Aspirin for Dogs - Good or Bad?

As a caring dog owner you asked yourself probably already, if you should use aspirin for dogs at home?

You remember maybe that it is a cheap over the counter pain killer and effective for mild to moderate pain and discomfort.

It is for us humans a convenient medicine and works fine for head- and toothache relief or sore throats and as a blood thinning agent.

But is it OK to give it to dogs and other pets?

Accidentally given your Dog an Overdose of Aspirin?

If you have given your dog accidentally an aspirin tablet intended for human use, your pet might refuse to eat, gets sick and vomits or becomes depressed and lethargic. In some cases, you will find blood tinges in the vomit.

You should seek help from your vet, as she or he might perform a stomach lavage and needs to give an i.v. infusion.
Activated charcoal given orally will help to absorb aspirin from intestines.

As a pet medicine, it is used for mild to moderate pain relief and discomfort. Today veterinarians are not prescribing it any more as a first choice drug.

Instead at least six other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are available that are safer compared to aspirin for dogs.

Acetyl-salicylic acid (ASA) is better hold on for rare cases, like as an anticoagulant for the prevention of thrombosis. Pets treated with aspirin need to be closely monitored.

In about 10 - 20% of dogs treated with aspirin gastric irritation and bleeding occur. Giving repeated doses increases the danger of gastric ulceration and perforation considerably.

List of side-effects of aspirin if used for dogs:

• Loss of appetite
• Vomiting - vomit might contain blood that looks like coffee grounds
• Stool or faeces might look black, tarry
• Depression
• Increased breathing rate
• Fever
• Muscle weakness
• Ataxia: falling over, stumbling movements
• Convulsions
• Coma, death within one or more days

There are enteric coated tablets and buffered tablets available.
Enteric-coated tablets are usually not working well in dogs. Their digestive system cannot dissolve the coating well and you will often find whole tablets in their faeces. Obviously, if not digestible, the tablet cannot work.

Buffered aspirin is a tablet covered with an acid-neutralizing substance. This helps to let the tablet pass the stomach and starting to dissolve in the small intestines. Aspirin is anyway absorbed from the small intestines and not in the stomach. If it dissolved in the stomach, acid levels would increase a lot and this causes gastric irritation and ulceration.

Colleagues of mine who did use aspirin for dogs reported from vomiting and stomach bleeding even after administration of only one or two tablets.

Considering that there are more side effects than therapeutic benefits, it is nowadays a less frequently prescribed pet medicine for use as a long-term pain medication.

Other NSAID drugs have far more effective anti-inflammatory properties and relieve pain better with less severe side effects.

Interestingly far more cats are suffering from aspirin poisoning than dogs.

Overdosing happens mostly because owners have applied human dosage guidelines to medicate their dog or cat, thinking that a tablet or half of it would not do any harm.

Overdosed pets usually end up at the nearest veterinary surgery with signs of aspirin poisoning.
Cats are more prone to toxic effects of salicylic acid, because their system expels it only after 44.5 hours (dogs after 7.5 hours). Liver and kidneys are severely affected and hepatic and renal failure can end fatal.