What do you do when your pet eats something he shouldn’t? One recent morning as my boyfriend Eric was getting ready for work, he caught his 30-pound dog Max chocolate-pawed on the bed, licking a protein-bar wrapper. The terrier mix had stolen the half-eaten bar from the nightstand and devoured it.

Eric knows dogs can’t have chocolate, so he spent the morning frantically researching online, not sure if he should drive Max to the vet. He didn’t want to pay for an unnecessary vet visit, which can be hundreds of dollars or more. Based on advice he read online, he stayed home from work and watched Max for any signs of illness. But Max was fine—just as he had been when he ate a $10 bill, part of a Blackberry phone, tissues, dryer sheets, floss, a shoelace and a Pledge dust wipe.

It wasn’t an ideal way to deal with a pet-health crisis, so we were relieved to subsequently learn about a pet poison control hotline called the Pet Poison Helpline (1-800-213-6680), which says it’s staffed by experts who are board-certified in veterinary internal medicine, critical-care specialists, and veterinary toxicologists. There are a variety of these types of hotlines around the U.S.

This one is open 24/7 and handles potential poisoning issues for a wide range of pets, which I was happy to learn just in case my two rabbits or three guinea pigs get into trouble too. To keep the service running, they charge $35 per incident, which is much less expensive than an emergency vet visit. But you still may want to follow up with your own veterinarian.

Had we known about this service, Eric wouldn’t have had to miss work and we wouldn’t have been so worried. As for Mischievous Max, no doubt he will keep trying his hardest to be a very lovable, yet very bad dog.

—Sari Krieger