Big Warning -

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Bolivian_Box

Boxer Pal
Hey everyone --

We made a terrible mistake yesterday! And I wanted to quickly pass it along because it might save you some heartache.

Our little Oscar (5 month old, perfect fawn) has had a terrible cold, sneezing, coughing, runny nose.

We called our vet and they couldn't see us right away. So--not thinking -- we gave Oscar one half of a Tylenol Cold tablet -- figuring it was a half-dose and it would treat his symptoms.

BE WARNED TYLENOL can be fatal to dogs and cats --

Luckily it needs to be a much higher dose around 3500 milligrams to be toxic -- but smaller doses of Tylenol can damage a dogs liver (and kill a cat).

We were idiots!

Meanwhile, we always read threads on this board about what to feed and what not to feed. [I learned previously that Boxers can't eat chocolate, grapes and cannot be tranquilized BUT never had I read about Tylenol. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that dogs can be given children's aspirin--so that's where our mistake was made.)


Oscar's little face swelled up terribly. We rushes him to the vet and he was given a shot of steroids to reduce swelling. Luckily he said that the dose that we gave Oscar wasn't enough to hurt him.

BUT

Lesson learned is that we should never, ever give our pooches any kind of medicine that isn't prescribed by the Vet.

Hope this helps.
 

Doja's Mommy

Boxer Insane
Isn't tylenol different than aspirin? I heard that you can give baby asipirin. The tylenol should be made with acetamenophin and thats why it can't be given to dogs. Can anyone verify? I actually just asked the vet about this a week ago, said baby aspirin is fine.
 

gmacleod

Elusive Moderator
Staff member
Tylenol is nothing to do with aspirin at all, it is a completely different drug.

Yes, it is made with acetaminophen and that is well known to be toxic to dogs/cats. According to the following veterinary site, a toxic dose is 45mg per lb of body weight and would result in death within a couple of days. If your dog ever gets to tylenol caps, you need to induce vomitting and get the animal to a vet immediately. More in this article: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1937&articleid=2226
 

Muffin's Mom

Boxer Pal
asprin vs. tylenol

Acetaminophen can be very harmful for dogs but apparently small doses of asprin are commonly used. Our vet has often recommended St. John's asprin (because it comes in a lower dosage than regular aspring) when our boxer girl has been in a bit of pain. Even if our vet can't see us right away, they are usually pretty good about letting us know what we can do to ease her discomfort until our appointment. It never hurts to ask.

Glad to hear Oscar is ok!!
 

kragbax

Boxer Buddy
Would Ibuprophen (Advil/Motrin/Midol) be in the same boat as Acetaminophen where it comes to being fatal (damaging) to dogs?

-Krag
 

Muffin's Mom

Boxer Pal
advil

As far as I know ibuprophen is in a different category from acetaminophen. When they thought our little Samoa had torn her ACL they put her on rimadyl which is a type of NAISD (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) similar to ibuprophen. But it is always good to check with the vet about the appropriate dosage.
 

gmacleod

Elusive Moderator
Staff member
Yes, it would - and ibuprofen is toxic at even lower doses than the acetaminophen. But it is again a completely different drug to either aspirin or acetaminophen and has different effects.

As Muffin's Mom has pointed out, vets do use a small number of NSAIDs for dogs and cats - but these do NOT include acetaminophen or ibuprofen. The bottom line with any medication is that you should not give it to your pet unless veterinary advice is that it is OK. Most human medicines are toxic to pets - so unless a vet has advised otherwise, then asume that it *is* toxic and DO NOT give medicines designed for use in humans to your pet.

Incidentally, even humans can't take ibuprofen if they have any liver or kidney problems, since the drug is extremely hard on those organs.

A short article on ibuprofen and pets here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1937&articleid=2249
 

busters mum

Super Boxer
gmacleod said:
Yes, it would - and ibuprofen is toxic at even lower doses than the acetaminophen. But it is again a completely different drug to either aspirin or acetaminophen and has different effects.

As Muffin's Mom has pointed out, vets do use a small number of NSAIDs for dogs and cats - but these do NOT include acetaminophen or ibuprofen. The bottom line with any medication is that you should not give it to your pet unless veterinary advice is that it is OK. Most human medicines are toxic to pets - so unless a vet has advised otherwise, then asume that it *is* toxic and DO NOT give medicines designed for use in humans to your pet.

Incidentally, even humans can't take ibuprofen if they have any liver or kidney problems, since the drug is extremely hard on those organs.

A short article on ibuprofen and pets here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1937&articleid=2249
Yes this is true , also if you have stomach ulcers you cannot use it. My doctor told me to always make sure it was took on a full stomach too. It seems a risky pain relief for humans. Let alone any one else
 
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