Digitalis purpurea is toxic to cats, dogs and horses. The reported severity is critical. Also known as Purple Foxglove.
This plant is known to be potentially deadly!
If your animal ate this plant, call your veterinarian now, or one of these services.
What do I do right now?
Ireland has no animal poison service for owners. Call your veterinarian. An Irish veterinarian can consult the Veterinary Poisons Information Service in the United Kingdom.
Giftinformationscentralen stopped answering questions about animals on 1 July 2018. Call your veterinarian or an animal hospital.
Cardiac Arrhythmias Vomiting Diarrhea Weakness Cardiac Failure Death High Heart Rate Difficulty Breathing
The color of each symptom follows the severity scale above.
Digitalis purpurea, the foxglove or common foxglove, is a toxic species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae, native to and widespread throughout most of temperate Europe. It has also naturalized in parts of North America, as well as some other temperate regions. The plant is a popular garden subject, with many cultivars available. It is the original source of the heart medicine digoxin. This biennial plant grows as a rosette of leaves in the first year after sowing, before flowering and then dying in the second year. It generally produces enough seeds so that new plants will continue to grow in a garden setting.
Due to the presence of the cardiac glycoside digitoxin, the leaves, flowers and seeds of this plant are all poisonous to humans and some animals and can be fatal if ingested. The main toxins in Digitalis spp. are the two chemically similar cardiac glycosides: digitoxin and digoxin. Like other cardiac glycosides, these toxins exert their effects by inhibiting the ATPase activity of a complex of transmembrane proteins that form the sodium potassium ATPase pump, (Na+/K+-ATPase). Inhibition of the Na+/K+-ATPase in turn causes a rise not only in intracellular Na+, but also in calcium, which in turn results in increased force of myocardial muscle contractions. In other words, at precisely the right dosage, Digitalis toxin can cause the heart to beat more strongly. However, digitoxin, digoxin and several other cardiac glycosides, such as ouabain, have narrow therapeutic windows (i.e., because of their steep dose-response curves, minute increases in the dosage of these drugs can make the difference between an ineffective dose and a fatal one). There are now better options with a wider therapeutic window. Symptoms of Digitalis poisoning include a low pulse rate, nausea, vomiting, and uncoordinated contractions of different parts of the heart, leading to cardiac arrest and finally death.
Extracted from the leaves, this same cardiac glycoside digitoxin is used as a medication for heart failure. Its clinical use was pioneered by William Withering, who recognized it "reduced dropsy", increased urine flow, and had a powerful effect on the heart by making it beat slower but more efficiently waiting for the heart to fill with blood before pumping.
Also recorded as Common Foxglove, Digitalis and Foxglove.
More plants with critical severity:
Countries with the most wild observations, from GBIF data.