{"id":391650,"date":"2026-07-09T05:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391650\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T05:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:27:14","slug":"what-to-know-about-death-cap-mushroom-risks-in-folsom-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391650\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about death cap mushroom risks in Folsom CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

After four nights in the UC Davis Veterinary Hospital<\/a>, a golden retriever puppy who had ingested one of the world\u2019s deadliest mushrooms five days earlier wriggled in her owner\u2019s arms Tuesday evening as she was successfully discharged.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe seems to have recovered perfectly, which most dogs aren\u2019t that lucky,\u201d said Brittney Sanfacon, a resident veterinarian in the emergency room of the hospital who handled the puppy\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Rick and Julieta Nielsen, who moved to Folsom in January, were celebrating Argentina\u2019s World Cup win against Cabo Verde on Friday when Rick noticed that Nala, their eleven-week-old golden retriever puppy who had been running around the yard, was eating something near their neighbor\u2019s fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe started just chowing down on something, and she usually doesn\u2019t do that,\u201d said Rick.<\/p>\n

\"Nala, Nala, a golden retriever pup, leaves the UC Davis Veterinary Hospital with her owners Richard and Julieta Nielsen on Tuesday evening. Nala was hospitalized after eating a death cap mushroom in the backyard at her Folsom home. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

After picking Nala up to investigate, he realized that she had been eating mushrooms and went inside to call Julieta, who uploaded a picture of the mushroom to an AI chatbot. The mushroom was identified by the chatbot as a death cap mushroom. The couple then called the Sacramento SPCA, who instructed them to post a picture of the mushroom on an emergency mushroom and plant identification Facebook group<\/a> of mycologists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI posted it there, and I had like maybe 15 people responding, and they all said the same thing: \u2018They\u2019re like this is the death cap and you need to go to the ER immediately,\u2019\u201d Rick recalled.<\/p>\n

Dangerous mushroom is not uncommon<\/p>\n

Amanita phalloides, more commonly known as the death cap mushroom, is one of the most poisonous<\/a> of all known mushrooms, and can be found throughout Northern California.<\/p>\n

If ingested, death caps can be fatal even in small quantities. The mushrooms release toxins which prevent cells from functioning, causing widespread cell death which may result in liver failure in as little as within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

According to Sanfacon, it\u2019s not always easy to tell that something is wrong in the early stages. \u201cMost people don\u2019t witness the mushroom ingestion, so most patients we don\u2019t see until they\u2019re already hit the kind of very sick liver failure stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, Sanfacon said that vets often have to do some investigating to figure out what exactly an animal ingested. The deadly mushroom is often a \u201ctop suspicion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brittney Brittney Sanfacon, a resident veterinarian at the UC Davis Small Animal Clinic, poses for a picture with Nala after the golden retriever puppy’s release from the hospital on Tuesday evening. Sanfacon credited the quick thinking of the Folsom veterinarian who first saw Nala after she swallowed a death cap mushroom at home in her backyard. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Death cap mushrooms are also highly poisonous to humans.<\/p>\n

Since November 2025, the Northern California and Central Coast regions have experienced an increase in mushroom poisoning cases<\/a>. According to the California Department of Public Health<\/a> in an update to a January health advisory, the California Poison Control System<\/a> had received 47 reports of mushroom poisonings as of May 11, resulting in four deaths and several liver transplants.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifty patients in one year is really an extraordinary number,\u201d said Dr. Rais Vohra, a medical director at the California Poison Control System. \u201cThat\u2019s never happened in California state history before.\u201d<\/p>\n

California typically reports less than five cases of mushroom poisonings per year.<\/p>\n

Because death cap mushrooms and western destroying angel mushrooms, both extremely dangerous, can be easily mistaken for other varieties of edible mushrooms at different stages in their growth, the California Department of Public Health encourages individuals to avoid foraging and consuming wild mushrooms while the risk of poisoning was high.<\/p>\n

\"Death Death cap mushrooms \u2014 scientific name Amanita phalloides \u2014 are often mistaken for \u201cfamiliar edible varieties,\u201d officials say. California Department of Public Health <\/p>\n

\u201cEven very experienced mushroom foragers have made mistakes out there,\u201d said Vohra. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to make mistakes, and this is a very costly mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

The toxins in the fungi, called amatoxins, cannot be removed by boiling, cooking or drying the mushrooms, and can result in liver failure and death if consumed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safest thing is just don\u2019t pick your mushrooms out in the wild and go to a grocery store if you want to eat mushrooms,\u201d said Vohra.<\/p>\n

As with pets and animals, the symptoms of ingesting deadly mushrooms typically don\u2019t manifest until around six to twelve hours after consumption, when the toxin has already spread to a patient\u2019s tissues. After that, it can be much more difficult for doctors to effectively treat patients, Vohra said.<\/p>\n

A happy outcome<\/p>\n

Rick and Julieta brought Nala to VEG<\/a>, an emergency veterinary hospital in Folsom, where Dr. Megan Cannizzo induced vomiting and gave the puppy activated charcoal, which absorbs toxins from a dog\u2019s digestive system. The couple was then redirected to UC Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe drove straight here as fast as we could without getting a ticket,\u201d said Rick.<\/p>\n

For the next four days, Rick and Julieta were anxious. Rick took time off of work and did his own research online. \u201cI read all sorts of PubMed articles online,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of studies of dogs that had induced vomiting within an hour online and recovered, so that\u2019s what really scared me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick said he\u2019s grateful that Nala had recovered successfully, but worries that it could happen again. \u201cIt\u2019s like a silent killer,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople just don\u2019t realize until it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Nala played on a blanket spread on the sidewalk, he encouraged other dog owners to keep a careful eye on their pets. \u201cWatch your dog and what they\u2019re consuming,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like if I didn\u2019t see her eating this, it would be a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nala, Nala, a golden retriever puppy, yawns as she’s held by her owner, Julieta Nielsen, after being released from the UC Davis Veterinary Hospital on Tuesday evening. Nala was hospitalized after eating a death cap mushroom in the backyard at her Folsom home. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 3:47 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Velvet Wu<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Velvet Wu is a 2026 summer reporting intern for The Sacramento Bee.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After four nights in the UC Davis Veterinary Hospital, a golden retriever puppy who had ingested one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-391650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}