This Christmas I learned a couple of important pieces of information through a series of rather unfortunate circumstances that I felt I needed to share with you. This information may save you some time and money, and at it may even save your pets life!

My wife and I hosted Christmas this year for our family and friends and it just so happens that (while many cats will run off and hide when guests arrive) our cat, Kiwi, LOVES people and parties. This is normally great fun for both us and her, except that this year it allowed her to be the first one to dig into some of the bags of gifts people brought us. One of the bags contained a Poinsettia and unfortunately Kiwi discovered it before us. By the time we found out, she had already eaten about 3 petals and chewed on a couple others!

Although we were pretty sure that Poinsettia weren't deadly, we weren't sure how bad they were or weren't so we called a local pet emergency center who told us to bring her in because they would need to induce vomiting. After rushing Kiwi to the emergency room they admitted her and took her off into the back. We learned shortly after that they didn't have a toxicologist and that we would need to call the ASPCA poison control hot-line. In the meantime, the emergency clinic gave Kiwi something to induce vomiting. It was apparently also a painkiller and we were told that she may be tired and out of it for a little while. The person who answered the ASPCA hot-line was incredibly nice and helpful and essentially said that unless the cat had eaten something along the lines of an entire Poinsettia, she should be fine. You may see her foaming at the mouth after about an hour but this is a sign that she is nauseated. The verdict being that she will be fine and that you don't really need to do anything except potentially give her something to settle her stomach. The vet than gave us back our cat, now slightly doped up from the painkiller, and a large bill - as was expected for using an emergency clinic after hours.

We ended up paying for both the emergency room visit and the phone call to the ASPCA. On top of that since the cat was now slightly drugged and we didn't know if she would be vomiting around out house, we kept her in the basement which caused her to miss the festivities which she usually loves to be a part of. But we learned some valuable lessons that I would like to share.

1. Keep the number for the ASPCA poison control center handy - (888) 426-4435. They charge a $60 consultation fee, but it may spare you an even more costly trip to the emergency room, or if emergency care is still required the toxicologist at the ASPCA will be able to instruct your vet on how to handle the specific poison.
2. The ASPCA maintains a list of poisonous plants and what can be expected from/what to do about each. That list is located here: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/ and we suggest bookmaking it.
3. The person from the ASPCA made special mention that one of the most toxic plants to pets are Lilies. Please do not keep Lilies in your house.
4. If you suspect your pet has been poisoned, it is likely better to call the ASPCA poison control center before contacting your vet. Please note: If your animal is having seizures, losing consciousness, is unconscious or is having difficulty breathing, telephone ahead and bring your pet immediately to your local veterinarian or emergency veterinary clinic. If necessary, he or she may call the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC).
5. Here is how you can expect the ASPCA poison control center call to work:
   1. When you call you should have the following things ready (Taken directly from http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/what-to-do-if-your-pet-is-poisoned.html):
      • The species, breed, age, sex, weight and number of animals involved
      • The animal's symptoms
      • Information regarding the exposure, including the agent (if known), the amount of the agent involved and the time elapsed since the time of exposure.
      • Have the product container/packaging available for reference.
   2. They will advise you on how to handle the situation. They will give you a case reference number and a follow-up phone number. This information can be given to the vet for them to follow up on your call and allow the APCC to guide the vet on proper treatment.

Although everything ended ok with our cat involving the Poinsettia, please do not take this article as medical advice. If your pet consumes Poinsettia, we encourage you to call the ASPCA poison control center as the quantity, plant type, breed, etc. could change the outcome of this and we are not toxicologists.

If we had started with a call to the APCC both Kiwi and I would have been able to enjoy our friends and family on Christmas instead of sitting at an emergency vet for three hours and spending a ton of money in the process.

And whatever happened to Kiwi? She's fine; actually she was fine the whole time - never started foaming, never vomited - even after being given something to induce vomiting; never showed any signs of discomfort. She did end up a little out of it from the injection of pain killer but still enjoyed posing for her Christmas photo:

Hopefully my story can help someone else save their pet or at the very least save some panic, money and time!

Best Regards,

Brian Riley
President
PetKaboodle, Inc.