Aspirin Dosage

[greyhead]

Can anyone help me figure out the best dose of aspirin to give my 13-year-old, please?

 

Shane has kidney disease, and his blood is so thick that the vet's machinery can't process it; it has to go out to the lab. It has been thick for years, but I think it's worse with the dehydration of CRF despite his getting lots of sub-q fluids. The vet said it would be okay to give him aspirin (my idea) at 81 mg. But the things I've read here and elsewhere seem all over the map about dosage, and some sites say it shouldn't even be given with kidney disease. I've seen recommendations for 1/2 tablet and 1/4 tablet, one for .5 to 1 mg/kg and another for 5 to 10 mg/kg!

 

Just fyi, he hasn't been having significant protein loss. He had a urinalysis Friday, and none was noted. His blood work results will be back tomorrow.

Thanks for any and all help with this!

[racindog]

Have to be VERY careful and even then it COULD really mess him up at his age. Have you thought about the natural blood thinners that certain food items are known for? I know my father had to be careful of the food he ate because some food was very effective at thinning the blood. I think I would try the food thing first. You know that won't hurt him and it might even work In fact I believe Wobenzyme thins the blood too and that shouldn't hurt him either-in fact it is a world reknown enzyme product that might even be beneficial to him regardless.

Edited February 1, 2016 by racindog

[XTRAWLD]

While I won't touch whether he should even have it because of his disease, isn't 81mg "baby" aspirin and that's what's used to give to adults for blood thinning on a daily basis? I would think if that's used on full grown adults that the dosage might be rather high for a grey.....

Edited February 2, 2016 by XTRAWLD

[greyhead]

Thanks very much. I'll give it more thought.

[JJNg]

What about his blood is so "thick" that it interferes with the lab equipment? If it's a high hematocrit/PCV (ie. high percentage of RBCs, made worse by dehydration), aspirin won't help. Aspirin "thins" the blood through it's effects on how platelets clump. Does he have protein in his urine related to his kidney disease? Dogs that lose protein in their urine also lose antithrombin which reduces clotting, so they may be more prone to strokes from throwing clots. Low dose aspirin can be helpful for this reason.

 

Regarding dose, low-dose aspirin to reduce clotting in a greyhound would be the 1/4-1/2 tablet of the 81 mg tablet once daily. For the average greyhound, this works out to about 0.5-1 mg/kg. The 5-10 mg/kg dose is if you were using aspirin to treat pain and inflammation.

[PatricksMom]

Are you sure they aren't using too small a needle? I kept having trouble with that with Henry, until the vet started doing the draw herself with a larger needle, problem solved.

[greyhead]

What about his blood is so "thick" that it interferes with the lab equipment? If it's a high hematocrit/PCV (ie. high percentage of RBCs, made worse by dehydration), aspirin won't help. Aspirin "thins" the blood through it's effects on how platelets clump. Does he have protein in his urine related to his kidney disease? Dogs that lose protein in their urine also lose antithrombin which reduces clotting, so they may be more prone to strokes from throwing clots. Low dose aspirin can be helpful for this reason.

 

Regarding dose, low-dose aspirin to reduce clotting in a greyhound would be the 1/4-1/2 tablet of the 81 mg tablet once daily. For the average greyhound, this works out to about 0.5-1 mg/kg. The 5-10 mg/kg dose is if you were using aspirin to treat pain and inflammation.

Thanks, Jen. It's hard to say what makes his blood thick, as nothing is out of range except his BUN (37, range 6 - 31) and creatinine (2.8, range .5 - 1.6), no protein in the urine other than blood (this time there was blood, but not always). HGB is 20.5 (12.1 - 20.3), HCT is 60 (36 - 60), RBC is 8.1 (4.8 - 9.3), platelets are 174 (170 - 400). Antech can always handle Shane's blood samples, but the vet's equipment rarely can.

 

I have to think that at this time it's from dehydration, even though he gets sub-q fluids just about daily. We never pinned down the exact kidney disease diagnosis, but we know from ultrasound that one kidney is much smaller than the other, and his creatinine has been slowly creeping up for five years; only in the last year has his BUN gone out of range. (The too-thick-to-process problem has been an issue since about 2009 or 2010.) I'm concerned that polycythemia doesn't serve his kidneys well, which is the basis for my concern.

 

Since he has been like this almost as long as we've known him, the vet is reluctant to address it medicinally. In past years they regarded it as a typical greyhound issue of lots of big red blood cells. But it doesn't look like that to me now. But all this is eclipsed by today's drama of his needing a 20mg Depo Medrol shot for his LSS because his back end just didn't want to work and he was in pain and panicked. Not good for his kidneys, but necessary from a quality-vs-quantity of life standpoint. If you have any further thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Thanks again.

 

Edited February 12, 2016 by greyhead

[greyhead]

Are you sure they aren't using too small a needle? I kept having trouble with that with Henry, until the vet started doing the draw herself with a larger needle, problem solved.

 

Thanks, PatricksMom. I hadn't known this could be an issue. Were they haven't having trouble actually drawing the blood from Henry?

Edited February 12, 2016 by greyhead

[tbhounds]

A smaller gauge needle may cause hemolysis-if anything it will just falsely decreased the hct.

[Guest GoingGrey]

Yeah, I don't know about any contraindications with kidney disease, tho if you're vet's recommending it, I can't imagine there would be...But second opinions can never hurt.

But FWIW I've been giving my 10 yr old roughly 1/4 baby aspirin in his food daily for a couple yrs to prevent stroke.

 

This was drilled into me by both my vet (a former track vet who treats her senior greys the same) and the president of our adoption group, who, every time she sees me (not remembering we've had this conversation), asks me with urgency, "Are you giving him baby aspirin?! Ok. Good!"

 

Dosage isn't exact, since it's hard to cut baby aspirin into quarters, but I've been assured this is OK. With crumbly bits & hunks and I approximate between 1/4 & 1/2 baby aspirin per day for a 75lb dog.

[carronstar]

While I won't touch whether he should even have it because of his disease, isn't 81mg "baby" aspirin and that's what's used to give to adults for blood thinning on a daily basis? I would think if that's used on full grown adults that the dosage might be rather high for a grey.....

I would not do this without the vets approval. That being said, Aquitaine was on 1/4 of a baby aspirin per day after being diagnosed. Invest in a pill cutter. Those little stinkers are REALLY difficult to cut into 1/4 pieces. You may end up with 2 or 3 out of many tablets.

[greyhead]

Thanks so much, everyone. I'll revisit the subject with the vet.

[PatricksMom]

 

Thanks, PatricksMom. I hadn't known this could be an issue. Were they haven't having trouble actually drawing the blood from Henry?

No, the blood draws went fine, but it was clotting in the needle (I think), or maybe starting to clot there and becoming unusable for testing.

[msjpk]

My Lou has early kidney failure, he is 14. My vet suggested 1/2 of .81mg daily.