{
 "dataset": "hazards",
 "title": "Household hazard groups for cats and dogs",
 "emergency_first": "IF AN ANIMAL HAS ALREADY BEEN EXPOSED, THIS FILE IS THE WRONG ANSWER. Contact a veterinarian or an animal poison centre now, with the packaging or the plant to hand. Do not wait for signs, do not induce vomiting on your own initiative, and do not give anything by mouth. Nothing in this dataset establishes that an exposure is minor.",
 "description": "Two reference tables: the groups of human medicines behind most companion-animal exposures with the mechanism behind each, and the six plants sold under the word \"lily\" with the botanical name that actually determines the risk. Groups and identities only — no amounts, no thresholds, no products.",
 "generated": "2026-09-17",
 "count": 14,
 "table_count": 2,
 "publisher": {
  "name": "Galen",
  "url": "https://galen.vet/",
  "documentation": "https://galen.vet/api/",
  "contact": "hello@galen.vet",
  "byline": {
   "name": "Galen editorial",
   "url": "https://galen.vet/about/",
   "type": "Organization",
   "note": "An organisation byline, deliberately, and not a named expert. Nobody on this masthead is a practising clinician; a named authority who does not exist would be a lie in machine-readable form. Where a veterinarian reviews a page, the name, qualification and date are attached to that page rather than to the site."
  }
 },
 "licence": {
  "id": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International",
  "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "Galen (https://galen.vet)",
  "covers": "The compilation: the article index, the reference tables as structured here, the source registry and every derived field. Use it commercially, modify it, redistribute it; credit Galen with a link. The underlying standards, guidelines and reference works belong to the bodies that publish them and are cited row by row."
 },
 "scope_limits": {
  "no_dosing": "Galen publishes no doses, dose rates, dose intervals or dose calculations, for any species or any product. The figure that applies is on the approved label of the product in front of you, interpreted by the veterinarian who has examined the animal.",
  "no_diagnosis": "Nothing here diagnoses. A sign is not a disease and a list of signs is not a differential. What is published is what a measurement or a label phrase MEANS, so that a conversation with a veterinarian starts from the right place.",
  "no_products": "No product is named and none is recommended. Which product is appropriate is a clinical decision and, in most jurisdictions, a prescribing one.",
  "no_clearance": "An absent row is never a statement of safety. These tables list what they list; the space around them is unexamined, not cleared.",
  "emergency": "If an animal has swallowed something, is collapsed, is struggling to breathe, is bloated and retching unproductively, or is deteriorating after a bite or sting, the answer is a veterinarian or an animal poison centre immediately — not a reference page and not an agent.",
  "jurisdiction": "Veterinary medicines law is national. Where a figure or a rule belongs to one regime it is named as such; where a page describes a pattern common to several, it says so. Nothing here should be read as the law of a country it does not name."
 },
 "not_published": [
  {
   "what": "Dose tables, dose rates and dose calculators",
   "why": "Out of scope by editorial policy, not by omission. A dose depends on the individual animal, the product and the indication; a dose quoted from a general reference is how an overdose happens.",
   "instead": "The approved label of the product, and the veterinarian who has examined the animal."
  },
  {
   "what": "Numeric withdrawal periods and maximum residue limits",
   "why": "They are product-, species- and route-specific and they change. Publishing a snapshot of them would produce a number that is authoritative-looking, quotable and wrong within a year — the shape of error this site is built to avoid.",
   "instead": "Codex Alimentarius for MRLs, and the national register or the product label for the withdrawal period that applies. Both are keyed in /api/v1/sources.json."
  },
  {
   "what": "A product register, a price list or a supplier directory",
   "why": "Galen is a reference publication, not a marketplace. It sells nothing and lists nobody.",
   "instead": "The national medicines register for the country concerned."
  },
  {
   "what": "A full toxic-plant or toxic-substance database",
   "why": "ASPCA and the poison centres maintain these, keep them current and answer the telephone. Republishing a stale copy of a safety list is worse than not having one.",
   "instead": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control and Pet Poison Helpline, both keyed in /api/v1/sources.json."
  },
  {
   "what": "Analytics, reader data or any personal data of any kind",
   "why": "None is collected into anything publishable. There is no account, no form and no log export.",
   "instead": null
  }
 ],
 "corrections": {
  "how": "Email hello@galen.vet with the URL and the source that contradicts it.",
  "policy": "A correction to a figure is made in the source registry or the reference data and reaches every surface — page, markdown twin, JSON and MCP — on the next build, because there is only one copy of it."
 },
 "poison_centres": [
  {
   "region": "United States",
   "name": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center",
   "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control"
  },
  {
   "region": "United States",
   "name": "Pet Poison Helpline",
   "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/"
  },
  {
   "region": "Elsewhere",
   "name": "Your own veterinary practice or its out-of-hours service",
   "url": null,
   "note": "Poison-centre provision is national. Find the number for your country before you need it."
  }
 ],
 "field_notes": {
  "absence_is_not_safety": "AN ABSENT GROUP OR PLANT IS NOT A SAFE ONE. These tables list what the article discusses. The full toxic-plant list is ASPCA's and is linked rather than copied, because a stale copy of a safety list is worse than no copy.",
  "no_amounts": "No dose, threshold, weight or \"amount that matters\" appears anywhere in this file, and none should be inferred from the wording. The amount that matters depends on the animal and the preparation, which is why the answer is a poison centre rather than arithmetic.",
  "groups_not_products": "Medicines are named as GROUPS. Individual brand and product names are deliberately absent — the group is what determines the mechanism, and a product name invites the reader to check one box and stop.",
  "botanical_name_only": "For the lily table, the botanical name is the only reliable identifier. Two unrelated genera — Lilium and Hemerocallis — carry the acute kidney risk in cats; several other plants sold as lilies carry a different and much milder mechanism. The label on the pot is not evidence.",
  "species_specific": "Every row is about cats and dogs. Do not generalise a mechanism to another species: the feline conjugation limit behind the paracetamol row is precisely a cat property."
 },
 "data": [
  {
   "id": "human-medicine-groups",
   "title": "Household medicine groups that most often bring cats and dogs into practice",
   "about": "The groups of human medicines behind most companion-animal exposures, and the mechanism behind each. Groups, never product names.",
   "caveat": "THIS IS A LIST OF HAZARD GROUPS, NOT A TRIAGE TOOL AND NOT A DOSE TABLE. It names no products, no amounts and no thresholds, because the amount that matters depends on the animal and the preparation. If an animal has swallowed any human medicine, the correct next step is a veterinarian or an animal poison centre immediately, with the packaging to hand — not a search, and never a decision to wait and see. An absent group is not a safe group.",
   "source_page": "https://galen.vet/journal/human-medicines-and-pets/",
   "sources": [
    {
     "key": "aspcaPoison",
     "title": "Animal Poison Control Center",
     "publisher": "ASPCA",
     "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control"
    },
    {
     "key": "petPoisonHelpline",
     "title": "Pet Poison Helpline",
     "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline",
     "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/"
    },
    {
     "key": "avmaHazards",
     "title": "Household hazards",
     "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)",
     "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards"
    },
    {
     "key": "merckCatOwners",
     "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual",
     "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual",
     "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners"
    },
    {
     "key": "merckDogOwners",
     "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual",
     "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual",
     "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners"
    }
   ],
   "row_count": 8,
   "rows": [
    {
     "group": "Paracetamol / acetaminophen",
     "why_it_matters": "Limited feline conjugation shunts metabolism toward a reactive metabolite; damages haemoglobin and red cells"
    },
    {
     "group": "Human non-steroidal anti-inflammatories",
     "why_it_matters": "Narrow margin in dogs and cats; gastrointestinal ulceration and kidney injury at exposures that are ordinary for a person"
    },
    {
     "group": "Salicylates",
     "why_it_matters": "Slow clearance, particularly in cats; accumulates with repeated exposure"
    },
    {
     "group": "Antidepressants and sleep aids",
     "why_it_matters": "Act on the central nervous system; effects range from sedation to agitation, tremor and hyperthermia"
    },
    {
     "group": "Decongestants and cold remedies",
     "why_it_matters": "Combination products, each component a separate hazard; stimulant components affect heart rate and blood pressure"
    },
    {
     "group": "Stimulants for attention disorders",
     "why_it_matters": "Small quantities produce marked cardiovascular and neurological effects"
    },
    {
     "group": "Topical creams and gels",
     "why_it_matters": "Licked from skin or from a treated person; vitamin D analogues and 5-fluorouracil preparations are severe even in tiny amounts"
    },
    {
     "group": "Sugar-free products with xylitol",
     "why_it_matters": "Not an active substance — an excipient. Insulin release and hypoglycaemia in dogs; liver injury at higher exposures"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "lily-identities",
   "title": "What a plant sold as a \"lily\" actually is",
   "about": "Six plants sold under the word \"lily\", the botanical name of each, and which of them carry the acute kidney risk to cats that the word is associated with.",
   "caveat": "THE BOTANICAL NAME IS THE ONLY RELIABLE IDENTIFIER — check that, not the label on the pot. Two unrelated genera, Lilium and Hemerocallis, both carry the acute kidney risk in cats; several other plants sold as lilies carry an entirely different and much milder mechanism. Being absent from this table is not a statement that a plant is safe: it lists what the word \"lily\" is applied to, not the full toxic-plant list, which is ASPCA's. If a cat has chewed, eaten or groomed pollen from any Lilium or Hemerocallis, that is an emergency and the answer is a veterinarian now.",
   "source_page": "https://galen.vet/journal/houseplants-toxic-to-cats/",
   "sources": [
    {
     "key": "aspcaCatPlants",
     "title": "Plants toxic to cats",
     "publisher": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center",
     "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/cats-plant-list"
    },
    {
     "key": "aspcaPlants",
     "title": "Toxic and non-toxic plants list",
     "publisher": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center",
     "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants"
    },
    {
     "key": "aspcaPoison",
     "title": "Animal Poison Control Center",
     "publisher": "ASPCA",
     "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control"
    },
    {
     "key": "catVets",
     "title": "Feline practice guidelines",
     "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)",
     "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines"
    }
   ],
   "row_count": 6,
   "rows": [
    {
     "sold_as": "Easter, tiger, Asiatic, Oriental lily",
     "botanical_name": "Lilium spp.",
     "family_and_mechanism": "True lily — acute kidney injury in cats"
    },
    {
     "sold_as": "Daylily",
     "botanical_name": "Hemerocallis spp.",
     "family_and_mechanism": "Not Lilium, but the same kidney risk in cats"
    },
    {
     "sold_as": "Peace lily",
     "botanical_name": "Spathiphyllum",
     "family_and_mechanism": "Arum family — insoluble oxalate, mouth pain"
    },
    {
     "sold_as": "Calla lily",
     "botanical_name": "Zantedeschia",
     "family_and_mechanism": "Arum family — insoluble oxalate, mouth pain"
    },
    {
     "sold_as": "Lily of the valley",
     "botanical_name": "Convallaria majalis",
     "family_and_mechanism": "Asparagus family — cardiac glycosides"
    },
    {
     "sold_as": "Peruvian lily",
     "botanical_name": "Alstroemeria",
     "family_and_mechanism": "Mild irritant; not a Lilium"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "related": {
  "articles": "https://galen.vet/api/v1/articles.json",
  "sources": "https://galen.vet/api/v1/sources.json",
  "documentation": "https://galen.vet/api/"
 }
}