What Can I Give My Dog for Pain Relief?

As pet parents, our dogs’ health and wellbeing is always a top priority. Our fondness for our furry friends also means that we hate to see them in pain. However, before you open up your medicine cabinet, you should know what types of medications you can give your dog for pain relief. Check it out below:

Medications to Avoid

First off, you should not give your dog any ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin, or any other pain reliever made for humans unless your vet instructs you to do so. These drugs can prevent inflammation, fever, and pain, but they can also lead to gastrointestinal ulcers, vomiting and diarrhea, loss of appetite, bleeding disorders, kidney dysfunction, and liver damage if you’re not careful. Talk to your vet before giving your dog any of these medications.

What Drugs Can I Give My Dog?

Because of the above, you should avoid giving aspirin, ibuprofen, or acetaminophen to your dog, but there are some pet pain medications that are safer and even more effective for dogs than those that people use. Your vet will be able to take a look at your pooch’s health history and current status and decide how to move forward with medication. They can safely prescribe some form of pain relief that won’t harm your doggo.

Other Ways to Relieve Your Dog’s Pain

As you can probably imagine, there are many other methods that people are trying out to relieve dogs’ pain safely and effectively. You may consider physical therapy, acupuncture, or laser treatments if your dog’s pain is persistent and extreme. Some conditions, like osteoarthritis, don’t respond well to initial medication, so you may consider one of these alternative methods of pain relief for your furry friend.

When our dogs are in pain, we would go to lengths to make sure that they feel better. However, you should make sure that your pain relief method of choice is safe, trusted, and effective for your dog before you try any of them. Their safety is always the most important!