JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Evans family wants to get the word out to fellow dog owners.
"It amazes me there's something that could be eaten one day, and a dog would die the next day. It's that toxic."
Mazy and Murphy were rescue dogs adored by their owners, the Evans family.
Then one Sunday the dogs were just playing in their yard. They were eating something, but no one had any idea there was a problem.
Within 30 minutes, the dogs couldn't stop vomiting.
Mazy died at the emergency vet. Murphy had to be put down. It left the Evans in tears.
The dogs were eating seeds from a sago palm, a highly toxic seed to dogs.
"One to two seeds can actually kill a dog," said Dr. Tina Wisner, a veterinary toxicologist with the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "We see bleeding and seizures."
Dr. Wisner said since 2017, calls to their national poison hotline about sago cases have shot up 79%.
Dr. Dawn Sollee is a toxicologist at the Florida Poison Information Center in Jacksonville. She says the seeds contain something "similar to cyanide."
It's not just the seeds that are toxic either. The entire plant is also toxic.
The Evans have chopped down their sago palms.
Plant experts at Liberty Landscape at Trad's Nursery on San Jose in Jacksonville say the female sago palm has to be 15-20 years old to produce seeds, and they do it only every two to three years.
