To help reduce the spread of coronavirus, government advice is to wash our hands and to clean surfaces regularly. It is important to take extra care, however, with pets in the household since commonly used disinfectants are irritant and can cause local tissue damage in cats and dog that lick [...]
As you may have seen on our Facebook page we have been made aware of a post circulating on social media stating that hand sanitisers contain ethylene glycol and are therefore toxic to pets. The post recommends that you should avoid letting your pets lick your hands if you have [...]
Following on from the government announcements and with the rapidly changing situation we are all finding ourselves in regarding COVID-19 I would like to reassure all veterinary practices that we have put measures in place to ensure that our service to you will not be affected. After speaking to several [...]
Cannabis products are much in the news currently and there can be confusion about the names of the various types of extracts. Different strains of cannabis plants contain varying quanities of two main active compounds: tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which is pyschoactive and non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD). Hemp oil (also known as hemp seed oil) [...]
Tea tree oil, also known as melaleuca oil, is an essential oil from the leaves and terminal branches of the tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia). Tea tree oil may be perceived as a ‘natural’ treatment and has been used in pets to treat and prevent flea infestations, to treat various skin [...]
Access to emergency drugs may sometimes be an issue in the management of poisoning. In order to further address this CVS, who have a large network of practices, including out of hours and referral centres, have launched Elixir. A number of CVS practices now hold the following drugs and have made them [...]
The Chinese New Year is the Year of the Rat. Although most of the cases in our database concern dogs and cats, we have over 100 cases involving rats exposed to a wide variety of substances including drugs, pesticides, chemicals, plants and household products. Two of the most common agents [...]
Anticoagulant rodenticides continue to be one the most common enquiries to VPIS, particularly in dogs. A single ingestion of a small amount of anticoagulant rodenticide is usually not a problem, but it may be difficult to know if the animal has eaten any other bait. The owner may be certain [...]
Allium species include onions, garlic and leeks. These plants contain a variety of organosulphoxides. Metabolism of the organosulphoxides causes oxidative damage to haemoglobin which results in sulphaemoglobin and this precipitates, aggregates and binds to cell membranes forming Heinz bodies. Eccentrocytes form due to direct oxidative damage to cell membranes. The main [...]
Happy New Year to all our members. We are very grateful for your continued support of our valuable service and are proud to be here to assist you with your poisoning cases. In 2019 we handled over 13,000 enquiries on our VPIS and Animal PoisonLine (APL) lines – a record [...]
