Moberly, Heather K.

English

Texas A&M University

Toxic and Poisonous Plants: Companion Animals

Texas A&amp;M Repository

T  he first part of this series, which focused on livestock, was published in the Texas Veterinarian in February. This piece focuses on resources related to com-panion animals. Companion animal information is similar to livestock information relative to audience; information is written for both veterinary professionals and owners. Livestock information is largely about the animals’ environment, e.g., range plants, or that which is intentionally or uninten-tionally added to feedstuffs. Companion animal information can be more complex because the plants could be cultivated as food for humans, packaged as cooking ingredients or present as landscaping, houseplants or medicinal plants.Information appears to be more abundant related to companion ani-mals, but a closer look reveals two things when seeking reliable informa-tion. The first is that much of what is present on the internet has no source information beyond the site on which it appears. Be cautious about that, espe-cially if the information fits what you are hoping to be true. The other is that many sites provide information from the same few reliable resources; it may be efficient to seek these places first.Lists of plants, often published in bot-any, can be quite useful and are arranged by geography or mechanism of injury. An example is a list of the poisonous and injurious vascular plants of the United States, available at https://digital commons.humboldt.edu/botany_jps/11.Universities publish information through the veterinary schools, veteri-nary libraries, animal science and hor-ticulture departments and agricultural extension agencies. They also may pro-vide access to published articles and books. Examples include:UC Davis • Safe and Poisonous Garden Plants, https://ucanr.edu/sites/poisonous_safe_plants/• UCD Toxic Plant Garden, https://ccah.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ucd-toxic-plant-gardenCornell• Poisonous plants affecting dogs, https://poisonousplants.ansci.cornell.edu/dogs/index.html• Kingsbury’s classic book, Poisonous Plants of the United States and Can-ada, is not freely available; however, the 35-page, 1994 Common Poi-sonous Plants is freely available at https://ecommons.cornell.edu/ handle/1813/3497University of Illinois• Plants Toxic to Animals, https://guides.library.illinois.edu/plants toxictoanimals• Poisonous Plant Garden, https://vetmed.illinois.edu/poisonplants/plants.phpColorado State University • Guide to Poisonous Plants, https://csuvth.colostate.edu/poisonous_plants/, includes a list of cultivated trees and plants potentially poison-ous to animals as a guide of plants not to have in animal enclosuresIowa State University• Houseplant poisoning in small animals, from the journal Iowa State University Veterinarian, https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iowastate_veterinarian/vol49/iss1/5IEATPLANTS is a plant toxicity project that began at the Oklahoma State University veterinary library in collaboration with the 3VM toxicology course. The information is now on both that site, http://info.library.okstate.edu/IEATPLANTS, and the Texas A&M University library site at https://tamu.libguides.com/IEATPLANTS. The online Merck Veterinary Manual has a poisonous plant chapter in the toxicology section at https://www. merckvetmanual.com/toxicology. It includes houseplants and ornamentals with images and a table of the scientific and common names, important charac-teristics, comments and toxic principles and effects and treatment. Searching for published articles using the resources available to you is also a great strategy. If you don’t have access to a library and librarians to assist, look to other columns in this series to assist you in identifying arti-cles and locating freely available legal article copies. Texas veterinarians may contact the Medical Sciences Library at Texas A&M University for assistance at no cost for reference service, liter-ature searching and copies of articles, chapters and conference papers from our collection. Details can be found at http://tamu.libguides.com/txvetalum.LIBRARIOUS VETERINARIUSToxic and Poisonous Plants:  Companion AnimalsBy Heather K. Moberly Coordinator of Veterinary Services, Medical  Sciences Library, Texas A&M UniversityPOISON CONTROL RESOURCESMany plant sites refer to information from the ASPCA Poison Control Center, including both the freely avail-able information and fee consultation service. This includes information for owners and for veterinary pro-fessionals at https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal- poison-control. There is extensive freely available infor-mation about plants, dogs, cats and horses. The ASPCA Pro site, https://www.aspcapro.org/, includes profession-al-level content in a number of formats, including webi-nars, tips and how-to guides. Use the search feature or choose Animal Health from the topics. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center app has sections for dogs, cats, birds and horses. Each then covers food, plant, medication, weather hazards and household hazards. Individual entries provide a scale of toxicity, common names, symptoms, action to take by risk level and severity. The app provides pet owner resources (news, toxic plant list, podcasts), profession-al resources (RACE CE, podcasts, veterinary lifeline partnership program, links to the pro site) and calcula-tors for chocolate, rodenticide and anticoagulants. Another resource is the Pet Poison Helpline, https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com, and both the freely available information and fee consultation service. It provides a poison list and information for owners and veterinary professionals. The Red Cross Pet First Aid app includes poisoning information but not specifically plant poisoning.W W W . T V M A . O R G  •  T E X A S  V E T E R I N A R I A N 41August 2020

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Toxic and Poisonous Plants: Companion Animals

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Toxic and Poisonous Plants: Companion Animals

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Texas A&M University

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Texas A&M Repository