Re: Can anyone help me identify this plant? Need help ASAP!

In message <Gemmy.51a19e7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Gemmy <Gemmy.51a19e7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

My dog has been eating the berries from this plant & I don't know what
it is so I don't know if they are poisonous. Please, any help would be
appreciated!

Here are some photos, sorry for the poor quality:

http://tinyurl.com/ldj2hv - Berries
http://tinyurl.com/letrsg - Leaf
http://tinyurl.com/nebxvo - Leaf again

The berries grow on green stalks that have small thorns on them (really
small), they are black on the outside but red inside.
The leaves are about the size of an average hand & are waxy on the top.

It is a bush.

Thankyou in advance.

I hesitate to advise on such a potentially serious matter, but I would suspect Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), except that I hadn't noticed any thorns on the stalks, and am unaware of the colour of the interior of fruits.

Cherry Laurel is poisonous.

http://www.provet.co.uk/lorgue/5a7b75b.htm

The toxic principle is amygdalin (as in bitter almonds), which is a cyanogenic glucoside - when the plant is crushed cyanide is released. The most poisonous part of the plant is the seed, but unless the seed is crushed it passes through the digestive tract intact and the cyanide is not released.

I would expect that remainder of the fruits are innocuous (they look is if they're adapted for seed distribution by birds, and birds are just as susceptible to cyanide as are mammals), but the leaves contain enough amygdalin to be potentially dangerous (200g is sufficient to kill a sheep)..

As your dog is still alive, if it is Cherry Laurel, it would seem it didn't consume enough to be a problem (I expect that dogs are less likely to crush the seeds than humans, or sheep, are), but presumably your vet can advise. If I understand correctly, for low doses of the poison, you can expect to make a full recovery. I'd guess that you'd still want to stop your dog from eating the berries.
--
Gemmy

--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
.

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