dogs and St. Joseph's aspirin

[ceile]

My old girl jumped out of the car and landed funny on her back leg. She's walking fine, but is obviously uncomfortable. Anyone ever tried baby aspirin for pain relief? I know advil/tylenol/motrin are no-no's.

[iscooterliberally]

1. I use regular aspirin on my dogs sometimes.

I use it very rarely. My vet jokingly said that low dose aspirin might stop your dog from having a heart attack the next morning, but wouldn't do much for pain. Just don't give your dog aspirin on an empty stomach. My dogs are large though. Well over 70 lbs each. If you have a small dog the low dose stuff might help, or maybe just one aspirin. I have also used Metacam, and here's a link to a dog aspirin that we used to use on our old Shih-Tzu who was blind, deaf and diabetic:

http://www.1800petmeds.com/Vetrynol+Aspirin+Chewable+Tablets-prod2594.html

I hope your dog feels better soon.

[ceile]

2. Thanks for the link.

I just want to give her something for now- I'm sure she'll be fine in a few days. I just don't like to see her uncomfortable. She's 56 lbs so I think a full children's dose twice a day might do the trick...

[mopinko]

3. my boxer get an enteric coated regular strength aspirin twice a day.

we may move her up to rimadyl, but for now this seems to be helping her arthritis.
enteric coated is important, but for short term, giving it with food should be fine.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Our Border Collie has a bit of what seems like arthritis. The vet said asprin was just fine.

At 65 lbs, she can tolerate a Big Girl dose.

[ceile]

5. once a day or twice a day? n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Kind of as needed

She doesn't exhibit symptoms every day . . . or even every few days. But we've given it to her twice in one day more than once. She has also gone a month or more without any.

As a regular maintenance routine, I'd check with the vet for that. I'm not sure what the long term effect might be.

[TorchTheWitch]

7. call the vet and ask if aspirin is appropriate and how many mgs. to give

Aspirin might be helpful but you'd need to know how much and how often to give based on the weight of the dog to both avoid over-medicating or not giving enough to be doing any good.

Actually, a trip to the vet is more likely in order to make sure there isn't a more serious injury. Left on its own even a minor injury can heal wrong (or not heal at all) creating a larger and more expensive problem to fix or one that can't be fixed. Generally, it's just not a good idea to ignore a possible more serious injury particularly with a limb and most particularly with an older dog.

Keep an eye on her and discourage running about or stair climbing and look for any signs of pain or change in gait for a few days and see if there's improvement. If it's nothing there should be quick improvement, if not then something more serious is going on.

At least call the vet and see what they recommend. As I always say, a phone call to the vet is free.