Today's Veterinary Practice

NOV-DEC 2017

Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.

Issue link: http://todaysveterinarypractice.epubxp.com/i/891985

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 20 of 77

17 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 ■ TVPJOURNAL.COM PRACTICAL TOXICOLOGY Christmas Plants: Hazards, History, and Holiday Dangers Charlotte Means, DVM, MLIS, DABVT, DABT ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center University of Illinois PRACTICAL TOXICOLOGY The Christmas season is filled with wonderful scents, lights, and music. Homes are filled with family and friends. Plants and bouquets are frequently presented as gifts, and homes are decorated with more flowers and plants than at many other times of the year. Dogs and cats, being curious, are likely to investigate new plants. Cats tend to nibble on them, while dogs are more likely to ingest the entire plant, including the soil, roots, or bulb. In all cases of plant ingestion, it is important to identify the ingested plant, ideally with the genus and species name. When obtaining a medical history for a pet with clinical signs of toxicosis, also obtain a list of plants in the home or yard. If clinical signs fit a potential exposure to a known plant in the environment, the plant can be included in the rule-out list and appropriate therapy initiated. If clinical signs are not consistent with plant ingestion, the owner should be asked about other substances, such as insecticides and fertilizers, that might have been added to soil. Owners are not always aware whether a pet has ingested a leaf, eaten the dirt around the plant, or drunk from a pot reservoir. Water in the reservoir of pots may contain the toxic principle of poisonous plants (like cardiac glycosides) or added substances (like insecticides). shutterstock.com/Chris Hill Welcome to Practical Toxicology , brought to you in partnership between Today's Veterinary Practice and the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) ( aspcapro.org/poison ). This column provides practical clinical information about diagnosing and treating pets that have been exposed to potentially harmful substances. The APCC: • Provides 24-hour diagnostic and treatment recommendations by specially trained veterinary toxicologists • Protects and improves animal lives through toxicology education, consulting services, and case data review • Developed and maintains AnTox, an animal toxicology database system that identifies and characterizes toxic effects of substances in animals • Works closely with human poison control centers to provide animal poisoning information • Offers extensive veterinary toxicology consulting to organizations in industry, government, and agriculture. If treating a patient that requires emergency care for poisoning, call the APCC at 888-426-4435.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Today's Veterinary Practice - NOV-DEC 2017