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We’ve had the unfortunate luck to have had to call the ASPCA Poison Control Center several times for our pitbull/Basenji mix. A short list of the things she’s eaten include an old bag of Hall’s sugar-free cough drops, Halloween candy, an entire bottle (90 pills) of colon cleanse tablets, and a full baby diaper (thanks, brother-in-law for not telling us you tossed your spawn’s waste into the trash) which we did not realize until the next day when she pooped out yellow “flavor crystals” that had sucked the moisture out of her body. Each time we’ve called the hotline we’ve been connected to an actual veterinarian quickly, who calmly and methodically had us check our dog for dangerous indications and then researched their expansive database of products for active and inactive ingredients. The times when we’ve had to induce vomiting we were coaxed through the process by the vet and then called back to verify our dog’s health. Their requested donation of around $30 has mutated into a forced contribution of $55 per incident. It’s still significantly less than an unnecessary emergency room visit. But, if it should happen that you need to go to the ER, you’ve done a certain amount of triage that can assist the new vet. I hope you don’t need it, but to crib Steven Pressfield’s description of a Spartan soldier, a dog is little but a mouth, an ass, and an appetite in between.