Gleneagle woman Roslyn Cameron is on a mission to educate fellow pet owners about the dangers in their own backyard after the family dog, Tigger, nearly died of cycad poisoning.
More photos at end of story, below.
Tigger the purebred breeding Staffy, who turns four this month, got stuck into the freshly pruned cycad (sago palm) on Easter Sunday.
When Roslyn noticed Tigger vomiting continuously, she did an online search and was mortified to discover cycad plants are highly toxic to dogs.
She phoned her local vet and, on their advice, got him straight to the Underwood Animal Emergency Service in what felt like the longest drive of her life.
Tigger was in ICU for two nights, then allowed home under close supervision with blood tests every 48 hours to monitor his liver.
His medical costs have added up to about $6000 and he looks to be out of the woods but there is still a road ahead, monitoring for any long-term damage.
Roslyn, husband Alan and son Jackson, six, have had Tigger since he was eight weeks old, and he is well and truly part of the family.
In a bid to ensure nobody else experiences the same horrors, they have purchased and donated six copies of the book, ‘Poisonous2Pets’ to Beaudesert Library for people to educate themselves free of charge.
Roslyn said the experience was a terrible eye opener for the family, who have their own landscaping business and a solid working knowledge of plants.
They have now completely removed the cycads from the property and Roslyn has been deep in researching any other plants with unknown toxins.
She said Tigger was lucky to be alive.
“Everyone says it’s a miracle how he’s doing, and it’s lucky we got him there so fast. They said in 30 years they’d only seen three dogs survive cycad poisoning,” she said.
“If we just came inside for dinner and didn’t go back out, we mightn’t have noticed he was ill, or if we’d thought we’d just see how he was in the morning it would’ve been too late.
“Don’t let your dogs chew on anything from the backyard, google what’s in your garden and borrow the Poisonous2Pets book.”
