Is Yew toxic to cats?
Taxus spp. · Taxaceae
Yes. Can kill a cat.
The ASPCA's clinical-signs line opens with sudden death rather than ending with it, which tells you the order events can take.
For a cat
Can kill
For a person
Can kill
What to watch for
- Sudden death from acute cardiac failure
- Muscle tremors
- Difficulty breathing
- Seizures
Can be very fast. Because collapse may be the first sign rather than the last, this is a call to make on suspicion of the exposure, not on the appearance of a symptom.
Why, and which parts
The whole plant except the red flesh of the berry; the seed inside it is toxic.
Toxic principle: Taxine
Taxine alkaloids block the channels that carry calcium and sodium through heart muscle cells, and the heart can stop before anything else has had time to go wrong. That is why the clinical picture so often skips the warning stage entirely: in animals, yew is a classic cause of sudden death with no preceding illness.
How to recognize it
A dense evergreen with flat, dark, needle-like leaves set in two rows along the twig, and bright red berries that are open at the end, showing the seed inside. Grown as hedging and topiary, common in gardens and churchyards. Clippings stay toxic after they dry.
Plants it gets confused with
Other garden conifers
Many evergreen hedges look alike at a glance, and yew is one of the commonest.
Why it matters: The red berry open at one end is the tell, and it is also the trap: the fleshy red part is the one part of the plant that is not toxic, while the seed sitting inside it is.
And for a person?
Dangerous to a person too
Dangerous to people too.
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 Yew. The ones sharing its exact toxic principle come first.
