Sago to hell

Say what?!  Go where?!

Sorry for the strong language in that title, but in this case I think it's worth using as an attention-grabber for this little factoid: 

Did you know that the very popular and very expensive sago palms that many suburbanites (including many Centerpointers) use as landscaping plants are lethally toxic? 

Beautiful but absolutely deadly to humans and pets.

Ingestion of any part of the plant can easily kill you, although the seeds are the most toxic.  Unfortunately those seeds are bright orange and resemble candy-covered almonds or something, suggesting that they may be attractive to kids:

From
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/johno2el/3402931666/ 

Sagos kill by (among other things) causing liver necrosis - your liver dies.  Even if you, your child or your pet survives the initial liver damage, death can occur weeks or months later from liver fibrosis. 

And why do I bring this up?  Because two weeks ago, as we were preparing to transplant a few sagos into our landscaping, our dog grabbed a small root fragment and chewed on it briefly - typical dog behavior.  Within an hour, she was vomiting uncontrollably and having seizures.  We rushed her to the Calder Road animal emergency clinic, where the attending veternarian gave her just a 20% to 33% chance of surviving.   After overnight emergency treatment there followed by three days of hospitalization and treatment at the wonderful Animal Kingdom Pet Hospital, she was released into our care along with two weeks of drug therapy.  As of today, she appears to have recovered, but we don't yet know what her longer-term survivability odds are.

We had no idea.  I'm a gardener and I had never heard about sago toxicity; neither had any of my friends or my uncle who has been gardening for almost 60 years.  The ASPCA website lists 391 different plants that are toxic to dogs but makes no distinction among them based on the degree of toxicity (how helpful!).  It turns out that sagos are in a league of their own. 

A sago palm measuring about 2.5-feet in diameter currently retails for about $100 at the Houston Garden Center located on the other side of SH 96 and IH-45.  You might wonder how such a popular item could pose that intensity of hazard, and yet nobody is informing consumers about it's dangers.  I'm not an expert on those issues, but I suspect it's occurring because nobody "manufactures" sago palms - they are made by Mother Nature - and therefore no corporation is liable for the damage that they do.  So instead of having the typical disclosures and disclaimers, what we have instead is perhaps the opposite motivation: if consumers were to find out just how dangerous these things are, sales would fall and horticultural growers and distributors would lose money. 

The toxicity information is actually out there assuming you know to go looking for it (but that's the tricky part).  This article talks about how poisonings are increasing all across America now that sagos are being sold in big box stores.  This blog entry says it all quite bluntly in it's title:  "This plant will kill your dog (and maybe your kids)".

We decided that the risks are unacceptable to us and have removed all sagos from our property.  I don't want to overreact, but after $1,500 in veterinary bills having been incurred by virtue of the smallest sago root fragment, I don't even want to set eyes on sago palms any more.  I don't want to think about what would happen if a very young child toddling down our sidewalk were to somehow get a similar little fragment into their mouth (tiny kids put EVERYTHING into their mouths).  The odds of that happening are very low, but there are many other beautiful landscaping choices out there that are NOT toxic, so into the fires of hell our sagos have gone.