ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center

Completely rude service. I was 15 minutes late because I was coming from Chelsea. Cab/​rain traffic. My dog was sick and threw up in the cab which didn’t help the time. When I arrived there was 1 other person there — AND THEY WOULDN’T HELP ME!!! They said I had to wait at least an hour and someone might help me if they had time for «on time guests».
15 minutes late and I got that response??? So I left.
The woman was rude in general with her tone and her short responses. Do not go there.

This is the kind of service you don’t think about until you need it. My dog ingested some chocolate-​covered raisins, and someone gave me this number. When I called, the person answering the phone was empathetic, responsive, and showed concern for my animal (which made me feel much calmer). Turns out the chocolate wasn’t too much of a risk, but raisins can cause kidney failure in dogs! They have vets on staff who go over the situation and give you a recommendation. Theirs was to take my dog to a 24 hour emergency clinic, and they even provided me with names and numbers of those nearby.
They also give you a case number and a callback number that you can give to your vet/​emergency vet. This can save crucial time in the case of time-​critical emergencies.
There is a fee for this call, because their recording says they don’t receive public funding. I paid $ 65 (not sure if this ever changes), and it was a small price to pay for my own peace of mind, my dog’s safety, and a truly invaluable service. More people should know about this!

Absolutely terrible. When I called, the woman I spoke with was rude and insulted me in my time of need. After belittling and verbally beating me she took my $ 65 dollar fee and hung up. I am appalled that I used to give money to this organization who lets their employees treat loving pet owners this way. Two stars because I did get the case number I needed to help my sweet cat. But honestly? Just an awful experience. I wish there was another hotline I could call should there ever be another accident.

Thank you, 24-​hour ASPCA Poison Control, for saving us from a late-​night trek to kitty ER (Last time we did that, it cost more than $ 300).
We discovered our cat merrily ingesting silicone sealant after he bit through the tube (which we hadn’t even opened yet!) Gah!
The Poison Control Center calmly took down our cat’s weight, age, etc, found the product in their database, confirmed the brand and ingredients list with our label, and consulted with their on-​duty vet.
To our relief, he didn’t need the ER. They said to give him some food to help dilute the product in his stomach. We could expect some nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea (Vomiting, check!). And they said to call back if the symptoms were severe or if we had questions.
I appreciated their emphasis on at-​home care and triage, which helped save us a whole lot of money.
Still, the service wasn’t free. We paid $ 65 for our phone consultation. (They’ll tell you this ahead of time). This makes sense, because unlike human poison control centers, this center does not get government support. Follow-​up consultations are free.
Just fyi, there are some health effects and animal toxicity studies in the National Library of Medicine’s Hazardous Substances Data Bank
and Household Products Database

But since I didn’t have scientific/​medical/​veterinary training, it was worth it to us to get a professional opinion.

I called this poison control center when I found my cat had been eating my vitamins (vitamin D deficient cat? Who knows.) Anyways, I called these guys at 3am and I was connected immediately to a Veterinarian who answered all of my questions. She new exactly what she was talking about, asked things like the weight of my cat and told me the limit of the vitamins he could ‘safely’ consume. She even answered all of my ‘what ifs?’ There was no charge, even though a charge may apply.

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.