Common Privet

Yes, common privet (Ligustrum vulgare) is toxic to cats. The entire plant — berries, leaves, and stems — contains harmful compounds that can cause significant gastrointestinal distress and, with larger doses, potentially affect the heart.

Expect drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain (shown as hunching or hiding) within roughly an hour of chewing the plant. With a larger ingestion, watch for weakness, wobbly walking, or irregular heart rhythm — signs of systemic toxicity that require emergency care.

Remove your cat from the plant and call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 immediately. Do not wait for symptoms to escalate — privet ingestion can progress from digestive upset to cardiac signs depending on how much was eaten.

The berries are considered particularly hazardous, but the leaves are also toxic — the whole plant poses a risk. Because the cardiac and systemic effects can take longer to appear than initial oral irritation, even a cat that seems mildly affected at first should be monitored closely and assessed by a vet.

Yes, common privet (Ligustrum vulgare) is toxic to dogs. The entire plant — including berries and leaves — contains toxic compounds that can cause moderate to severe gastrointestinal irritation.

The most common signs are vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and drooling. Larger ingestions can also cause depression, wobbliness or stumbling, refusal to eat, and increased heart and breathing rate.

Remove your dog from the plant and check that they are breathing normally. Do NOT induce vomiting or give home remedies unless specifically instructed by a vet or poison helpline. Call your vet or Pet Poison Helpline (855-764-7661) right away — even a small nibble with no symptoms warrants a call to set a monitoring window. If you see repeated vomiting, weakness, stumbling, or breathing changes, treat it as an emergency and call ASPCA Animal Poison Control (888-426-4435).

Specific onset timing is not well documented, but the gastrointestinal signs associated with privet's compounds (oleanolic acid and saponins) typically appear within a few hours of ingestion. Watch for vomiting, diarrhea, and refusal of food in that window.