Is Poinsettia toxic to cats?
Euphorbia pulcherrima · Euphorbiaceae
Yes. Irritating, no death documented.
The ASPCA's own entry calls its toxicity generally over-rated, which is unusually blunt for a poison-control database and worth quoting.
For a cat
Irritating
For a person
Irritating
What to watch for
- Irritation of the mouth and stomach
- Vomiting, sometimes
The numbers
None
Reported deaths in small animals
Bertero et al. 2020
Why, and which parts
The milky sap.
Toxic principle: Irritant sap
The milky latex is the irritant, and it behaves like a detergent: the diterpenoid esters in it strip at the membranes of whatever they touch, so mouth, gut and skin all react the same way. The reputation this plant carries is out of proportion to what it does. A review of indoor plant poisonings in Europe states that deaths from poinsettia have never been reported in small animals, and the poison services that field the winter calls describe mild stomach effects. One published case, a Burmese kitten that ate a large leaf and developed severe mouth and oesophageal irritation, is the counterweight worth keeping in mind.
How to recognize it
The red is not the flower. Those are bracts, modified leaves arranged around a small cluster of yellowish true flowers at the center. Bracts come in cream, pink and striped forms as well as red.
And for a person?
Mildly irritating to a person
The same latex irritates human skin and eyes on contact. Poinsettia's reputation as a lethal Christmas plant is not supported by the case literature for people either.
A plant's danger to a cat says nothing about its danger to you, and the reverse is just as true. This is a separate question with a separate answer.
This is information, not veterinary advice, and it cannot tell you what is wrong with your cat. Our rule is a simple one: if something is wrong with your cat, call your vet, and call an emergency clinic if it is out of hours. Nothing you read here is a reason to wait.
Worth keeping a paw on
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Other plants at the same level
Same verdict for a cat as Poinsettia. The ones sharing its exact toxic principle come first.
