I know this thread has been long since resolved but Id like to chime in with a personal story, not a third hand account or some faceless Google search Q & A result. If you dont want to read my long story, Im just here to say...that the "Lucky Bamboo" can be extremely toxic to some cats.
First, the cast! Me, my fiancee Lisa, our two cats Dante and Chip and our hearty "Lucky Bamboo" (adopted from Walmart).
About a year ago our black ninja cat Dante got sick. At first his symtoms were odd, even funny. He began darting around the apartment like a mad man and YOWLING at the top of his lungs. A strange sound, not a meow...it kinda sounded a little tortured. But we laughed it off, assuming our cat was finally losing his mind Har har.
About two weeks passed and he got worse. His symtoms escalated to include lethargy, drooling, pupil dilation, loss of appetite and lack of any kind of box usage. He was deteriorating fast. We went to the vet, they did blood work, checked his vitals and he checked out. They asked us if we had any thing he could have gotten into, chemicals, toxic plants. We said no, well just that Bamboo plant. The vet said, nah that wouldn't be it, bamboo isn't toxic. We were baffled and frankly frustrated because we didn't make a habit of leaving poison out and the dumb bamboo plant was the only green thing that survived our "green thumb" lol.
A few days later Dante stopped roaming around our apartment, he would remain in one spot for hours on end staring at the walls. We had had enough and immediately took him to a local animal hospital. They noted he was acting strangely but, but again all his vitals checked out and they surmised he had gotten into something and he would be fine in a couple days. So they sent us on our way. The next morning he was drooling again, full on pupil dilation, and then he stumbled to the ground and had a full on grand mal seizure; afterwards he crawled towards me crying as I carefully scooped him into his carrier. I was heart broken, he was dying and I couldn't help him.
We rushed back to the animal hospital and he was admitted. By this point he was almost completely unresponsive; they gave him IV fluids, and every med they could think of to get the seizing under control. He almost coded out twice. That all being said the blood work came back clean and they suggested we go into the city and have an MRI done (estimated cost upwards of 1500). But with 4-5 days in the hospital we were already thousands in debt and we simply could not bare anymore. So with that the vet convinced us to bring him home and not put him to sleep. Our only tool, a script of phenobarbital. And so it went, he was never the same. He had small seizures from time to time and he could no longer jump to high places and his demeanor was changed for good. Sad, but we were happy he was alive.
Fast forward a year, our hearty Lucky bamboo finally grew so tall they one of the stalks flopped over. Dante was all over it, since the tall stalk now bent down he had easy access to his favorite plant. We laughed because he was eager to much on the leafs and almost knocked the thing over in the process. A few days later, extreme pupil dilation, drooling, increased seizure activity, lethargy and the rest. We couldn't sleep, we thought for sure whatever mystery brain condition he had, had finally come to take our ninja. On a hunch the next morning I googled Bamboo and the word cat. Sure enough a few links down,the poisonous lucky bamboo came into view. We immediately called the vet to point out that it was not just a Bamboo plant, and they said, oh...well we can run blood work and you can call animal poison control....gee thanks.
That plant went into the trash and now he is improving. So PLEASE, do not keep these plants if you have cats. Sure maybe you got lucky and your cat did not react, our second cat Chip never showed any interest in it; but there is a reason there are so many negative hits on google when it comes to these plants and cats....some of us have suffered.
