Watch What Your Pet Eats This Holiday Season Or It Could Cost You $$$
By Lynne Adkins
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If your pet eats the wrong thing this holiday season and you need to call poison control, you should know it's not free.
If a dog or cat eats the wrong thing and you need help, it will cost you $65 for the call, according to Dr. Camille DeClementi, senior toxicologist at the animal Poison Control Center.
"That is per case. So if your dog ate chocolate and we spoke to you and you had to go to the veterinary clinic, the whole consultation back and forth between us and you and your vet, that would all be covered under the 65 dollars," DeClementi explained.
It costs because the center doesn't get federal funding and someone has to pay for the 27 vets on staff, along with support personnel. She says there are only two animal poison control centers in the country and her office in Illinois handles more than 700 calls every day.
