Mushroom pet safety guides

Every pet-safety guide on the site, sorted by animal. If you want the whole picture in one place, start withpet-safe mushrooms: every common variety for dogs and cats.

If your pet just ate a mushroom from outside

Treat it as an emergency. In Canada, death cap (Amanita phalloides) and false morels (Gyromitra) turn up in BC, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces every year, and cooking does not make them safe.

Take the mushroom away and stop your pet eating more.
Collect a sample if you safely can — including the base, which is where the identifying features are. Wrap it in paper, not plastic.
Call your vet or thePet Poison Helplinestraight away. Don't wait for symptoms; the dangerous species have a quiet window before they do damage.
Note the time it was eaten and roughly how much. Your vet will ask.

MushroomGuide.ca is a cultivation-only site — we don't identify wild mushrooms, and nothing here should be used to decide a yard mushroom is safe. See our foraging policy, andmushrooms in your lawn and your dog for getting rid of them before they're a problem.

Guides for dogs

Guides for cats

Both animals

The thing every one of these guides has in common

It is almost never the mushroom. Cultivated species are the easy part of this question; how they were cooked is the hard part. Garlic, onion, leek, chives and shallot — the Allium family — are toxic to dogs and cats whether raw or cooked, and most mushroom dishes start with them. Butter and heavy oil bring a pancreatitis risk. Salt, stock, gravy and wine each carry their own problem.

So the useful question is rarely "is this species safe" but "what was it cooked in". Each guide below answers it for one specific case.

This is not veterinary advice. If you suspect mushroom poisoning, call your vet immediately.