You may not realize it, but springtime could also mean a dangerous time for our pets. Often times, some of the most toxic items are sitting right in your very own home.

Thomas. F Dock, Practice Manager and Veterinary Journalist, Noah’s Animal Hospitals, explains:

Top Ten Pet Poisons

• Reviewing information from both the Pet Poison Helpline and the ASPCA Poison Control Center, the following items were found to be in the “Top Ten List” of products most dangerous to our pets.
• #10 on the list are items associated with gardening. Fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides are most often implicated.
• #9 on the list are various types of indoor and outdoor plants. We have already mentioned lilies and cats, but other plants, like Sago palms, can be toxic to dogs as well.
• Rodenticides come in at #8. Rat and mouse poisons are often created with chemicals that block normal clotting function, causing the rodent to essentially hemorrhage to death.  Unfortunately, these chemicals will affect our pets as well.  Newer rodenticides contain bromethalin, which is a neurotoxin and, unfortunately, no antidote is known.  Pets who ingest these new mouse poisons need immediate supportive care.
• #7 ends up being insecticides and parasiticides. Most often, these cases occur when well-meaning owners use a dog product on their cats or, in the interest of cost savings, use older, less safe products.
• Chocolate is the #6 toxin for our pets. Containing a compound similar to caffeine (theobromine), many pets experience heart arrhythmias as well as GI upset.   The darker the chocolate, the smaller amount needed to cause problems.   The ASPCA averages 39 calls a day relating to chocolate ingestion in pets.
• Household cleaners and other products (glues, paints) are the 5^th most called about toxin for our pets.
• #4 on the list ends up being products your veterinarian sends home with your pet, such as specific pain medications for dogs. Many of these products are designed to be very palatable and this often leads to pets who are tempted to eat the entire bottle!!
• #3 is actually FOOD…especially grapes, raisins, alcohol, xylitol and other things that we don’t think about as be a toxin.
• Covering over 7000 products, the #2 spot on the list belongs to over the counter medications, especially ibuprofen and acetaminophen. These seemingly safe drugs can be deadly to our pets!
• And, the number 1 spot belongs to…human prescription medications! Whether it’s our heart medications or anxiety drugs, our pets see us “eating” some of these pills and they are naturally curious.  It is so important to take precautions to keep your pet out of your own medications!

To learn more, visit www.noahshospitals.com.