Allergy Medication

[Guest Cara_Lea]

Ok.. so we're struggling with what our vet believes are allergies in Show. She suggested we put him on Reactine (CETIRIZINE HYDROCHLORIDE) and gave me the dosage info of 0.5mg - 1mg/kg of body weight. That would put Show at around 30mg per day. However, in looking at the packaging for the pills, it suggests that one adult human only take 1 10mg tablet per day. I am struggling with the logic of this.. so tonight I only gave Show 1 of the 10mg tablets.

 

I'm just wondering if anyone else has used this medication with their greyhounds... what was the dosage you used?

[tbhounds]

I'm not familiar with the suggested dosage of that med but, that does seem high, however, in general dogs antihistamine dosages are much higher than humans. Not much help huh?

 

Edited to add-after researching some on Zyrtec-it looks like your vet is suggesting the proper dosing range :-)

Edited November 23, 2012 by tbhounds

[4My2Greys]

I'm not familiar with the suggested dosage of that med but, that does seem high, however, in general dogs antihistamine dosages are much higher than humans. Not much help huh?

 

Edited to add-after researching some on Zyrtec-it looks like your vet is suggesting the proper dosing range :-)

 

That's interesting to know about the Zyrtec dosage. One 10mg pill though seems to do the job for Beanie. I'm wondering if a prescribed allergy medicine works at a lower dosage would it be more advisable to stay there?

 

Edited for hitting wrong key.

Edited November 23, 2012 by 4My2Greys

[Remolacha]

My vet recently (well, a couple of months ago) switched Fletcher to Zyrtec from Benedryl and said for his size, give him 4 tablets. I also noticed the human adult dosage was 1 tablet, so I double checked and she said yes, 4. He's been on that for a couple of months with no problems. I actually use the Costco generic.

[tbhounds]

I'm not familiar with the suggested dosage of that med but, that does seem high, however, in general dogs antihistamine dosages are much higher than humans. Not much help huh?

 

Edited to add-after researching some on Zyrtec-it looks like your vet is suggesting the proper dosing range :-)

 

That's interesting to know about the Zyrtec dosage. One 10mg pill though seems to do the job for Beanie. I'm wondering if a prescribed allergy medicine works at a lower dosage would it be more advisable to stay there?

 

Edited for hitting wrong key.

Less is always best---if you are seeing positive results with a lower dose I dont see a reason to increase the dosage. We always say to use the lowest effective dosage.

[KF_in_Georgia]

When my vet was advising Claritin for Silver, he recommended the 24-hour-pill given twice a day.

 

And for things like thyroid meds, dogs take a dose that's so much larger than a people-dose that you can't get the prescription filled at most people pharmacies unless you're willing to give your dog 10 human-dose pills instead of 1 dog-dose pill.

 

So, while questioning a dosage is always okay, just be aware that sometimes it's how fast something is metabolized or how fast it goes through the system that determines the dosage--not the patient's weight.

[GreyPoopon]

Betsy (65 lbs) was on one 10 mg tablet 2 X / day of Reactine.

Edited November 24, 2012 by GreyPoopon

[JAJ2010]

When her allergies are really bad Rainy takes 4 Benedryl twice a day. Dogs can have a much higher dose than we could handle

[4My2Greys]

 

So, while questioning a dosage is always okay, just be aware that sometimes it's how fast something is metabolized or how fast it goes through the system that determines the dosage--not the patient's weight.

 

You know I had thought about that when I was giving Bruiser a slow release L-arganine capsule. I don't know why I hadn't considered it in this case. Taking that into consideration would you interpret Show's dosage to be (3) tablets twice a day or split that dosage for a total of (3) tablets per day? Cara Lea did your vet say anything about frequency?

[KF_in_Georgia]

So, while questioning a dosage is always okay, just be aware that sometimes it's how fast something is metabolized or how fast it goes through the system that determines the dosage--not the patient's weight.

 

You know I had thought about that when I was giving Bruiser a slow release L-arganine capsule. I don't know why I hadn't considered it in this case. Taking that into consideration would you interpret Show's dosage to be (3) tablets twice a day or split that dosage for a total of (3) tablets per day? Cara Lea did your vet say anything about frequency?

 

If your vet said 30mg/day, that's what you stick to. You should ask your vet if that's 10mg 3x day or all 30mg at once...but definitely not 3 tablets twice a day unless your vet expressly says so.