Handbook of Small Animal Toxicology and Poisonings

Not as comprehensive as I'd hoped

I doubt this book will much reduce my calls to animal poison control.

They seem to have left out ordinary household substances one would expect to be toxic but aren't. Inclusion could save time and anguish, since this has been a fairly common ordeal for us. We've no deadly poisons, just many things that shouldn't be eaten).

Also, while I'm touched that many illegal drugs are included (they're concerned enough about animal welfare to include that which I'd think mostly affects drug dealers' dogs - surely police dogs are trained not to), that's not what I have around my house.

What I have around my house is all kinds of vitamins and nutritional supplements, some of which can be toxic in massive doses.

ie, how much vitamin A per pound of body weight is dangerous, and what are the ramifications of an excessive but non-critical ingestion? When your dog chews open a bottle of multi-vitamins and eats them all, this is what you want to know.

And, though this is one nightmare we haven't had, it seems that illegal drugs are more comprehensively listed than classes of pharmaceuticals.

There is, however, an enormous amount of info packed into it., with detailed information on emergency action.

It's important to familiarize oneself with this book's counter-intuitive organization prior to an emergency, as well as the whole evaluation section, and terminology if one doesn't know it.