Ace not working on dog?

[TBRedHead]

So about 6 weeks ago I got a new rescue, acd x kelpie, vet put her at just over a year. She’s SUPER crazy active and very athletic, she jumps over my 3.5ft couch daily and will jump in a horse pen, grab poo, and jump out faster then a horse realizes it. She developed a histi…sarcoma? Thing? Round cell benign tumor on her right hock, it develops really fast and they do regress, but slowly. Since she is so active we decided to do surgery since its a 2 week recovery vs 6-8 weeks of keeping a cone on/leg wrapped/crated.

Instructions on ace say 1/2-1 pill every 12 hours, they said they wanted her “drunken sailor” so I could do it 3x a day if needed. First two nights it took half a pill to get her to “drunken sailor”, however the past two days it hasn’t had any affect on her. Last night I gave her 3/4 pill, she STILL wanted outside, upstairs, run after the other dogs, etc. So I gave her another 1/2, she was a by antsy but finally my husband smushed her between him and the couch and she was asleep until this AM, when she jumped on me to wake me up.

She’s only 35#, could she have developed a tolerance? Or is she the kind of dog you really have to knock out with extras? It takes one Benadryl pill to knock out my border collie whos 40#, and they’re old so probably less potent. My boss (vet tech in a former life) is helping me change her wraps tomorrow, so I can ask her, but I’m worried my dog is TOO active and not settling down like they want her to. I’m afraid she will pop a stitch or irritate the area since its right over the joint.

[Beethoven]

Histiocytoma. I would ask the vet as to what else to use or if you can up her dosage.

[Marshfield]

They can really kind of blow through ace if they’re high energy dogs. You might ask about benadryl.

[CrowneDragon]

My experience with ace is that the effect varies really widely from dog to dog, and they can “power through it” like horses can.
I gave my 90 lb pit bull 1/4 of a 25 mg tab once and he was so ataxic he couldn’t stand. Double that dose to my friend’s beagle does nothing.
I agree that talking to your vet is your best bet. Good luck!

[TBRedHead]

Thanks, I wanted confirmation I wasn’t crazy thinking her higher activity would have an effect on the ace.

My husband took her out on a business job for the past 3+ hours, and apparently she was trotting around >:( She is supposed to stay kenneled! I think I’m going to need to be sedated by the end of this too.

[In_The_Gate]

As everyone else said, the high energy dogs will fight through it. Talk to your vet about what’s the maximum dose they consider safe. My Australian Shepard used to have to get 50mg of acepromazine to go to the vet, and he was around 50lb. That was just enough to stop him from taking the muzzle off in 30 seconds - he was still growling. We accidentally gave 1/2 that dose (25mg) to our sweet, calm golden retriever once (she was 85lb) and she was passed out on the floor the entire day. Just depends on how resistant they are to sedation.

[Alagirl]

I don’t remember the dose, but when we moved cross country, the vet gave us some ace for our Dal, since she would barf after two miles in the car - not really what you need on a 3000 mile road trip.
On departure day, I gave her one pill - NOTHING. Pup (about 6 month old) kept bouncing. Then I gave her another one.

Now I have to add, it was by then afternoon, we had finished loading, there was quiet some excitement in the house…

Then we decided we just postpone and start out early in the morning.
As soon as everybody in the house calmed down, the poor pup staggered around like that proverbial drunk sailor! :eek:

DH still feels bad, even though that was nearly 20 years ago! :lol:

[SquishTheBunny]

Yes they can build up tolerance to it. Mine did.

Generally, if the dog is young and healthy doses can be adjusted. You can have a similar tolerance build up to benadryl.

Secret to ace is that you have to give it when they are quiet, and keep them quiet until it takes effect (about 30-45 min). Also, a bolus is usually more effective than a top up/titration, so if you can give 1 pill, or 1.5 pills at once rather than seeing how 1/2 goes and adding more.

Talkto your vet…see what they recommend. I can guarantee ace wont work for 2 weeks straight though Hopefully after a few more days she will be fine to run around.

[TBRedHead]

They said up to 50mg 3x a day is fine One pill is 25mg, so I’ve been good.

I think she did this yesterday, but when my boss (vet tech) and I were rewrappingher, we could tell right away something was wrong because it was brown and smelly on the outer gauze. Popped stitches Open wound, little pussy and nasty. Bummed out, nothing we can do now but treat it. I don’t know if I should regret my decision or not, I thought I was doing the best thing for an active dog by taking the 2 week route, but this is proving to be hard, keeping her quiet.

[Doberpei]

My dog was on ace when she was recovering from her 2nd surgery to fix her broken hock (we tried it without ace the first time - didn’t work, necessitating the 2nd surgery). If she was already wound up, it did nothing for her. I can’t remember how much she would get, but they upped her dosage to knock out a St. Bernard (did I mention my dog is a Cocker Spaniel?), and it barely made her loopy. Even less so after she’d been on it a while.