aspirin and
Posted By: tums on 2009-03-08
In Reply to: Aspirin for dogs - TravelinMT
If you start feeding your dog a baby aspirin a day for arthritis, make sure you have some Tums in the house. Aspirin can upset their stomach and you can give Tums without overdosing them.
BTW: The hint that the aspirin is bothering them and they need a Tums is eating a lot of grass and throwing up.
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ASPIRIN will kill a dog
Please tell her to stop! She must be able to find a vet somewhere that will treat the dog and let her make payments!
And yes dogs most certainly have seizures.
ASPIRIN DOES NOT KILL A DOG
Worked for a vet, have a 16 year old dog on two aspirin a day. Works better than the expensive NSAID's. My dog had seizures also. Don't know why this has become so much more prominent lately but has. My dog is part chow/lab mix. She began with the seizures after being on prednisone -- I say that had something to do with it -- they do not. Very bad seizures. Age 6. Had her on medication - not phenobarb but something else that a dog neurologist said to put her on. She took it for almost a year - no seizures, slowly tapered her off of it and she did have little ones now and then -- 2 to 3 a year but over the past 7 years has not had one to my knowledge. She is 16 and quite healthy, except for being quite deaf, hip dysplasiad and arthritis and takes aspirin for it. I am sure her end is near but we still walk a mile a day and she chases her friend our cat every now and then. But her birthday is Valentine's Day -- was actually born on that day and she will be 16. Go on line and read about seizures. A neighbor has a chow that just had hsi first one -- age 4 to 5 also. So it is more common than one would expect. Good luck. Actually the visit to the dog neurologist was cheaper than my regular vet and he spent a lot of time with us. So it was well worth the money. Patti
Disagree on aspirin
We used to prescribe Ascripton all the time to dogs with arthritis. My dog has been on one to two a day for several years now. Also my neighbors dog has been on aspirin for his arthritis. Just like people you have to watch for bleeding or hemorrhage but when she had a benign growth removed last August her blood work was better than that of an 8 year old dog. Again you have to watch for the signs of GI bleeding but it is not as potentially dangerous as the NSAID's are to the liver. Read about those side effects. I have been given hand outs on the use of aspirin by several vet's. So again -- I disagree with you.
All about dogs and aspirin
Aspirin has the same problems in dogs that it has in people. It can cause gastrointestinal upsets and ulcers if the GI signs are ignored. It can cause renal failure if overdosed. It causes an increase in clotting time. This usually isn't a serious side effect but it does occur. Despite these shortcomings it has a lot of beneficial effects and it is inexpensive. The currently recommended dosage of aspirin varies a little from publication to publication but it is between 5 and 15mg/lb every 12 hours. Since there is a range I usually pick the middle of it and go for about 10mg/lb every 12 hours. This works well and seems to be pretty safe. That works out to an aspirin tablet per 32 pounds of body weight twice a day. I have to admit that I rarely advise giving more than 2 aspirin twice a day despite the fact that some big dogs could obviously take more based on the per pound calculation.
Aspirin for dogs
You didn't say if you and your GF live near each other. If so I would venture a guess that it is arthritis and both dogs have it. Before all the anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, etc. came out they used to give people aspirin for arthritis as common practice. So my guess would be it is helping the inflammation/pain and thus they are acting fine.
Keep in mind that dogs will not show their pain until they are really in alot of pain. It is the animal inistinct that pain shows weakness and in the animal world it gives the impression of not being able to defend themselves. So just because they are acting like nothing is wrong does not mean that they are fine, it could be that the severe pain they were experiencing is less now. I would certainly follow-up with the Vet.
Seizures, aspirin and dog demise
Okay, here's my offering of a summary. In answer to the initial question, yes dogs can have seizures. I had a dog that had them for several years. Extremely scary, but they basically didn't harm him. He shook and was stiff for about a minute, then was fine afterwards. The vet didn't see a need to do testing, and I agreed, as he was already 9 or 10 years old at the time, and he lived another 5 years after that. (The dog, not the vet, ha!) Of course other owners and other vets might decide to do testing and such. As for the aspirin debate, I will now agree with the person who says aspirin can kill a dog. A dog given small doses of aspirin every day of its life will indeed die - most likely in anywhere between 13 and 17 years! Let's lighten up, everybody! 
Just FYI on in-laws dog taking aspirin
My mother-in-law has been giving the dog one aspirin every day for about a year now. It is a bigger size dog, probably about 45 to 50 pounds. The dog definitely has something wrong with its brain because of the way it acts. I worry he will turn on them one day. Anyway, apparently aspirin doesn't kill dogs, at least this one anyway.
Tylenol (acetaminophen) is dangerous, not aspirin
Patti is right - aspirin can safely be given to dogs. It's Tylenol (acetaminophen) that is dangerous to give to dogs, and I believe also to cats. (Anyone with doubts, please call the nearest veterinarian, but I know several vets have told me so, I've had probably 20 dogs in my life, and though I love cats, I'm allergic to them  ) The animal livers can't handle Tylenol like human livers (and it's also very dangerous to our livers in overdoses) Chocolate is also bad for dogs, by the way.
Two Tylenol (not aspirin or Advil or Aleve) with anything citrus..
And the "navel" in the fuzzy navel doesn't count!!!
Be safe and happy 2008!!
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