The development of this book has been a collaborative effort between the Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS) and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA).

I would particularly like to thank my colleagues Karen Sturgeon, Leonard Hawkins and Nick Sutton for their written contributions, and especially Nicola Bates for her writing, editing and her project management of the content from the VPIS perspective.

Sophie Adamantos and Amanda Boag are to be thanked for their clinical expertise and for providing additional checking and editing, Lisa Archer for her marketing input and Elizabeth Dauncey for providing the plant photographs.

Finally I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the publishing team and IT development team at the BSAVA, with whom it has been a pleasure to work. Without them the whole venture would probably not have succeeded.

Alexander Campbell

Head of Service VPIS (1992–2012)

We are very grateful for the opportunity to update the text in this guide and ensure that it is accurate. This is the fourth time that we have revised the content and it is vital to continue doing so since our information and recommendations change as more information becomes available from our past cases and published literature. We would like to thank all the veterinary practices who support us through their memberships enabling us to continue this invaluable service, and to those practices who advise their clients to use our 24 hour triage service for owners, Animal PoisonLine. This relatively new public line ensures owners are armed with the right information in often very stressful situations. My thanks also go to my colleagues Nicola Bates and Tiffany Blackett for all their contributions and updates to this book.

Dr Nicola Robinson BSC MA VetMB MRCVS

Head of Service VPIS

April 2019