Your Dog's Pain Medications and Muscle Relaxants: Dangerous to Humans

My husband joked on the way home from the animal hospital about being able to share our dog's muscle relaxants and pain medications if his runs out. My husband has chronic back problems, including a fusion surgery of the C5 and C6 degenerative discs. Hubby has taken muscle relaxants and pain medications for his back for around 25 years. Even though I knew my husband was joking about this, I didn't really know much about canine pain medications, so I did some research and what I learned was very alarming. Sharing your dog's pain medications can kill you.

We recently rushed our 8-year old AKC-registered Maltese dog, Spike, to the animal hospital around 10 pm. We came home from a movie around 8 pm and Spike was whining, moaning, and could not walk. The dog tried to walk, but could only use his front paws and painfully drug his limp back legs along the ground. When we touched the dog to see if he had cuts, stickers, broken bones or whatever, Spike let out a horrendous scream.

For the next two hours, Spike would not eat or drink water. The dog continued intermittent displays of excruciating pain. At first, we thought he may have a bowel blockage, or some problem with his kidney or liver because his abdominal area seemed to be a bit bloated. We decided to take him to the animal hospital to get x-rayed. We found out that our dog injured his back, probably from jumping off the bed, and was having spine pain and muscle spasms, just like a human does. The veterinarian said that this is typical in aging small dogs weighing less than 10 pounds.

The veterinarian prescribed two medications for our dog: Tramadol HCL Tabs and Rimadyl 25 mg tabs and said to take Spike to our regular veterinarian is the pain did not subside within 24 hours. He also said to call him back immediately if Spike experiences vomiting, seizures, or other abnormal reactions. I immediately wanted to know more about these drugs.