Dog 'drunk' after eating dead cat as owl on LSD has bad trip

Wobbly tigers, inebriated canaries and hallucinating birds of prey make up a few of the 380,000 cases on the database of a unique emergency service.

Manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Animal Poison Line at the Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS) takes some extremely unusual calls. "We had a call where a tiger had been accidentally given too much worming medication and the animal was a bit wobbly," Head of Service, Nicola Robinson tells The Mirror.

"Tigers are tricky to treat. They have to be sedated - but we were able to reassure the zoo the effects would wear off.

READ MORE: Adorable dog found dumped in crate with heartbreaking note from owner

"Then we had a penguin who would insist on licking the paint in the aquarium if it started to peel. We had a couple of calls about him - he was a repeat offender!"

Inquiries from worried owners of beloved pets that have chomped on everything from superglue to hearing aids account for many of the VPIS' 25,000 annual calls. Explaining how this little known, but invaluable service was established in 1992, Nicola continues: "We used to be part of the NHS, because there was a human poison centre in London - Guy's Poison Unit.

"Doctors from across the UK could access it, but so too could vets. They had nothing of their own, so would ring there. We grew out of that."

The service then became a private firm in 2011 and is the only pet poison centre in the UK. Primarily funded on a membership model, through veterinary practices, Nicola - who qualified as a vet in 1999 from Cambridge University and lives in Berkshire with family dog Fred - is keen to expand the public helpline, manned by vets, toxicology experts and veterinary nurses.

"I felt very strongly that owners should have access to our information. I was getting frustrated that vets would ring us and the owners were already in there, sometimes having gone through the stress of getting treatment for the pets.

"If your animal has been exposed to something, but it's not showing signs, we can help you straight away - you may not need to go in."

Compared to emergency veterinary treatment - which often costs hundreds, if not thousands of pounds - to access the helpline, owners only pay between £35 and £45 for advice. "We do a lot of research; we have to keep across new products, changes in ingredients," says Nicola.

"Vets in practice are very busy - they can't know every single thing about every poison, but this is all we do - we're specialists."

Poisonings relating to dogs make up 86% of calls, while 13% relate to cats. The rest vary from enquiries about rabbits and guinea pigs to bearded dragons and even zoo animals.

"We had a case where a farmer had inadvertently picked up the wrong container and had given floor cleaner to some of his calves instead of a worming treatment. It was devastating for him, but we managed to save most of his animals," says Nicola, who has been with the service - which has a London office - for 10 years.

When lawyer Chris Dahil's dog Rainier tore open an Amazon package left in the garden of his Lincolnshire family home and ate 23 of the chocolate coins, ordered for his daughter Laurelyn's eighth birthday party, he says: "We knew we needed advice fast.

"We were aware that chocolate is bad for dogs, but he'd eaten the foil wrappers as well. We needed information quickly."

Finding the VPIS helpline, he told them what his Coonhound, rescued from Cyprus, had done and was reassured that, while Rainer may have a slight reaction, he didn't need a trip to the vet.

"They were excellent. Calm, clear with their answers and reassuring. Rainer had a bit of an upset tummy and was a bit lethargic the following day, but we had been told to expect that so we didn't panic," says Chris. "The service was brilliant. More people should know about it."

Shetland sheepdog owner Helen Perkins, 50, a reflexologist from Dorset, also rang the VPIS, when her pooch, Woody, scoffed slug pellets, which she had scattered around some runner bean plants and thought she had placed out of harm's way.

She recalls: "I found him head down eating the pellets. He'd only eaten three or four, but I was horrified."

First calling her vet, they advised her to ring the VPIS, where experts concluded Woody hadn't eaten enough to do himself harm.

"It was a relief. It meant Woody didn't have to go to the vet, perhaps have his tummy pumped needlessly and stay overnight," says Helen, a mum of two.

Hertfordshire nurse Donna Butler, 41, called the helpline on her vet's advice after her kitten, Hugo, a six-month-old Scottish straight longhair, managed to get into a room, where her husband, Richard - a keen gardener - had shut away a yew tree, knowing it to be poisonous to cats.

"Being inquisitive, Hugo found his way in and was trying to eat it," she says. The VPIS expert advised her to take him to a vet straight away.

Hugo is back in form, with no ill effects, and Donna says: "Now no plants with even the potential to cause harm come into the house."

Pets' most commonly consumed poisons include paracetamol, creams, patches and sprays, according to Nicola. She says: "We also get calls about drugs - animals eating cannabis or cocaine.

"In spring people are out cleaning their patios and treating their lawns, so we get calls about pesticides. In summer we see enquiries about dogs eating firelighters from barbecues. In wet weather dogs often eat fungi if they're being walked in woods.

"In winter we get calls from owners of cats which may have ingested antifreeze - cats roam so they can get it in their paws - or from dogs ingesting human flu medications. By the end of November we are waiting for calls about chocolate poisoning.

"We're like a barometer of the British year! Animals are clever and curious. Even the most careful owners can get caught out."

Nicola loves the fact the hotline can reassure owners and save lives. She says: "We're a nation of animal lovers and we're here to support vets and owners and prevent overtreatment. We have to be all over the news in case poisoning cases arise. We need to constantly keep updated on poisonous products and changing ingredients.

"But it's all worth it when you get brilliant feedback. I love the fact we make a difference."

Number of pets eating more unusual items in last 12 months:

Superglue – 36

Batteries – 302

Fireworks – 18

Acorns – 26

Mould –106

Fertilisers – 23

Owner’s contraceptive or HRT medication – 289

Paint – 184

Hearing aids - 27

Six of the most bizarre calls Nicola remembers include:

- An owl had taken LSD and was hallucinating. Nicola says: "We were told it was 'flying around with its eyes shut trying to land on branches which are not there'."

- Pets digging up and eating part of another pet that's been buried after being euthanised by a vet, using barbiturate drugs. Nicola says a cat ate the family hamster in these circumstances and a dog did the same with the family cat. She adds: "They do not die from this but suddenly look rather drunk as they walk around and they do require treatment."

- Calls about adder bites are quite common, but she once had a call about a dog that had eaten an entire adder. Nicola says: "The dog remained absolutely fine. Extraordinary!"

- "A cat was thought to have ingested a pet leopard gecko, as 'bits of gecko' were found," says Nicola. "It turned out the cat had caught the gecko, which had released its tail and escaped unharmed."

- An owner who took his daily meds, which could potentially cause lockjaw, in his tea, noticed his dog had drunk the dregs. Nicola says: "Unfortunately, the dog developed lockjaw on the way to the vets on the steering wheel of the car. The owner could not remove the dog from the steering wheel until the vet came out and sedated it."

- When the calls still came to Guy's hospital, Nicola says: "Some of the staff overheard one of the team saying to the caller 'and how long exactly has the canary been in the glass of schnapps?'."

10 poisonous products for pet owners to watch out for:

Chocolate

Ibuprofen

Lilies in cats and rabbits

Raisins, sultanas, currants and grapes

Rat bait

Xylitol (a sweetener) in dogs

Psoriasis creams

Paracetamol in cats

Antifreeze

Disinfectants

To contact the Animal Poison Line, call 01202 509000 or visit www.animalpoisonline.co.uk