Wednesday, September 25, 2013

can dogs have a fever? what can i do at home?

my 2 yr old female neautered jack russell has vomited 4 times in two days.
she is frisky, happy ,etc, but panted and its like 50 degrees outside.
i feel she may have a fever.
i cannot take to vet. its saturday after noon.
can i give her tylenol?
or what?
any ideas?
she is like my child. i love her.
let me know what you think.
Answers:
You can give your dog 1/2 of a baby aspirin per 10 pounds. Dogs can run a fever. She may feel hot to you because the normal temperature for a dog is between 100.5 and 102.5. You can take her temp with a rectal thermometer. Hold her off food and water for 24 hours and give her stomach time to heal if she has a stomach virus. Good Luck and call an emergency vet if her condition deteriorates before Monday. Good Luck!



dogs can have fever. my dog also have before. try to let her drink honey mixed with water. and try to contact your vet. ASAP

give her an aspirin.. depending on her weight..1/2 is good, Tylenol doesn’t take the temperature down. Then give her a cool bath.. or just wipe her down with a wet cool cloth. Just for now.. then the vet.

My vet told me I could give my dog half a childrens tylenol when he had a back injury, so it must be safe and he’s a small dog. Yes, they can get a fever. Although, when my dog had his back injury, I thought he had a fever too and the vet told me the panting was just due to his nerves. Is there something that might be stressing him out? Maybe the vomiting is a result of that too. Oh also, is it like real chunky vomit or just a puddle of yellow stuff (i know, gross)? But if it’s just a little puddle of yellow stuff, it probably isn’t really vomit, it’s like foamy mucus or something and my vet said that can be caused by a sore throat or allergies. My dog does that a lot, he has allergies. I hope your dog gets to feeling better.

Take her to an emergency clinic. They are a little more expensive than your general clinic, but that’s because they are there for when something goes wrong. The vomiting and fever are not good. Don’t give any over the counter medicines. They can make the problem worse or cause new ones. Your dog really needs to be seen by a vet. Remember, dogs have higher body temperatures than humans, so if it is 100 degrees your dog is not running a fever, but is normal. The vomiting is something that you need to worry about though.

When my chihuahua had a fever she wouldn’t eat or drink anything so my dad who is a doctor fed her ground up aspirin and some watermelon. I think they get de-hydrated when they are sick and although some dogs refuse to drink water when they have a fever, they will eat some watermelon. I also think the aspirin worked because my chi’s fever went down.

Yes, it is possible for a dog to have a fever and a vet would normally check this with a rectal thermometer. Your dog needs to go to a vet as soon as possible to determine what is wrong with her. Also try to bring a stool sample with you if you can since sometimes vomiting can be a sign of worms. Check your phone book and call around, some vets are open Saturday and even on Sundays for shorter hours. Additionally, most medium to larger cities tend to have one or more emergency after hours vet clinic that is open only late nights (say from around 7pm-9am or so). The after hours places tend to be quite expensive (about twice what you’d pay for a normal visit for the appointment fee), so hurry and start calling other vets if your vet isn’t open on Saturdays.

I’m going to guess that you feed her around twice-a-day and that she isn’t keeping much or any food down. If you can find an open vet you can purchase a few cans of Science Diet I/D (Intestinal Distress) even if you can’t get an appointment and hopefully she can keep that down. You can also try feeding her a thin oatmeal or rice gruel to which you’ve added a banana since that would be more gentle for her stomach. Make sure she drinks lots of water, you can try mixing a small amount of fruit juice into her water and she might drink more. The best thing to do is to get her to a vet today.


Don’t give her Tylenol (acetaminophen) as it has a much higher toxicity than aspirin or other pain relievers. Its possible that you could easily giver her too much Tylenol and kill her (causes liver failure).
Aspirin is sometimes considered safe for dogs in very small doses for short periods of time, however, its harmful to their stomachs and difficult to dose correctly. Thus unless directed to do so by a vet you shouldn’t give it to your dog. Additionally, your dog is vomiting so giving him something that upsets his stomach wouldn’t be in his best interest.


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