There are thousands of chemicals including drugs, pesticides, household products, cosmetics and toiletries in addition to human foods, plants, fungi and venomous animals that pose a potential risk to pets and livestock. There are also various factors that affect the toxicity and risk of particular toxins; obviously this includes dose, but species differences, breed, age and pre-existing conditions, co-ingestants and for plants, seasonal risks, differences in the distribution of the toxin(s) in the plant parts, and the effect of cooking or drying may also play a role.
In view of the vast array of substances that pose a potential risk it cannot be expected that you can remember all the relevant information or indeed have heard of many of the substances that may be involved. This is a role fulfilled by poisons information services (www.who.int/ipcs/poisons/centre/en/); they provide information on prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of poisoning and are involved in toxicovigilance — the active process of identifying and evaluating toxic risks, and evaluating the measures taken to reduce or eliminate them. So in addition to giving advice on case management, poison centres also collect and analyse case data and trends.
Although a number of human poison centres across the world handle enquiries from veterinary professionals and owners, specialist veterinary poisons information services are available. The Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS) in the UK evolved out of a human poison information centre and has been serving the veterinary community in the UK and beyond for 25 years. The VPIS is actively involved in research, data collection and collaborates with other specialist organisations such as the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, the Fungus Conservation Trust, the European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists, and has long been involved with other poisons centres providing veterinary poisons advice.
Where a poisons centre only answers enquiries from veterinary professionals options for owners who suspect their pet may have been exposed to something poisonous is limited to contacting their vet or consulting the Internet. The Internet may contain misleading, wrong, potentially dangerous or outdated treatment recommendations and advice or be a source of conflicting information. In addition consulting ‘Dr Google’ may delay seeking advice. This may also be the case if owners are reluctant to contact their vet for advice out of hours due to the addition costs or they may not want to bother their vet and would rather wait and see.
To provide an additional option the VPIS has launched the Animal PoisonLine exclusively for owners. The Animal PoisonLine is a triage service and on the basis of the information provided will either reassure the owner that there is no need to worry or advise them to go to their vet. The aim is to provide reassurance and, from an animal welfare perspective, prevent inappropriate or unnecessary treatment and reduce delays in presentation to ensure animals at potential risk of poisoning are treated promptly. The telephone number is 01202 509 000 (charges apply) (www.animal-poisonline.co.uk). If you receive a telephone enquiry about something you are not sure about you can either telephone the VPIS as usual or advise the owner to telephone the Animal PoisonLine for triage advice. Obviously if you know the substance involved is toxic and you require specific advice contact the VPIS as usual. The VPIS remains the service for veterinary professionals and enquiries are charged at the normal rates. If you have not consulted the VPIS about a case you are welcome to inform us so the details can be entered on the VPIS case database. This can be done by email (info@vpisglobal.com) or through the website (https://vpisglobal.com/report-a-case/). Every case adds to our knowledge of poisoning in animals and lessons learned may help guide management of a future case.
