Melatonin dose for dogs?

[juliepoudrier]

I want to try melatonin on Phoebe to see if it helps with her generalized tension when working. I understand that some people find it helpful for reducing seizures overnight in epileptic dogs as well (Phoebe generally doesn't have seizures at night--her trigger seems to be the excitement of taking off out of the yard and racing down to the creek with the rest of the pack). I found several sources listing doses, and most said 1.5 mg for dogs up to 35 pounds, 3 mg for 35-100 lbs. I did find one source that gave a weight range of 25-100 lbs for the 3 mg dose. Phoebe is 33 pounds (last time I weighed her), and the melatonin I have is 3 mg (vegetarian formula). I'm wondering if I should give her half a pill, or if, given she's close to the 35-lb cut off, I can give her the full 3 mg. I'm guessing the latter is okay, given the very wide weight range involved. I'm doing this sort of experimentally to see its effect on her. Any thoughts? (Note: Phoebe does not appear to be noise phobic, so I am actually trying this more for its generalized calming effects than anything else. She was on Prozac for a while--about 6 months--and even with behavior modification efforts, I didn't notice much difference in her, so I took her back off.)

 

J.

[Maralynn]

I want to try melatonin on Phoebe to see if it helps with her generalized tension when working. I understand that some people find it helpful for reducing seizures overnight in epileptic dogs as well (Phoebe generally doesn't have seizures at night--her trigger seems to be the excitement of taking off out of the yard and racing down to the creek with the rest of the pack). I found several sources listing doses, and most said 1.5 mg for dogs up to 35 pounds, 3 mg for 35-100 lbs. I did find one source that gave a weight range of 25-100 lbs for the 3 mg dose. Phoebe is 33 pounds (last time I weighed her, and the melatonin I have is 3 mg (vegetarian formula). I'm wondering if I should give her half a pill, or if, given she's close to the 35-lb cut off, I can give her the full 3 mg. I'm guessing the latter is okay, given the very wide weigh range involved. I'm doing this sort of experimentally to see its effect on her. Any thoughts? (Note: Phoebe does not appear to be noise phobic, so I am actually trying this more for its generalized calming effects than anything else. She was on Prozac for a while--about 6 months--and even with behavior modification efforts, I didn't notice much difference in her, so I took her back off.)

 

J.

 

I gave Kipp about 2/3 of a 3 mg pill when I was seeing how it would help with his thunderstorm issues last summer. I would guess that the 3 mg dose would be fine, but personally I'd probably just shave a bit off the edge so she'd be getting closer to 2-2.5 mg instead. You can always switch to the full pill depending on how it affects her.

[MaryP]

When we had an epileptic foster dog, we were giving him 3 mg at night. He was a pretty big dog - 55+ lbs. We were giving it to him in hopes that it would help him sleep through the night, though. It wasn't just an effort to calm his general anxiety. He had plenty of other, much stronger medicines for that.

[2 Devils]

I give Tempe 3mg daily at dinner time. She weighs 29lbs. On weekends that she will play flyball I will give her 3mg in the am and 3mg at night.

 

I spoke with my vets about the melatonin dosage and my vets told me that it would be very hard to OD a dog on melatonin and that giving her 3-12mg a day as needed should be fine. It would take an extremely large dose to OD.

 

If you don't see any different with 3mg, you may want to try giving her at the opposite time of day. For some reason it seems to work better for Tempe giving it at dinner time. You could also try twice a day.

 

Melatonin is pretty cheap so it definitely does not hurt to give it a try.

[diane allen]

My experience is like Kim's - you can't really OD on it much, but I'm not sure that more is necessarily better. I tried it on my "sensitive" dog - thunder-phobic, stressed while traveling, etc. and noticed NO difference. I'm guessing that if Prozac didn't help, maybe melatonin won't either - but it certainly won't hurt to try. I think the idea of trying it at a different time of day, if at first you don't succeed, is a good one - melatonin does affect sleep, and maybe it carries over into following days. Someone (and sorry, I can't remember who) told me that it is something of a cumulative thing - one dose may not do it, a week's worth might. Hope it does for you and yours!

 

diane