Ooo, Ooo, I can help with this one! I have two Labs. Anyone who has ever had a Lab will tell you, they think everything in the world is supposed to go in their mouths. Angus, my yellow Lab, ate so many inappropriate items when he was young it wasn't even funny. He finally ate something that caused a blockage, which required surgery to the tune of $2,000. Yikes! Because of Angus, I have become VERY cautious about what I plant in the backyard. I have done some very serious research on toxic plants, up to and including purchasing a $100 book that is exclusively about plant toxicity, trying to get to the bottom of what is toxic and what is not. I will paraphrase what is in the book about lilies. I was just re-reading that part this morning: Lilies - including daylilies - are toxic to cats. :( According to my $100 book (I still can't believe I paid this much for a paperback book!): "As little as one flower can cause kidney failure, resulting in death if not aggressively treated in the first 24 hours. Cats are the only known species affected, but perhaps it is just a matter of dosage." That was my thought about daylilies...if they are that toxic to kitties, is it just that no cases have ever been reported in dogs? I have decided not to risk it, so I am just planting them in the front yard, where the dogs never are unless we are right there with them and they're on a leash. I know a lot of you have kitties and you sure have lots of daylilies, Perhaps it really is dependent on dosage, and they have never eaten enough to affect them. And cats are not really notorious nibblers as some dogs (mine) are. I ordered from one daylily vendor this year and we had a little conversation about dogs via email. They have a Golden, similar to a Lab in terms of mouthiness. They were telling me how their Golden sneaks off and eats the daylily blooms. That made me think, well, maybe they're not toxic to dogs after all. Apparently their dog has been doing this for quite some time. Really, I guess I don't have a definitive answer. I'm not a toxicologist, but I have done a lot of reading about this and all sources seem to agree that daylilies are toxic to cats, but not dogs. ?? I have also read that daylily blooms are wonderful when stir-fried and have more vitamins than broccoli. The thing is, there are many foods that humans can ingest (chocolate, caffeine, raisins, etc.) that are flat-out deadly to dogs. Different species process them differently. My bottom line with planting in the back is, if it is not considered 100% non-toxic and listed as so by at least three reliable sources, it does not go in. I have even gone as far to correspond with the ASPCA Poison Control Center (Dana Farbman, who is very nice and helpful) to choose plants if I couldn't find enough information on them. It has sort of become a quest of mine - to plant the backyard only with 100% safe plants. But, this is only my little personal quest. :) ASPCA Poison Control Center lists daylilies as safe for dogs but not for cats. I just tend to err on the side of extreme caution. I can list sources for all this if anyone's interested...

McT~ Best laugh in ages! Thanks so much! ~Bunnycat (away on vacation with our 2 dogs and 5 cats. And 2 of our 3 children plus another child for company. What a freak show the 4 1/2 hour ride here was...my own private traveling circus)

Hi. I'm new to this forum, and thought I might contribute something on this subject. I am a practicing veterinarian and a dog and cat owner. The issue of feeding a raw vs. commercial pet diet is like any other issue -- you will find people who are for it and people who are against it. Personally, I do not feed my dogs and cats raw meat, nor will I ever do so. I feed them a high-quality commercial diet -- and one of my dogs is a 14-year-old, 80-pound Golden Retriever mix. The last time I did bloodwork on him (about three months ago) the results were absolutely normal. My other (younger) dogs are also completely healthy. However, if DONE CORRECTLY, I do not see a problem in feeding a raw diet to pets. Having said that, I'd like to address the question that was actually asked by the original poster: Do parasites increase when dogs/cats are fed raw diets? And the answer is: There is a greater RISK of parasites when feeding raw diets. No, not all dogs and cats are going to contract parasites when fed a raw diet. But there is certainly the possibility. Someone said that tapeworms are spread by fleas, and that person is correct. SOME tapeworms are spread by fleas. But there are many species of tapeworms, including beef and pork tapeworms. Some species of tapeworms are spread when a predator (such as a dog or cat) ingests the tapeworm cysts that are imbedded in the raw meat. These cysts (called hydatid cysts) are absolutely disgusting, and you can see them by simply Googling "Beef tapeworm hydatid cysts". One of the jobs of meat inspectors in processing plants is to inspect the meat for tapeworm cysts. If any cysts are found in the meat, the entire carcass is condemned. Most of the beef and pork produced in the United States now is tapeworm-free. I heard the radio interview with the raw-meat proponent who said that feeding dogs commercial kibble is the same as a human eating nothing but Cheerios. And I have to say that this is complete crap. It made a good sound bite, but the analogy is nonsense. There are a number of commercial pet foods available that provide pets with a balanced diet, including digestible proteins, vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. They may cost more, but they are available. Feeding a raw meat diet is very complicated because simply feeding raw steak or raw chicken to your pet is not enough. Pets have specific needs, and some of these can only be fulfilled with special types of foods. For example, cats have a requirement for a substance called "taurine" in their diets. Cats with taurine deficiencies develop retinal degeneration, heart problems, problems with their white blood cell function, and abnormal growth and development. High-quality commercial cat foods contain taurine that cats are able to absorb and use. Cats in the wild obtain their taurine from ingesting the abdominal organs of their prey. This means that if you are feeding a raw meat diet, in order to provide your cat with taurine, you would need to feed all of the abdominal organs as well. Pieces of raw chicken, steak, fish etc are going to cut it, so to speak. All I'm saying is that the diets should be well-researched. I would also highly recommend, when feeding raw meat diets, removing the bones. Large "soup" bones from beef are the only bones I would ever give my dogs (I actually don't give them any bones at all). I have seen too many dogs die of peritonitis from punctured intestines, obstructions from swallowing bones, and impactions from pieces of bones that become cemented together in the colon, causing severe consitpation. Someone said "Vets benefit by animals eating food not designed for them, increased sickness in the way of urinary tract problems, obesity, colitis, diabetes, skin disorders, allergies, etc, etc." I find this offensive and mystifying at the same time. If this is how you feel about veterinarians, how do you trust any of them to care for your pets? Surely you have found SOME good, responsible, ethical vets out there. Personally, I do everything I can to ensure that my patients grow up healthy, and stay healthy. I would MUCH rather do preventative medicine, such as vaccinations, dewormings, prescribe heartworm preventative, etc, than to try to save one of my patients who is extremely ill. When a client brings in a seriously sick animal, I agonize over it, just as I would agonize over one of my own dogs or cats being ill. I beg my clients to keep their pets in good body condition, to keep them on heartworm preventative, to vaccinate for parvovirus. I tell them not to feed poor-quality foods. They don't always listen, but when they do, their pets are generally much healthier than those pets of the people who do not listen to me. So, as far as veterinarians go, my suggestion to you is this ... if you do not trust your veterinarian to give you the best advice, to take the best possible care of your animal, to do what is best for both you and your animal, then you need to find another veterinarian. There are good ones out there.

Wow, I'm glad your dogs are okay. And terribly sorry for Shelley's dog that was not. We have lots of toads here, even though we are in a dry climate. They tend to migrate around, so keep your eyes peeled for more. My personal experience has been that there will be years when you see very few toad, and years when it seems like they are everywhere. That might just be because of our climate though. About 10 years ago our dog discovered the mushrooms that grow in the lawn certain times of the year when conditions are right. It took us a couple of days to figure out what she was doing. As soon as we realized, we would go out first thing every morning and clear the yard of mushrooms. Still, she would go out and immediately begin to root around in the yard for mushrooms. Despite making her sick, they must have also given her some kind of high?