Your dog ate something. The two numbers.
Everything else we publish is about not getting here. This page is for the ninety seconds after that failed. Ring, drive, and tell them exactly what went in.
If the emergency involves wildlife, a seal, a sea lion or anything protected, that is a different line: DOC on 0800 362 468 (0800 DOC HOT). Ring the vet first if your dog is the one in trouble.
This page is open to everyone, always. No sign-in, no membership, nothing here sits behind a gate, and it never will.
What to tell them
A vet can only treat what they can name. Six things change the outcome, and you can gather most of them before you have got the tailgate shut.
- Say the specific word. Not "something in the bush". Say karaka berries, toxic algae mat, possum carcass in a 1080 area, sea slug, bait from a bait station. The name changes what happens next.
- When, to the nearest ten minutes. With some of these the clock matters more than the dose. A rough time beats no time, and "about twenty minutes ago, at the second river crossing" is a genuinely useful sentence.
- How much, and how big your dog is. Half a berry or a mouthful. Weight in kilograms, even if you are guessing. Dose is per kilo, so "she is about 18 kg" does real work.
- A photo, taken before you leave. Photograph the berry, the mat, the carcass, the bait or the creature where it lies. If it is bait, bring the packaging or a sample, bagged, and keep it away from everyone else in the car.
- Where you are and when you will arrive. Give them the trailhead and your honest ETA. A clinic that knows you are 40 minutes out can have the room and the drugs ready when the door opens.
- What has changed since. Vomiting, wobbliness, tremors, drooling, breathing, gums. Say what you see, not what you think it means. Keep the phone on speaker and keep driving.
How fast is fast, by what was eaten
These are the four that put New Zealand dogs in a clinic, with the timelines stated the way the sources state them. Two of them will not look like anything for a long time, which is exactly what makes them dangerous.
| What was eaten | What you see | How fast, honestly | What we would do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080 and bait-station poisons | 1080: disorientation, restlessness, running in circles, barking or howling at nothing, and a dog that flinches at being touched. Anticoagulant baits (brodifacoum and relatives): bleeding gums, blood in the urine or faeces, dullness, vomiting. | 1080 signs start about 30 minutes to several hours after eating, and death can follow between 2 and 12 hours. Anticoagulants are the opposite shape: nothing for days, then bleeding. | Go now, and do not wait for a sign. There is no antidote to 1080, and the only thing that has ever helped is arriving early. Anticoagulants do have a real veterinary treatment, and it also works best early. Most 1080 deaths in dogs come from eating a poisoned carcass, not a bait. |
| Toxic algae | Lethargy, muscle tremors, fast breathing, twitching, then paralysis and convulsions. The mats are brown or black on river rocks, and they wash up along the edge where dogs sniff. | A piece the size of a 50 cent coin can be enough. In extreme cases death follows within 30 minutes of the first sign. | This is the one where minutes decide it. Drive, and ring the clinic while someone else holds the dog. Wash any algae off the coat with clean water if you have it, and do not let the dog lick. |
| Karaka berries | Vomiting, diarrhoea, off food, sore belly first. Then hind-limb paralysis, loss of balance, convulsions, and slowed breathing. | Signs can be delayed up to 48 hours. Toxicity has been recorded from a single berry, in dogs of every size. The fruit drops January to April, and the kernel stays toxic in the soil after that. | Go even if your dog looks perfectly fine four hours later. The vet guidance is explicit that no signs in the first one to four hours is not an all-clear with karaka. |
| Sea slugs and the tideline | Vomiting, wobbliness, lethargy, drooling, muscle twitching, seizures, trouble breathing. The grey side-gilled sea slug is a soft grey lump on the sand that looks like nothing much. | The toxin is tetrodotoxin, the pufferfish one, and it paralyses muscles including the ones used for breathing. Fifteen dogs were made ill on Auckland beaches across one July to September. | Go now, and say "sea slug" at the door. North Island slugs have tested toxic; the South Island ones tested so far have not, which is an interesting fact and not a licence to let your dog chew one. More wash up at the end of winter. |
Each hazard links through to the long version in the poison and hazards guide, where the sources are cited in full.
After-hours and emergency vets, region by region
24 clinics we have verified, 9 of them open 24 hours. Ring first: on the after-hours ones the door is usually locked and the vet is on call.
Northland 1 clinic
Maunu Road Vet Clinic (Northland Veterinary Group) - 24/7 after-hours
24 hours, 7 days
16-18 Maunu Road, Whangarei 0110
09 470 1060Auckland 9 clinics
Animal Emergency at VSA - Sylvia Park
24 hours, 7 days
Cnr Hotunui Drive & Te Apunga Place, Sylvia Park, Mt Wellington, Auckland
09 849 2121Animal Referral Centre Central (ARC Central)
24 hours, 7 days
8 Hereford Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland 1011
09 281 5815Animal Referral Centre North (ARC North)
24 hours, 7 days
224 Albany Highway, Schnapper Rock, Auckland 0632
09 281 5815Animal Emergency at VSA - Auckland West (Henderson)
After hours: nights and weekends
1/133 Central Park Drive, Henderson, Auckland
09 849 2121Evening Vet
Extended hours, ring to check the night
89 Te Oneroa Way, Long Bay, Auckland 0630
09 217 9249Manukau After Hours Veterinary Clinic (Night Vet)
After hours: nights and weekends
15 Jack Conway Avenue, Wiri, Manukau, Auckland 2104
09 277 8383North Shore Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care
After hours: nights and weekends
96B Ellice Road, Glenfield, Auckland
09 443 5640Western After Hours Emergency Vet Clinic
After hours: nights and weekends
Unit 2/348 Rosebank Road, Avondale, Auckland 1026
09 820 7273Waikato 1 clinic
Waikato After Hours Veterinary Hospital (WAVH)
After hours: nights and weekends
574 Anglesea Street, Hamilton
07 839 5656Bay of Plenty 1 clinic
Bay After Hours Veterinary Hospital (BAHVET)
After hours: nights and weekends
1450 Cameron Road, Greerton, Tauranga 3112
07 220 9775Hawke's Bay 1 clinic
HBAH - Hawke's Bay Urgent Care & After Hours Veterinary Clinic
After hours: nights and weekends
103 Grays Road, St Leonards, Hastings 4120
06 651 7103Taranaki 1 clinic
A+ VET - Afterhours Plus Vet Emergency Taranaki
After hours: nights and weekends
6 Lynton Street, Vogeltown, New Plymouth
06 242 1278Manawatū-Whanganui 1 clinic
Massey University Pet Emergency Centre (Te Pokapu Ohotata)
24 hours, 7 days
University Avenue, Massey University, Palmerston North 4474
0800 738 363Wellington 1 clinic
Wellington After Hours Veterinary Clinic
After hours: nights and weekends
5 McCormack Place, Ngauranga, Wellington 6035
04 473 7545Nelson-Tasman 2 clinics
Nelson Vets - Saxton (after-hours on-call)
After hours: nights and weekends
2 Findlay Place, Stoke, Nelson 7011
03 544 5678Nelson Vets - Victory (after-hours on-call)
After hours: nights and weekends
179 Vanguard Street, Nelson 7010
03 546 9646Canterbury 1 clinic
Christchurch After Hours Veterinary Centre
After hours: nights and weekends
146 Antigua Street, Addington, Christchurch
03 366 1052Otago 2 clinics
Remarkable Vets (Queenstown) - 24hr emergency
24 hours, 7 days
18 Glenda Drive, Frankton, Queenstown 9300
03 442 1411Dunedin Emergency & After-Hours Vet Clinic (DEVC)
After hours: nights and weekends
220 Balmacewen Road, Wakari, Dunedin 9010
03 477 7233Southland 3 clinics
Elles Road Veterinary Centre (Invercargill) - 24/7 after-hours
24 hours, 7 days
226 Elles Road, Strathern, Invercargill 9812
03 214 4156Northern Southland Vets - Riversdale (24/7 emergency)
24 hours, 7 days
105 Berwick Street, Riversdale, Southland 9744
03 202 5636Northern Southland Vets - Te Anau (24/7 emergency)
24 hours, 7 days
133 Govan Drive, Te Anau 9600
03 249 7039Every entry was checked against the clinic's own site or its parent network on 13 July 2026. Several of these are an on-call vet rather than a lit building, and some ask you to ring a central triage number first, so the number listed is the one to ring, not the one on the door. Ring before you drive. If a number has changed, tell us and we will fix it the same day.
Where the help actually is, and where it is not
We hold 24 clinics across 12 regions of the 15 we map. The honest reading, measured as the median drive from every walk we publish in each region: Auckland about 5 minutes and Nelson-Tasman about 5 minutes, but Gisborne about 3 hours 40 minutes, the West Coast about 3 hours.
| Region | In the register | Median drive to the nearest listed clinic | Walks measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northland | 1 clinic | about 65 minutes | 32 walks |
| Auckland | 9 clinics | about 5 minutes | 383 walks |
| Waikato | 1 clinic | about 70 minutes | 182 walks |
| Bay of Plenty | 1 clinic | about 30 minutes | 61 walks |
| Gisborne | none we could verify | about 3 hours 40 minutes | 3 walks |
| Hawke's Bay | 1 clinic | about 15 minutes | 31 walks |
| Taranaki | 1 clinic | about 15 minutes | 28 walks |
| Manawatū-Whanganui | 1 clinic | about 40 minutes | 63 walks |
| Wellington | 1 clinic | about 20 minutes | 282 walks |
| Nelson-Tasman | 2 clinics | about 5 minutes | 86 walks |
| Marlborough | none we could verify | about 70 minutes | 20 walks |
| West Coast | none we could verify | about 3 hours | 11 walks |
| Canterbury | 1 clinic | about 55 minutes | 357 walks |
| Otago | 2 clinics | about 30 minutes | 171 walks |
| Southland | 3 clinics | about 30 minutes | 48 walks |
Gisborne, Marlborough and the West Coast have no dedicated after-hours clinic we could verify. That does not mean there is no vet: it means we found no round-the-clock or nights-and-weekends service we were willing to put a phone number against. If you are out there and something goes wrong, ring the nearest listed clinic anyway. They advise by phone, they know who is on call locally, and they would much rather take the call than read about it later.
Those drive times are estimates, not routed directions: straight-line distance with a road allowance, at open-road speed. On a gravel road in the dark, in the rain, with a sick dog on the back seat, they will be optimistic. Treat them as a reason to know the number before you leave the car park, not as a schedule.
The three questions people ring us about
What do I ring if my dog eats something poisonous in New Zealand?
Two numbers. Your own vet's after-hours line first, because they know your dog and they can open the door. Then the National Poisons Centre on 0800 764 766 (0800 POISON), which is answered around the clock from anywhere in the country. Tell whoever answers what was eaten in plain words, when, roughly how much, your dog's weight, and how far out you are.
How long do I have if my dog eats toxic algae?
Not long, and this is the one where minutes decide it. A piece the size of a 50 cent coin can be enough, and in extreme cases death follows within 30 minutes of the first sign. Do not wait to see whether it settles. Drive, and ring the clinic on the way.
Is there an after-hours vet everywhere in New Zealand?
No. We list 24 clinics, and the gaps are real: Gisborne, Marlborough and the West Coast have no dedicated after-hours service we could verify, and the median drive from the walks we map runs to about 3 hours 40 minutes in Gisborne and about 3 hours on the West Coast. Ring the nearest listed clinic anyway, because they triage by phone and they know who is on call in the district.
Not needing the numbers
Prevention is the only part of this you control. Read the hazard the day before you go, not the day it happens.