I’m Calling on Behalf of Max …

Dogs ingest many dangerous and potentially fatal items, and making one phone call could be the difference between life and death

By Sharon L. Peters
CTW Features

The calls are dramatic, often frantic, arriving by the thousands every week, all hours of the day and night: My dog ate one of those ant and roach bait stations. Is he going to die? I just bought some shoes and the dog found a silica gel packet in the box and ate it. Does she need her stomach pumped? My dog licked some Retin-A out of a tube. Is that fatal?

The experts responding to the crisis calls – 31 veterinarians, 12 of whom are toxicologists – quickly provide the necessary counsel and outline precise medical intervention protocol when the situation calls for it.

The 24-7 response team that makes up the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) operates from a nondescript building in Urbana, Ill., advising pet owners and vets how to handle ingestions or aspirations of or body contact with everything from plants and human medications to agro-chemicals and foods that aren’t animal-friendly.

In some cases, as in the aforementioned situations, callers are told medical interventions aren’t necessary, that the products consumed in the quantities detailed won’t kill the pet if there are no other medical conditions (although if the container that held the bait or gel was large enough and that was swallowed, it could create a dangerous intestinal blockage).

But those substances alone aren’t fatal. “There may be some short-term intestinal distress and we can suggest ways of making the animal more comfortable,” says Dr. Steven Hansen, who heads up the center.

In other cases, immediate medical intervention is necessary, and the APCC gives step-by-step instructions to the vet about the best course to save the pet.

And in a small number of cases, the caller learns nothing can be done. The ingestion was of something so toxic and of such great quantity, or, in some cases, it occurred too many minutes or hours earlier for any procedure to prove successful.

“Those are heart-breaking,” Hansen says.

A significant majority of the roughly 200,000 calls the APCC answers each year – about 70 percent – are dog related. And most of those involve human medications dogs have managed to consume (second most frequent is pesticides, many of which can be lethal).

“Child-proof vials are not dog-proof vials,” Hansen says. Dogs can break into almost any pill container in seconds.

It is vital that the poison experts be given the precise name of the medication, the quantity consumed and the time it was consumed. In many cases the difference between being able to save the animal or not hinges on minutes.

With accurate information about the product, as well as specifics about the animal, such as weight and breed, the APCC vets can consult the toxicology profile and their massive data banks, perform some calculations and prescribe treatment.

Callers are charged $55; the APCC will stick with the situation as long as necessary to resolve the crisis.

Calls to the APCC about cats are fewer in number, just below 30 percent. One big reason why cats tend to get into fewer toxic messes: “They’re a lot more fastidious,” says Hansen. Cats are pickier about what they take into their mouths than dogs, which explore everything by mouthing or eating it

So although cats have system and metabolism issues that make them susceptible to fast and sometimes irreparable organ failure, their inherent fussiness helps protect them.

Many calls about felines, in fact, are the result of well-meaning owners dosing their cats with something they hope will help: “Like the pet owner who’s trying to be good and trying to relieve some pain in an older arthritic cat and gives it one acetaminophen,” Hansen says. A single one of those can kill a cat.

Another life-threatening cat emergency – flea/tick spot-on products intended for dogs. Within an hour cats can begin to have tremors, and within two or three hours, it can be too late to save them. But immediately bathing the cat with a de-greasing dishwashing detergent (“Dawn is great,” Hansen says) to remove the agent before it is absorbed through the skin can save it. “We don’t want pet owners to routinely use Dawn because it is so harsh on the coat,” Hansen says. “But this is the exact reason it works (for this purpose), by stripping oils and oil-soluble pesticides.”

Giving incorrect information or waiting too long to call are two reasons pets are sometimes euthanized when it could have been avoided. Sometimes it happens because no call was made. “Some of the worst days are when we hear an animal was euthanized when there was a good treatment, and we weren’t contacted to provide it,” Hansen says.

For example, the APCC discovered a few years ago that dogs that eat macadamia nuts can develop, in 24 to 48 hours, hind leg weakness so profound they must drag themselves around by the front legs. Assuming the dog has suffered a catastrophic spinal injury or stroke, owners have quickly decided on euthanasia.

“But this is not a fatal or irreversible condition,” Hansen says. In fact, within 72 hours the dog fully recovers without medical intervention and walks normally again. Had the APCC been called, the expert would have asked if it was possible macadamia nuts had been consumed.

APCC maintains a fairly robust presence on the ASPCA’s Web site, www.aspca.org. Visitors can access a variety of information, from clinical case studies to pet food recalls to releases about seasonal dangers.

There are several articles, including the 10 most common poisonous plants and hints for keeping a poison-safe house.

Visiting the site regularly can help keep you current on products that have recently been discovered to be harmful to animals, such as raisins and grapes, or the sweetener xylitol, both of which can be fatal to dogs.

If you believe your animal has consumed, breathed in or come in skin contact with a possible toxin, don’t wait for symptoms; contact your vet or poison specialist immediately, as obvious symptoms may not develop for hours or days, and by then there may be significant internal damage.

On the other hand, sometimes even the most dramatic symptoms don’t necessarily mean the animal can’t be saved. It may (or may not) take major medical intervention, but only a specialist can ascertain that.

What’s your question? Sharon Peters would like to hear about what’s on your mind when it comes to caring for, training and loving your pet. E-mail Sharon@Pets2008.com.

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