Does your vet tell you to call pet poison control?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely normal. Sometimes the human ER calls poison control too, FYI.

+1 the human er calls poison control A LOT. If someone comes in with an overdose the docs immediately call poison control. It’s not possible for them to know all the reactions to every med, it’s why poison control exists. Same for your vet. It’s safest to not have every individual vet and dr trying to figure out dosing etc

[Anonymous]

Yes, my vet said to do that when my puppy ate my kid’s Ritalin. He was fine, just a bit more alert than usual🙂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.





They can’t give you this guidance if they don’t know the reaction. Your expectations aren’t reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.

I am not sure how much you are aware but vet's office are slammed right now. Going to am ER would have been the best idea if you wanted advice expediently. Do you call you pediatrician and get to talk with the doctor immediately? No. If you need that level of care, you are sent to the ER. They gave you the right advice - call poison control - because vets cannot be expected to remember all of the treatments for all of the drugs for all of the species.

I hope your pet is okay.

The vet could have been in surgery at the time. Or giving CPR to a pet that was dying.
You seem very impatient and entitled--which unfortunately is the norm at vet clinics lately. People like you make are why I left practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely normal. Sometimes the human ER calls poison control too, FYI.

+1 the human er calls poison control A LOT. If someone comes in with an overdose the docs immediately call poison control. It’s not possible for them to know all the reactions to every med, it’s why poison control exists. Same for your vet. It’s safest to not have every individual vet and dr trying to figure out dosing etc

And physicians only have to know ONE species!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.

I had a similar experience. I totally understand that vets do not have toxicologists on staff. I also understand that pet poison control isn’t publicly funded, so they need some way to cover costs. In my most recent experience, poison control took over an hour to answer my call. It had already been an hour between the probable ingestion time and when I arrived at the animal hospital only to be told to call poison control. I ended up just asking the vet to induce vomiting because it seemed ludicrous to wait longer. I was particularly frustrated because my dog had eaten onion, and I knew nearly exactly how much by weight (by weighing the leftover onion on a kitchen scale). It seems like they should have toxicity information by weight for common things that dogs get into, like onion or chocolate.

[Anonymous]

Yup, dog ate my kids adhd med and we were directed to poison control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.

Every “poison” has a different mechanism of damage, and antidote, and some of the care would be species specific. This is what poison control does, and there is no way for vets to have the sheer volume of data that poison control has.

FWIW, sometimes inducing vomiting is actually the more dangerous course of action for some poisons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.

I had a similar experience. I totally understand that vets do not have toxicologists on staff. I also understand that pet poison control isn’t publicly funded, so they need some way to cover costs. In my most recent experience, poison control took over an hour to answer my call. It had already been an hour between the probable ingestion time and when I arrived at the animal hospital only to be told to call poison control. I ended up just asking the vet to induce vomiting because it seemed ludicrous to wait longer. I was particularly frustrated because my dog had eaten onion, and I knew nearly exactly how much by weight (by weighing the leftover onion on a kitchen scale). It seems like they should have toxicity information by weight for common things that dogs get into, like onion or chocolate.

You do know that Veterinary offices are completely swamped right now because of all the COVID puppies? So yeah Poison Control is probably swamped too because of all the people getting puppies and letting them get into things because they have no idea what they were getting into.

Don't worry loads of these puppies will get dumped at the shelter soon and Veterinarians will get back to are reasonable work load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.

I had a similar experience. I totally understand that vets do not have toxicologists on staff. I also understand that pet poison control isn’t publicly funded, so they need some way to cover costs. In my most recent experience, poison control took over an hour to answer my call. It had already been an hour between the probable ingestion time and when I arrived at the animal hospital only to be told to call poison control. I ended up just asking the vet to induce vomiting because it seemed ludicrous to wait longer. I was particularly frustrated because my dog had eaten onion, and I knew nearly exactly how much by weight (by weighing the leftover onion on a kitchen scale). It seems like they should have toxicity information by weight for common things that dogs get into, like onion or chocolate.

You do know that Veterinary offices are completely swamped right now because of all the COVID puppies? So yeah Poison Control is probably swamped too because of all the people getting puppies and letting them get into things because they have no idea what they were getting into.

Don't worry loads of these puppies will get dumped at the shelter soon and Veterinarians will get back to are reasonable work load.

Yeah - vet here....sadly, the increased work load shows no sign of letting up...and neither do the cranky, entitled, unappreciative clients.....this is getting old......

[Anonymous]

My dog ate an entire diaper recently and I had to take her to the vet to induce vomiting. They told me I could call poison control if I was concerned about toxicity from the gel stuff in the diaper, but warned me it would be a $65 charge.

Fortunately, I already knew the gel in diapers is nontoxic from a similar incident with a different dog about 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dog got into a Vitamin D bottle. The little gel pills were everywhere and I didn’t know if he ate any.

Google said Vit D can be lethal to dogs so I called our vet’s office. They told me Vit D was bad for dogs (I figured that out which is why I was calling) and to call pet poison control.

I was not expecting that. Is this normal for a vet? I’m thinking it’s time to change vets but want to make sure this isn’t the norm first. BTW- pet poison control charges you $75 for any advice they give.

Blue Pearl emergency vet did, as I was driving there with my dog who ate my son’s adhd medication. Then Poison Control worked with the vet on the best treatment protocol. Poison Control was actually more conservative in approach than the vet was.

[Anonymous]

Yes, normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This Op, thanks for the replies.

I guess I was expecting them to at least walk me through what to do or bring her in for a physical exam or want to induce vomiting or give something that might block the absorption. Everything I read online said taking a wait and see approach was not the right method since it could be lethal if it started to get absorbed and digested.

I was on hold waiting for the pet poison control people for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. Decided to just wing it and induce vomiting on my own before too much time passed. Really a little guidance from the vet would have been nice, it was during regular office hours not an off time or anything, but thank goodness for the internet.

I had a similar experience. I totally understand that vets do not have toxicologists on staff. I also understand that pet poison control isn’t publicly funded, so they need some way to cover costs. In my most recent experience, poison control took over an hour to answer my call. It had already been an hour between the probable ingestion time and when I arrived at the animal hospital only to be told to call poison control. I ended up just asking the vet to induce vomiting because it seemed ludicrous to wait longer. I was particularly frustrated because my dog had eaten onion, and I knew nearly exactly how much by weight (by weighing the leftover onion on a kitchen scale). It seems like they should have toxicity information by weight for common things that dogs get into, like onion or chocolate.

You do know that Veterinary offices are completely swamped right now because of all the COVID puppies? So yeah Poison Control is probably swamped too because of all the people getting puppies and letting them get into things because they have no idea what they were getting into.

Don't worry loads of these puppies will get dumped at the shelter soon and Veterinarians will get back to are reasonable work load.

Yeah - vet here....sadly, the increased work load shows no sign of letting up...and neither do the cranky, entitled, unappreciative clients.....this is getting old......

I'm a vet too-- hang in there until September. Summer is always busy and this summer will be no different-- people are starting to travel again so they need shots for boarding etc. Things usually calm down a bit in September anyway but I'm thinking that will be a tipping point back to reasonable because most school districts are going back in person.

[Anonymous]

Oops this is PP I hit send too soon.

I was gonna say: or you could join me in academia!!