Animal Poison by ASPCA Reviews

Simple to use, precise and to the point information. People complain about the categories and the fact that items are listed under scientific names, but they seem to have overlooked the fact that AnimalPoison also has a search function that works very well, so that you don’t have to scroll through categories. If your search is not returning a result, simply google the product in question to see if there is an alternate name. I was able to search garlic, vitamin b, oxycodone, and phenylephrine with no difficulty. When Sudafed didn’t return a result, I googled Sudafed and punched pseudoephedrine (the active ingredient) into AnimalPoison instead, which gave me the result I was looking for.

AnimalPoison will neither diagnose your pet’s symptoms nor tell you if what/how much your pet ingested WILL cause a problem- an app cannot practice veterinary medicine. However, AnimalPoison is a good first step to determine whether you should seek additional assistance. In order to properly utilize the tool and appreciate it, it’s helpful to understand its purpose.

As others have pointed out, most everything is classified by scientific names. It would be helpful to have an index of common names.

More importantly, there’s no ability to search by symptom rather than specific poisons. Pet owners are likely to know there’s a problem in advance of knowing what caused the problem, so why not have the option to start here? There should at least be enough to help establish a possible triage priority, or AnimalPoison should urge pet owners to call the vet immediately if they don’t know the source of the problem and the symptom may point to a severe problem.

AnimalPoison is a promising resource. I’m eager to see how it develops, and I’ll gladly raise my rating as it does!

I'm let down with the search tool on items that may or may not be toxic to your pet. Common names and any other common products regardless how harmless it actually is, would help quell our concerns and not waste our time googling elsewhere for answers. I'm aware there's a poison control hotline for pet owners, but not everyone has access to speaking on the phone like deaf or mute owners or after hours. AnimalPoison has so much potential and if they need volunteers to help input and verify common items (kind of like Wikipedia) please offer the open access as we would like to help along with ASPCA improve pet ownership, especially the first timers.

The directory is nice but no COMMON names so i really dont see myself able to make use of this, unless you know all the scientific chemical names, not that helpful.
Also, the search option does not work.
It would be wonderful if it had a working search,box and also had common names and products containing the toxins.

Those are words so kids could read the review. They deserve being called worse that would get this review blocked. ASPCA is a worth pathetic company in the first place that should be shut down and the founders shot for the corruption that is in their company. Not to mention they want to rip you off for a simple yes or no answer. They want you to pay 80$ for so idiot on the phone looking at a computer screen to simply tell you yes or no if a plant is poisonous to your dog. These morons have no clue what they are doing. Do not use AnimalPoison it’s worthless anyways and is way off on all the list of things in it. Do not support the ASPCA they are not worth a single penny.

There are some odd complaints in these reviews. The fellow who couldn't manage to figure out Clorox could have simply looked for "bleach." Those who want to search by symptom are being unrealistic as almost no one or two symptoms are specific for anything. (That is, "vomiting" search would return the whole database.) As it is, it's a quick and handy reference I'm glad to have at my fingertips. If you don't know the generic names of your meds, that's on you as a pet owner, not the fault of AnimalPoison .

Unfortunately, you cannot use AnimalPoison without creating an account or using other commercial personal information brokers such as Facebook or Google. I’ll assume ASPCA believes they need to aggregate your personal information and track you to assist with giving you information about poisonous food and plants. I can’t actually review content or the user interface because you CANNOT use AnimalPoison unless you are willing to use an account and give up your rights to your privacy. Shame they did it this way. It might have been immensely useful.

AnimalPoison has improved leaps and bounds. Much better design, better calculators, and the search is way better. You can search for anything now by keyword. I’m not sure why people are upset about having to login, this is way better than the previous version! It’s really smooth and there’s still tons of helpful info!

I think, as a veterinary professional, that AnimalPoison is very useful for owners and I think every pet owner should download it. As previously stated, common names would be great for those without extensive science/med backgrounds. Overall, I believe the ease, information, and potential that AnimalPoison has gives it a great future in a much needed market- yet still suggests veterinary care.

Please consider adding a common name of the houseplant/food (food coloring) in the search area/area where plants etc are listed. It's great to have the scientific names but could you please list the common name of the item under & WITH the scientific name in a smaller font? I think this would make it easier for most people to use & identify the item possibly causing their pet a problem.

While I love the idea if an app for poison, this particular one doesn't have nearly enough options for food available. For dogs there are maybe 20 foods available to check. And when I went to the horse section, it labeled coffee as mild with one of the symptoms being “vomiting”. Now, to anyone who knows about horses, you would know that it is physically impossible for horses to vomit- hence the reason for colicing. But AnimalPoison didnt have colic as one of the symptoms. Very disappointed :(

Got this after hearing and then finally finding out for myself that poison control and the emergency vet call was going to be costing me $50 each apparently super happy to get and have AnimalPoison for free thank you ASPCA

I have a medicine prescribed by the vet, but I think the dog may be having a bad reaction or may have been given too much. The med is not on the list. When I looked elsewhere I could find info on this drug. Since common medicine used for pets can be OD on or have bad side effects. These should be listed. And since ASPCA charges so much for their poison line. It's safer to take the pet to a vet or animal emergency clinic. Where they can do something if necessary

AnimalPoison could help bring in revenue providing that it had an extensive database of plants based on your planting zone. I find the plant list very small compared to what you see when you go to your local garden nursery. So if you want to make money for aspca, re create AnimalPoison for specific planting zones with all the possible plants. I would be willing to pay for peace of mind knowing that I created a garden safe for my pets.

Good to know WHAT is toxic to animals but with many of the chemicals it is very likely that the average pet owner will not know what they are or where they will be encountered Likewise with medicines. Rather than simply write "warfarin" add " an older anticoagulant medication known by most people as Coumadin. SOMEthing that would help folks know what they might be dealing with

This is the kind of app you might download in an emergency trying to figure out if your pet might have been poisoned. But you can’t do anything with AnimalPoison , anything at all, without first creating an account.

This is a terrible user on-boarding experience. I’m honestly shocked that any app developer still uses this approach.

I deleted it.

I’ve had AnimalPoison for two years and now I have to give my contact information to see if onions are poisonous for my dogs? No thank you. This makes it feel like a ploy for information in order to solicit donations instead of a app created with the intention of saving animals lives. Just be upfront and charge for AnimalPoison . I’m deleting it and will do a Google search from now on.

I used AnimalPoison successfully for quite a while & then suddenly, it requested a log on. I have attempted to use old one and it won’t allow. I have tried to create a new one. It won’t let me. For a poison website, it’s inexcusable. I have had to find another and will not be coming back to this one.

Best Feature: Chocolate Calculator
Worst Features: Uses scientific names & you cant search using common names (app wont cross reference)

15 out of 20 foods to avoid listed by Nationwide Pet Insurance were listed but, app lists by scientific names resulting in delay in getting info - a "google" search by common name is faster than AnimalPoison

if you happen to be a chemist, a veterinarian or medical professional.

Also useful if you thought ahead and outfitted your animal with a GoPro helmet camera.

Suggestion for next edition: start with symptoms. THEN identify potential poisons.

I got this when the Pet Poison Control app was discontinued. What a sad replacement. It’s alphabetized by scientific name, though you can search by common name. But the entries are incomplete both in items listed and symptoms to watch for.

Example: the green parts of tomato plants are toxic to dogs, as are onions. Neither of these are listed in AnimalPoison at all. Garlic is listed under plants rather than food.

And several entries are noted as ‘severely toxic’ but the symptoms fail to mention symptoms like coma and death.

Finally, AnimalPoison I used to use (which was sadly discontinued) described the item and what about that item was toxic so that pet owners could better understand what problems may occur - for example the stems and leaves of tomatoes contain a toxin called .... which causes .... when ingested’ or apples ‘the flesh and skin of apples are safe for dogs to eat, but the seeds contain .... which can cause .... symptoms and so the core of the apple should be discarded’

The ASPCA app is woefully incomplete in this regard. I shall keep searching for a better app.