What should I do if my pet has eaten something dangerous?

For most poisonings and swallowed objects, treatment is far more effective in the first hour or two than later, and several of them show no signs at all until real damage has been done. That is why the sequence here is short and why every step is about getting to a vet quickly with the right information.

Safety

Step by step

1. Phone the vet now.Before you search online, before you look at the pet again, before you clear up. This is the whole guide in one step — everything else is detail that makes the call more useful.
2. Stop the pet getting any more of it.Shut the animal in another room rather than wrestling anything out of its mouth. Then collect what is left, because the vet needs to know how much is missing.
3. Do not make the pet sick.No salt, no washing soda, no hydrogen peroxide, no finger down the throat. All of these cause harm, and for some substances vomiting makes the injury worse on the way back up. Only a vet decides this.
4. Do not give anything by mouth.No milk, no water flush, no food to soak it up, and no human medicine of any kind. Human painkillers in particular are dangerous to pets and paracetamol is fatal to cats.
5. Gather the packaging and take it with you.The wrapper, the box, the plant label, the blister pack. The exact product and strength changes the answer completely, and a photograph is not as good as the packet.
6. Have three facts ready: what, how much, when.The vet will also want the pet's weight and any existing conditions or medication. If you do not know the amount, give the worst case — the largest it could possibly have been.
7. Outside hours, use your practice's number anyway.UK practices must arrange 24-hour emergency cover for their own clients, and the answerphone message routes you to whoever provides it. That is faster and more reliable than searching for an emergency vet from scratch.
8. If you genuinely cannot reach a vet, ring the Animal PoisonLine.It is a chargeable 24-hour telephone service for owners, run by the Veterinary Poisons Information Service, and it can tell you whether veterinary treatment is needed. It is a supplement to a vet, not a replacement for one.
9. Go in when you are told to, even if the pet seems fine.With antifreeze, raisins, xylitol, lilies in cats and several human medicines, an animal can look completely normal while serious damage is under way. Feeling fine is not evidence.

Tips

• Save the practice number and the emergency provider's address in your phone now, while nothing is happening. Finding them under pressure is the part that costs time.
• Swallowed objects count too: corn cobs, cooked bones, stones, socks, hair bobbles, string and tinsel all commonly need surgery, and string or thread in a cat is particularly serious.
• If the pet is collapsed, fitting, struggling to breathe or bleeding, say so at the start of the call so they can prepare for your arrival.

Common mistakes

• Waiting to see whether symptoms develop — For several common poisons, the treatable window closes before any sign appears. Waiting converts a manageable case into a critical one.
• Following an internet method for inducing vomiting — The substances suggested cause chemical burns and other injuries, and for corrosives or sharp objects bringing the material back up causes fresh damage.

Questions people ask