What to do if dog swallows adult aspirin?

Answer 1

Depends entirely on the dosage. Aspirin can be given to dogs therapuetically, but the key is -- as ever -- in the dosage. For a large dog to swallow one tab of adult aspirin, I'd say no problem. Smaller dog or many tabs -- hard to say. If you aren't sure, head for the vet.

Try and include the dosage and the size of the animal when reporting this -- it gives us more to work with.

That said, if the dose was not extreme, I'd say allow the dog to drink water as they wish, and observe the dog, looking for bleeding, black or tarry stools. If these don't appear in 2 days I'd say you're safe. If they do, head for the vet on a rocket.

I got this from a vet website

http://www.vetinfo.com/daspirin.html

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.