How to clean laundry basket to remove foxglove pollen for cat safety?

Question

Okay last question about this I promise. Since Foxglove is safe to touch/smell/pick the flowers. Just to put my mind at ease, can I rinse off my laundry basket since it's plastic, where my shirt touched it after I was around flowering foxglove to make sure there is no pollen that will get on my skin next time I put clothes into the basket, or if I take clothes out of the basket that will get on my skin, or clothes that maybe ingested by myself or my cat if I pet her/hold her?

Linda G, MS, DVM · Accepted Answer

No problems, I can understand your concerns. Definitely rinse off the basket. You can use a little dish soap as this will clean a little deeper. Again, dump all the clothes in the wash & all pollen will be thoroughly removed. Honestly, no one has ever gotten sick from the pollen. The toxin is in the plant parts, roots, stem & leaves. Even if you managed to ingest a little pollen, the toxin is dose dependent, meaning the more plant material someone consumed, the more toxin would get into their system. So even if you or your cat managed to chew a small piece of a leaf, there would hardly be any adverse effects. Hopefully, this will ease your mind to know that there is not enough of the cardiac glycoside in the pollen to cause you or your cat any harm. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

How to clean laundry basket to remove foxglove pollen for cat safety?

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