Man’s best friend has incredible instincts. We often rely on our dog’s keen senses and primitive impulses during outdoor activities (including everything from hunting birds to blooding deer to search and rescue missions). But any bird hunter with a Labrador retriever can tell you that dogs also have a tendency to eat almost anything. Sometimes the wild plants and nuts they eat can make them sick. These are 10 wild plants that you should make sure your puppy doesn’t chew.
1. Milkweed
scientific name: asclepias syriaca
Where found: Common milkweed is one of over a hundred milkweed species native to North America and has the widest distribution. Found from Oregon to the East Coast, common milkweed often grows in fallow fields and along sunny roadsides.
How to identify the plant: Milkweed has oval opposite leaves and large teardrop-shaped seed pods. The plant grows up to 4 or 5 feet high. If you pluck a leaf, thick white juice will ooze from the wound.
Harmful Ingredients: This everyday weed contains cardiac glycoside toxins. These poison the hearts of dogs, humans and other creatures.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Symptoms to watch for include abnormal heart rhythms in your dog, as well as pupil dilation, seizures, intestinal problems and collapse.
2. Black Walnut
scientific name: Jugless Nigra
Where found: Black walnut is common in fields, second-growth forests, and old farmland east of the Mississippi.
How to identify the plant: Walnuts grow alternate branches with feathery compound leaves. The husk covering the nuts is rough and whole (no divisions).
Harmful Ingredients: Walnut leaves, bark, nuts, husks and wood contain the compound juglone. Even worse, moldy walnuts can be filled with mycotoxins (poisons produced by fungal organisms). These can cause major neurological problems.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Poisoned dogs may have excessive panting, drooling, foaming at the mouth, vomiting, muscle tremors, fever, and seizures. If left untreated or if they eat too much, poisoning can result in death.
3. Hickory Nuts
scientific name: Carya, numerous species exist
Where found: They grow well in forests and fields, various hickory species can be found from Texas to New England.
How to identify the plant: Hickories are in the nut family, and as such, they also have alternate branches with feathery compound leaves. However, the husk covering the nuts is very different from the nut itself. These husks are generally smooth and naturally split into several pieces to expose the peel beneath.
Harmful Ingredients: Although weaker than walnut, hickory can make your dog sick from the juglone compound and harbor a fungus that causes even worse toxicity.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Gastric intestinal upset or intestinal obstruction are common symptoms of hickory nut poisoning. Moldy hickory nuts can also cause seizures and various neurological symptoms.
4. Mayapple
scientific name: podophyllum peltatum
Where found: Mayapple grows in shady forest areas throughout the eastern US.
How to identify the plant: Mayapple is a woodland plant that often grows in dense patches or colonies. They have two large lobed leaves per plant, a white flower where the leaf stalks break, and a small fruit in summer.
Harmful Ingredients: Although the ripe yellow fruit is edible for humans (safest when cooked, seeds should be removed), the unripe fruit, seeds, roots, and leaves are poisonous. Mayapple contains a unique toxin called podophyllin.
Diagnosis of poisoning: If ingested, mayapple can cause vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, excessive panting, coma, or death in dogs. Dogs may also develop skin redness or ulcers.
5. Oak Acorn
scientific name: Quercus, numerous species exist
Where are they found: Oaks are found in the Americas from coast to coast and throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Depending on the species, oaks can be found growing in the densest forests, swamps, or open desert lands. North America has the largest number of oak species, with Mexico having an astonishing diversity of 160 species.
How to identify the plant: With approximately 600 species of oak in the world, these trees show great diversity. Deciduous and evergreen oak species have a wide range of leaf sizes. Oaks have alternate simple leaves in a variety of sizes and shapes. The fruit of the oak tree is a nut called an acorn, which is borne in a cup-like “cupule”.
Harmful Ingredients: Acorns are just the right size to cause intestinal blockage in small dog breeds, but a compound called galotenin is the main culprit.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Ingesting acorns may cause your dog to experience diarrhea (possibly bloody), lethargy, abdominal pain, constipation, depression, frequent urination, discolored urine, and jaundice.
6. Tansy
scientific name: tanacetum vulgare
Where found: Once used as a natural bug repellent, common tansy can be found naturalized throughout the continental United States. Tansy likes to grow in fields and pastures, but it also grows equally well along roadsides and streams.
How to identify the plant: Considered a noxious weed by many, common tansy grows to about three feet in height. In summer, it has many yellow clusters of button-like flowers. Tansy is considered an invasive species in Washington state and neighboring areas.
Harmful Ingredients: Even though tansy is used as a natural insect repellent and sometimes as a culinary herb or alcohol flavoring, the thujone content of common tansy makes the leaves and flowers especially poisonous to dogs.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Dogs who have eaten tansy may have a rapid pulse, disorientation, stomach problems, and convulsions. Eating this plant can also cause liver and kidney damage.
7. Horse Chestnut
scientific name: aesculus hippocastanum
Where found: Often found as ornamental plants and in urban areas, horse chestnut is native to the Balkan forests of Eastern Europe. Because of its interesting looks and medicinal uses, horse chestnut can now be found growing throughout North America and around the world.
How to identify the plant: It may be a shrub-like woody plant or small tree, with opposite branches and palmately compound leaves. The nuts resemble Chinese and American chestnuts, although the outer husk is much less spiky.
Harmful Ingredients: Because of its horrible taste, it is unlikely that you or your dog will eat horse chestnuts in large enough quantities to cause death. The main toxin that affects dogs is esculin (a glycosidic saponin), although other saponins present in nuts are also harmful to dogs.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Ingestion of horse chestnut may cause severe vomiting, extreme thirst, weakness, twitching, dilated pupils, and numbness. If enough is ingested, that stupor can turn into paralysis, coma, or death.
8. Death Camas
scientific name: Toxicoscordion venenosum
Where found: Death cama (also called meadow death cama) grows in fields, sagebrush slopes, meadows, and grasslands across the western US.
How to identify the plant: Death camas is a flowering native plant that produces cream-colored flowers in late spring. Overall, these plants grow in clusters and look similar to onions. And while every good dog owner knows that onions are poisonous to dogs, these plants can kill both you and your dog.
Harmful Ingredients: Death cama contains a powerful cocktail of poisons and all parts of the plant are equally dangerous. If a creature consumes less than 2% of its body weight in carrion, death may result. This plant contains toxic esters of zygacin and zygadenine, which are neurotoxic alkaloids.
Diagnosis of poisoning: Dogs who chew or eat any part of the death camas plant may develop weakness, difficulty breathing, paralysis, convulsions, or coma.
Read Next: How Not to Kill Your Hunting Dog
field treatment
The first thing you need to do if you suspect pet poisoning is to move your dog away from the dangerous plant. If they still have something they are chewing on, move that away from your pet as well. If you have a phone signal, call your veterinarian immediately or call an organization that helps pets (such as the Pet Poison Helpline at 855-764-7661).
Next, observe your dog to make sure he is still breathing and acting normally. If possible, take a sample of the plant they were chewing or eating. Keep your sample out of reach of your pet to prevent it from overeating. Take multiple photos of the plant if possible. Photos should include close-ups of leaves and photos showing the entire plant. If there are flowers, fruits, beans, seeds or any other reproductive organs, take some pictures of those too. These photos and plant samples can make a huge difference in getting the correct diagnosis and treatment for your dog.
It is important that you never give any home remedies to a potentially poisoned dog. Some folk remedies for poisoning (such as giving hydrogen peroxide, milk, salt or oil) will only interfere with your veterinarian’s treatment.
Keep them comfortable, show lots of affection and get them to the nearest ER veterinary facility immediately.
