The number you need, by country. We keep a worldwide directory of veterinary poison services, the phone number, the hours, the fee, and whether they will speak to you or only to your vet: Pet poison control by country. In Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland the national poison centre will not take animal calls at all, and we say so rather than publish the number.
Pet Emergency: Your Pet Ate Something - Who to Call and What to Tell Them
This page is not veterinary advice. It does not tell you how to treat your pet, and it is not a diagnosis. If you think your pet has eaten or chewed something, or you are worried about how they are behaving, phone your own vet or an emergency vet now - they are the only ones who can tell you what this particular animal needs.
If something has just happened, the useful part of this page is the country picker a little way down, which gives you the emergency and poison-line numbers where you are. Everything else here exists to make that call more useful. Nothing on this page asks you to do anything to your pet, and the section further down explains why that is deliberate.
The only instruction on this page
Phone your own vet, or an emergency vet if yours is closed. Do it now, while you are still reading this. You do not need to know what happened, how much, or whether it is serious - working that out is their job, and they would far rather hear from you early than late.
Go straight there, ringing on the way, if you see any of these: laboured or noisy breathing, collapse, a fit, heavy bleeding, or the simple feeling that this animal is not right. And do not let a lack of certainty stop you. “I think he ate something and I do not know what” is a perfectly good reason to ring.
Everything else on this page is here to make that phone call more useful. None of it is a reason to delay the call.
On this page (8 sections)
The three things worth doing while the phone rings
These are not treatment. They are the things that make the person on the other end able to help you quickly.
1. Separate, do not tidy
Move your pet away from whatever it is, or move the thing away from your pet, so that no more can be eaten. Then stop. Do not clear up, do not bin the packaging, do not wash the bowl. The packet, the wrapper, the plant, the chewed remains and even the vomit are all evidence, and they answer questions far faster and more accurately than your memory will. If you have already tidied, say so - it is not a failure, it is just a fact they need.
2. Write down a clock time
Not “about twenty minutes ago”. Write 21:10. Elapsed times quietly stretch while you are talking, and by the time you reach a vet, “about twenty minutes” has often become an hour. If you did not see it happen, give a window instead: the last time you know things were normal, and the time you found the mess. A window you are confident about is worth more than a single time you are guessing at.
3. Gather the facts nobody else has
- What - read it off the packet rather than paraphrasing. Brand names matter, and so do the words in the ingredients list. If it is a plant, photograph it and its label.
- How much - and offered as the guess it is. “Somewhere between a mouthful and half the bag” is useful. A confident number that turns out to be wrong is worse than no number.
- Your pet’s weight, as a range you actually believe. Amount relative to body weight is the calculation on the other end of the phone, and a guess that is out by half changes the answer.
- Age, breed, and anything ongoing - existing conditions, regular medication, recent illness, pregnancy.
- What you can see now, in plain words: how they are standing, breathing, drooling, behaving. Compare it to their ordinary, because you are the only person who knows what that is.
Find the number where you are
Pick your country below for the emergency and poison-line numbers. If you are somewhere not listed, your own vet’s answerphone will normally give the out-of-hours route, and our emergency vet finder can help you locate a clinic.
The things not to wait on
Some situations should not be given an evening to declare themselves. If any of these applies, ring now even if your pet seems completely well - and note that seeming well is expected early on in several of them, which is exactly what makes waiting so tempting and so costly.
- Anything from the human medicine cabinet, in any amount, in any species.
- Chocolate, grapes, raisins, sultanas or currants; onion, garlic, leeks or chives in quantity.
- Anything containing a sweetener, including sugar-free gum, sweets, some peanut butters and some baked goods.
- Household and garden chemicals, cleaning products, antifreeze, rodent or slug products, and anything from a garage or shed.
- Lilies of any kind where there is a cat in the house - including pollen brushed off a bouquet and groomed from the fur.
- Anything sharp, anything string-like, and anything that will not fit comfortably through the animal it just went into.
- Anything at all if the animal is very young, very old, very small, pregnant, or already unwell.
- Anything where you simply do not know what it was.
For a fuller walkthrough of the whole situation, including what your vet will ask and what happens next, read my dog ate something - what to do, step by step. To get a sense of the numbers involved before you ring, our pet poison control directory, poison control directory and poison control directory exist to make you a better-informed caller - not to replace the call.
Why this page will not tell you what to do to your pet
Older versions of this page opened by telling worried owners that most cases turn out fine. That sentence has been removed, and it is worth being open about why.
It may well be true, and it is still the wrong thing to say. A person reading it at eleven at night is looking for permission to not make a phone call, and a reassuring statistic hands it to them. The cases where it was fine never needed the page. The cases that needed the page are precisely the ones where a soothing average did real damage. Reassurance costs nothing to write and can cost a great deal to read.
The same logic applies to method. You will find pages tonight that tell you confidently how to make a dog bring something back up, what to give, and how long to wait before worrying. This site does not, for four reasons worth stating plainly:
- It depends entirely on what was swallowed. For some substances, bringing it back up causes a second, worse injury on the way out. Working out which category you are in is the whole skill, and it is not one a page can perform on your behalf.
- It depends on the animal. Species, size, age, breed, existing conditions and what is already in the stomach all change the answer. A page is written for everybody, which means it is written for nobody in particular - and your pet is somebody in particular.
- Doing is not travelling. Every minute spent on a home remedy is a minute not spent getting to help, and it can also close off options for the person who is about to take over.
- It can be undone the wrong way. Some interventions make the professional response harder or riskier, and nobody tells the owner that afterwards, so the belief survives.
If you want the full argument rather than the summary, it is set out in pet first aid truths - what not to do and why.
What to say when they pick up
“Hello - I need advice about my [dog/cat]. [Name], [age], about [weight]. At [clock time] [he/she] ate [what, read off the packet]. I think about [how much], but I am not certain. Since then [what you can see]. I have the packaging here. What would you like me to do?”
Read the key facts back once before you finish, so a mistake is caught while it is still cheap. Then ask two questions: “What would mean I should ring again sooner?” and “If I am coming in, what should I bring?” If you are travelling, tell them you are on your way - an expected animal is met at the door rather than joining a queue.
While you wait for someone to pick up
Write it down - you will not remember it accurately later
Clock time (or the window):
What it was, read off the packet:
How much:
Weight, age, anything ongoing:
What I can see, in plain words:
What they told me to do:
Things I am not doing
Before I put the phone down
Nothing you type here is stored, sent or seen by anyone. This is paper on a screen - print it, or use it while you wait.
On a calm day
Almost everything that makes a night like this go badly can be fixed on an ordinary afternoon. Ring your practice and ask where you go at three in the morning; save that address in your phone’s maps app; weigh your pet and write the date next to the number; photograph the packets of anything they take. Then walk the house with our poison control directory and fill in the printable fridge sheet before you need it. Our guide to what to have ready before a pet emergency covers the rest.
Where this page sits
- My dog ate something - what to do, step by step, the full walkthrough.
- Before you call the vet, the questions you will be asked.
- Pet first aid truths - what not to do and why.
- Find an emergency vet and the emergency triage helper.
- The situation pages: heatstroke, choking, bleeding and wounds and seizures.
- Poison control directory, the food safety search and reading your pet’s body language.
Not veterinary advice. Paw Multiverse is an information site written for pet owners, not a veterinary practice. Nothing here replaces a conversation with a vet who can see, hear and examine your animal. If you are in any doubt at all, call your vet or an emergency vet now - being told it is nothing costs you a phone call, and being wrong the other way costs a great deal more. See our full disclaimer.