Hi Keith,

paracetamol is a ‘scary’ drug if dosed incorrectly without veterinary direction. If you look on the internet you will see horror stories for almost any medication. Most cases of toxicity are due to accidental ingestion (dogs have some ability to eat large quantities of paracetamol despite its disgusting taste) or people dosing their dogs without asking their vet first (which is technically breaking the law). The metabolism of paracetamol is influenced by certain medications and relies on a healthy liver. Higher doses are licensed for short term use and we tend to drop doses for longer term. The dose your dog is on sounds ok for long-term use. See how he gets on. If you see peaks and troughs in pain relief then ask your vet about spreading his daily dose over 3 doses rather than 2. Many vets only prescribe twice daily as the veterinary formulary advises this. However, paracetamol is quite short acting and the licensed veterinary version of paracetamol (currently not available due to pharmaceutical company manufacturing issues) states 3 x daily.

I hope this helps ease your mind.

Gwen Covey-Crump