Doug and Nancy Wilcox, followers of The Wildrose Way, shared some vital information with us at the Garden & Gun Jubilee. They agreed to share this news with all our readers in hopes of preventing a canine fatality.
Charlie, their 9-year old poodle and Kate, their 7- month old Labrador begin vomiting late one afternoon. At 1:45 a.m. the following morning, Doug was awakened by Kate making a noise he’d never heard before. She was in respiratory distress. Both Kate and Charlie were rushed immediately to a pet emergency facility. Sadly, Kate died enroute and the staff was unable to get a blood pressure reading on Charlie. He was in tough shape. The immediate thought was toxic poisoning.
After performing an autopsy on Kate in hopes of helping Charlie, searching the yard for poisons and observing the vomit from the two dogs, it was determined that the poison was in the Sago Palm nuts which covered their backyard in Florida. The Sago Palm poison leaves no trace in the system but Doug found chewed nuts and the white poison from the nuts in the dogs’ vomit. Many parts of the Sago Palms are poisonous, not just the seed pods/nuts. The nuts can be red or brown after the red comes off the outside of the nut. The “nut” is about the same size as a hickory nut.
The Wilcoxes have had dogs and the Sago Palms for many years but the dogs had not ingested the poison. A third dog at home has never shown an interest in eating the nuts.
Sadly, Charlie died later that night and further research indicates very few dogs ever survive the poison from the Sago Palms. The Wilcoxes have made it their mission to share this news with others in hopes of preventing the loss of another loved canine companion.
For more info on the Sago Palms:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150208/ARTICLES/150209659?p=1&tc=pg
https://www.aspca.org/search/node?search=sago%20palm%20poison
The Wildrose Journal 
Thank you very much for this information. I am very sorry for the loss of your two dogs. We take our dogs with us to SC each year and I will have to check and see if we have these Sago Palms.
We have a young setter and he eats everything. My condolences, Mary
I am so sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing this news. I know it must be difficult
for you. I watch my 6 month old, “Jazz” scoop up everything. My Father has Sago palms
and with this news they are history. He said he did not like them anyway.
Kind thoughts to you and your dogs, Beth
We have one in our backyard. Our lab likes all kinds of grasses and weeds. We’ll be relocating the palm asap.
If it lives,great, but my dog means much more than the palm. Thanks for info.