just to tease me... like she's sayin, "I can get your attention too without a single bloom on me"!

Ok mabe I got a bit off track...

Lovely doggie. They r so smart in training people. Maybe critters nibble a bit then stop if there is a nasty taste. A lot of toxic alkaloids taste nasty.

greenappleagnes said:Our sweet little puppy tore her way through the rhizomes. I knew the rhizomes were toxic (researched it before we got her) and called our vet immediately. Since I had just taken pics, I was able to identify how many were "missing" and was told to give her hydrogen peroxide until she expelled them, and keep an eye on her. That did the trick, she had just eaten lunch and only consumed two smaller rhizomes. We consider ourselves lucky.

Wow Casey. Great that it worked, but how did you get Hydrogen peroxide into the dogs? Not nice stuff to ingest. What strength was it?

My daughter is a vet and a cat presented with foam in mouth and was listless. She asked about the owner's indoor plants. Cat had chewed some Spathiphyllum Madonna/Peace Lily. Many plants are toxic to dogs and cats. Keep away from them avocadoes, macadamias and raisins.

But the heat bead fire starters used in barbeques should be more widely know for the danger they pose to dogs who may be attracted by meaty smells on them. The toxins can kill long after the offenders are surgically removed.

Scott - Gotta love that puppy curiosity and enthusiasm, right?

Really glad to hear it turned out well. I'll make sure there are no horse chestnut trees at our property. The girl likes to eat acorns, so I suspect she'd like them too. (Yes, acorns aren't good either. I'm the mom in that commercial who is constantly saying no.)

Bron - We used a syringe and the over-the-counter stuff. I don't recall the exact amount, but it's based on the weight of the dog. We gave her the minimum and waited to see if it was enough. It was. Took about 20 minutes. Didn't know about the barbecue starter. Good to know.

A lot of surgery is done to remove objects that they can block the bowel if too big to pass. Some dogs repeatedly. Always a risk with any surgery.

As a puppy, our Timmy swallowed a few macadamia nuts that fell from trees. The shells are smooth and really hard.

I have had bandicoots digging under many of my plants, but especially bearded iris. They don't appear to eat anything unless it is some roots. But something did chomp down some fans. maybe hares, although they usually prefer the daylilies.

Speaking of pets getting a hold of toxic plants ,my horses eat thru my garden like it's a buffet full of horse delacies.....they ate 6 paper birch seedling trees 12' Tall in one night. It took me thee days digging thru the clay hard pac soil to plant them..... I was concerned they would get sick but they were just fine . it must be their sweet tooth munching away !

The horses are getting ready for the ST Patty's Day Parade...just gotta dye the carnations green...add them to their manes/tails and add 4 leaf clovers. If the horses don't eat them all waiting in line before the parade starts.