Japanese Yew Are Poisonous To Our Pet's

bandbchute

Hey everyone,

Didn't know this one... I read a local story this morning online. Check out the link.

http://www.wbns10tv.com/?sec=home&story=sites/10tv/content/pool/200704/1882538625.html

Cheer's,

Brian

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007

Yes, they are very toxic . . . many of the tree's we keep are toxic to pets if ingested.

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AMKhalid

Interesting that the only part of the plant that isnt toxic is the seed coat... i guess theres no point in killing the bird thats distributing your seed... ahhh - the beauty of evolution.
Yews are truly amazing trees... in recent years they also isolated a cancer-fighting drug from the bark of pacific yews... but turns out the drug (Taxol) actually came from a symbiotic fungi that was living between the wood and the bark.
Too bad they grow so damn slow.

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How's things growing?
Things are growing good.

ElGringo

Another good reason to stop cutting down and building over everything.

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Richard


If I was a lady, would I be 'LaGringa'?

philtaylor

I've got a puppy that likes to chew on branches of an English Yew shrub in my back garden. I'm gradually training her to stop because I fear it could hurt her if she ingests any of it.

Should I be worried?

007

I would definitely be worried. I would remove the plant if possible or sequester the dog from the plant. Ingestion can cause very sudden death.

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philtaylor

Thankyou for the swift reply.

I'll watch her closely when she's outside and punish her more next time she tries to chew it. That'll hopefully nip the problem in the bud.

007

This is far off topic from bonsai, but I am a dog lover in addition to bonsai . . . your course of action here is wrong on multiple levels in my opinion. I'm sorry, but if you truly care for your dog then I would hope that you would be willing to take every precaution necessary to ensure you're dogs safety. If that meant removing the plant, or making it inaccesible to the dog than so be it. When I got my new dog, I went through my yard with a fine toothed comb to find potentially toxic plants and removed them . . . I did this BEFORE the dog came home.

As for punishing the dog "more" . . . I will not even get into that here becuase its not the appropriate place to do so.

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philtaylor

Don't make out that I'm one of those guys who goes and buys a dog unprepared. I am not. I removed any threats from the front and back garden prior to buying the dog but did not get rid of the Yew because I have 2 other dogs here which aren't interested in the Yew whatsoever, they seemed to avoid it so it wasn't a problem. By default I assumed this one would be the same but sadly that isn't the case. I guess you could call me naive or ignorant here. Whatever.

Heh, if it wasn't such a large shrub I'd remove it within the blink of an eye but it is almost like a hedging tree and has been there for over 60 years. My course of action is determined by the circumstances, this plant will not be fenced off or cut down when I can closely moniter the dog outside.

As for the "punishment" part, I phrased that wrong. I guess "penalisation" would be a better word. She has been discouraged from going near the tree since she was 6 weeks old, she's 3 months old now but still goes at the tree when she thinks I'm not looking. She knows it's bad but still does it. This is why I favoured the word "punish" (but no, not in the physical sense).

EDIT: I just talked to a vet about this and he gave me some repellant to apply to it. So far so good, she's avoiding the area like the other dogs do now.