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Pre-Surgical Information
Spaying or neutering your pet is a big step! There is a lot to consider
when we are planning your pet’s surgery. Here is some information to help
you make wise decisions.
Click here . . .
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Special LibraryOur Special Library
is a collection of informative articles on a variety of health topics.
Click here . . .
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Discharge InstructionsClick here for
information on how to care for your pet at home.
Click here . . .
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Aspirin for Dogs and Cats
If you think you want to give your pet aspirin,
think twice. There are some very compelling
reasons to not give aspirin.
As for aspirin in cats, forget about it. Cats do
not tolerate many medicines well, and aspirin is one of
them. In my humble opinion, the risks of using
aspirin in cats far outweigh any possible benefit.
There are practitioners out there with different
opinions, but don't say I didn't warn you.
 Some
veterinarians also feel that aspirin is a safe drug to
give to dogs. At least aspirin is not outright toxic to
dogs like it can so easily be in cats. Aspirin can
be used "safely" in dogs. Safely is in parentheses
because safe is a relative thing. Aspirin is
widely known for causing stomach upset in people who
take it. That's why we have developed so many
other drugs to replace aspirin. The
biochemistry behind this is complex, but the short
answer is that aspirin is very non-selective about what
it does, and so aspirin's side-effects often outweigh
it's benefits. "Buffered" aspirin and "enteric
coated" aspirin are pure marketing fluff:
Aspirin's adverse effects are a direct consequence of
the drug's systemic actions as well as it's local
actions, and coatings or bufferings make little
difference.
Aspirin is widely know to cause stomach ulcers. It
is so widely know to cause stomach ulcers that there
have been literally dozens of other drugs developed to
take aspirin's place. Aspirin is also widely
know to slow blood clotting. The only reason
physicians prescribe aspirin today is for it's
blood-thinning effects. It is for this reason that
Aspirin should never under any circumstances be given to
a dog that has been hit by a car. If there is any
internal bleeding, even minor internal bleeding, aspirin
will prevent the blood from clotting and your dog may
very well bleed to death.
Aspirin has been recommended in the past for arthritis
treatment in dogs. While it does have good
pain-killing properties, modern data show that it's
side-effects can make it a poor choice in dogs.
While a single dose may not be that bad, long-term use
has a high risk of serious GI bleeding.
The following is an abstract of a research paper done
by the Virginia College of Veterinary Medicine.
The paper examines the effect of aspirin and two other
drugs, carprofen (which is Rimadyl®) and etodolac (which
is Etogesic®) on the stomach in dogs. Click the
link to read the full text of the
Aspirin Abstract
A group of dogs was divided into three groups, and the
inside of their stomachs were examined with an endoscope
before any drugs were given. One group got aspirin, one
group got Rimadyl, and the third group got Etogesic.
The medication was started, and the dogs were scoped
again after five days of treatment, after 14 days of
treatment, and after 28 days of treatment.The dogs that
got Rimadyl or Etogesic really showed minimal if any
changes in their stomachs. However, ALL the dogs
that got aspirin showed severe erosions (ulcers) and
hemorrhage (bleeding) at the day-5 exam as well as the
day 14 and day 28 exams.
My conclusions from this study are that:
1) Aspirin causes stomach ulcers in dogs after
only a few doses
2) There are lots better drugs for dogs than
aspirin.
Another good reason to not use Aspirin is that it
doesn't play well with other drugs. If you start
your dog on aspirin, we will be left with the choice of
continuing aspirin therapy knowing that your dog is
going to get stomach ulcers from it (see the above
study), waiting several days to allow the aspirin to
clear before starting other, safer anti-inflammatory
medication, or starting the other medication immediately
and running the increased risk of serious GI
side-effects. And heaven forbid your dog needs to be
started on steriods. Again, there are substantial
risks of serious, even life-threatening GI adverse
events when giving steroids to dogs on aspirin. |
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