Is it okay to give my dog phenobarbital every 8 hours instead of 12?

If you are suspicious that Tootsie did not receive much, if any, of her evening phenobarbital dose, I would consider just giving her an extra half of a dose, or 0.35 ml in this case. However, if there is a chance that she received most of the dose, it would be best to skip this dose and administer her next dose at the normal time.

Phenobarbital therapy in dogs is begun at 2 to 4 mg/kg twice daily. So for a 33kg dog that would mean 66 to 132 mg twice a day. We always try to start low and increase if needed but he was essentially really underdosed in the beginning with taking 30mg twice a day. He is now on a more appropriate dose. Sedation is normal when therapy is initiated but once the dog's body gets used to the drug (after about 2 weeks) he should become more like himself. If you are really worried, you can ask the vet to run a phenobarbital level blood test to see if his dosing is too high and it can be adjusted accordingly. Please be aware that dogs will never be completely seizure free even while on anti-seizure medication. Breakthrough seizures are common but they should be pretty infrequent. If he continues to seizure or does not do well on the phenobarbital there are other medication options so please work closely with your vet.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. 30mg of phenobarbitone twice a day is not a very high dose for Gum Gum's weight therefore you can give her another tablet now. It will not cause any problems even if it was a double dose for this evening. You should continue with other medications as normal.

Unfortunately you do not mention the weight of the dog which received the phenobarbital. A normal dose would be 2-3 mg of phenobarbital per kg (2.2 lbs) of dog. If your dog is much smaller than 6 kg (13lbs) then you need to watch it closely for the next few hours. Your dog will most likely get very sleepy. If it sleeps so deep you cannot wake it up or if you think it is not breathing properly, you will need to take it to the emergency room. If the ingestion occurred within the last hour and the amount ingested was a significant overdose, you should consider taking your dog to the emergency vet so that vomiting can be induced to get the drug out of the system. Also if your dog has liver disease, please take it to the emergency clinic.

12 hours isn't too long as long as long as it wasn't heated. I would still give it to her or at least give her a dose from one of the bottles and then call the compounding pharmacy tomorrow to make sure it is okay to continue using.

16mg every 8-12 hours is well within the safe and therapeutic range of phenobarbital for a 9 pound dog. If you were actually giving 48mg each time, this would be an overdose, and could cause coma and subsequent death. I am very sorry that Gigi died. If you would like to discuss this further, initiate a one-on-one consult and I can answer all of your questions.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Opie will be fine. He may show signs of sedation, lethargy and sleepiness for 8-12hrs but there should not be any more worrying signs. Please, continue with the next dose of phenobarbital as normal.