At 1:30 in the morning, I heard my cocker spaniel, Buffy, pacing my bedroom. She never does that. Normally, she hardly moves since, in the winter, I often cover her with a towel and it is still in place when I get up in the morning. 
I heard her nails clicking on the spaces between our throw rugs. I tried to ignore her, then she jumped up with her front paws on my side of the bed and pawed at me.
I figured she had to go out. I turned on the hallway light and tried to coax her down the stairs. She walked around bumping into things and couldn’t find the stairs.
Buffy has glaucoma and has already lost one eye to the disease. Her ophthalmologist said that she would lose vision in her remaining eye within 6 to 18 months. She takes 4 different types of eye drops for a total of 12 drops per day.
Sometimes Buffy gets pressure spikes in her eye and loses her vision. This has happened twice where we caught it soon enough that she regained her sight. The first time (in September), I gave her extra Latanoprost eye drops. The second time (in December), I brought her to the ophthalmologist and she reduced her eye pressure from 75 down to 7 by using a needle to relieve her ocular pressure. Pressures above 35 feel like a migraine headache.
With each blindness episode, Buffy has regained less of her sight. The ophthalmologist stated that if her eye pressure stays up for more than a few hours, Buffy will permanently lose her eye sight and will be blind.
I knew eventually Buffy would go blind, just not at 1:30 in the morning.
Several blogposts tell her story. (First diagnosed, losing her eye, temporarily blind, and her stages of glaucoma). 
That night, I carried Buffy down the stairs and outside. She only peed a small amount. Having eliminated any GI upset, I figured her restlessness was due to an ocular pressure spike. I gave her two drops of Latanoprost, hoping that would help since the ophthalmologist had given her 4 drops of Latanoprost only five minutes apart during the December visit.
I carried her back upstairs and went back to bed. I was really tired, and just wanted to sleep.
But Buffy continued to pace.
As I lay there trying to sleep and having a foggy brain, I remembered that Buffy’s ophthalmologist had given me some Tramadol pills for her last procedure in December. Tramadol is a pain medication. The vet had written to use it to reduce squinting (a sign of eye pain).
I thought it would help with her migraine until I could bring her to the vet the next day. I really just wanted to go back to bed.
I carried Buffy back downstairs and gave her a Tramadol pill with a treat. When I closed the bottle, I noticed it said, “Give ¼ tablet.”
I had given her a whole pill—4X the dose the vet had prescribed.
It’s probably not that strong, and she might just be a bit more tired. I figured she’d be okay, so I carried her back upstairs and went to bed.
I snuggled down under my blankets and started to relax. Maybe she wouldn’t be okay. I grabbed my phone next to my bed and googled Tramadol overdose.
Common signs of tramadol for dogs poisoning are:
-
- Weakness.
- Vomiting.
- Diarrhea.
- Bloody vomit.
- Respiratory changes.
- Black-tarry stool.
- Change in thirst or urination.
- Seizures.
- Collapse.
- Hyperthermia.
- Tremors.
- Death.
Death! I had to get the Tramadol out of Buffy. This cleared my head!
Time is critical when it comes to overdosing. It had been at most fifteen minutes since I gave her the pill.
Then I googled “How to make a dog vomit.” I’ve owned dogs for over fifty years and I never had to do this before. I read about giving her a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide for each ten pounds of body weight. The site said this could take up to 15 minutes for her to vomit.
I carried her back down to the kitchen and found the hydrogen peroxide in the fridge. Good thing I had some!
Five minutes after I gave it to her, Buffy barfed up an incredible amount of food, still in her stomach after six hours.
Finally, I could go back to bed! Buffy settled down and fell back to sleep. But, I was wide awake for hours, realizing I could have really hurt her from my stupid mistake.
The next morning, Buffy was fine. No pressure spike and she regained her vision.
Lessons learned:
- If you have a drug that should be given in amounts smaller than a full pill, cut some up in the bottle, so you will remember to give a smaller dose.
- Read the label for all drugs that you give to your dog, especially if you don’t give this drug often.
- Pay attention. Wake up and think about your dog and not just wanting to go back to sleep.
- Keep hydrogen peroxide handy—you just never know when you may need to make your dog vomit.
In doing research for this article, I found that Buffy might have been fine with one pill of Tramadol at 50 mg. She weighs about 30 pounds and the maximum dose for dogs is 1.8 mg/lb., which is 54 mg.
But you never know. It really made me think about ways to prevent this from happening again.
Read more about Tramadol and overdosing your dog with these two articles.
https://www.golden-retriever-dog.com/veterinary-help/tramadol-for-dogs/
https://www.vetinfo.com/symptoms-of-tramadol-overdose-in-dogs.html
Have you ever overdosed your pet? What did you do?
I’m glad that Buffy is okay! I’ve almost given my dogs the wrong dosage before because I wasn’t wearing my glasses.
My dog Theo refuses to take liquid medication. So when I needed to induce vomiting in Theo, I put the hydrogen peroxide on a piece of bread. He gobbled it down and it worked like a charm.
Thanks for the tip.
How scary! I am glad that Buffy is okay, and I am also grateful that you shared this info with pet parents because I am sure there are many people who have had a similar issue, an weren’t sure what to do!
You can never be too careful! I imagine your heart must have stopped for a second upon realizing the effects the overdose might have. Glad everything turned out okay. Thanks for the tips. I forgot about peroxide for inducing vomit.
Yes, finding out my mistake could kill her, really got my attention!
So scary! I’ve had a few moments where I thought I was going to need the hydrogen peroxide, but haven’t needed to yet. You were thinking quick and I’m so glad everything is ok!
So sorry you had to go through this. Yes, it is wise to split the pill accordingly so that you don’t unintentionally overdose your dog. Glad you woke up enough to remedy the situation so that you could go back to sleep 🙂
How scary! If that had happened to me, I probably would have grabbed one of the girls up and rushed to the emergency vet clinic. I tend not to think clearly when something is wrong with one of them.
I thought of going to the emergency vet, but it is a half hour drive away and then the pill would start to take effect – since already about 15 minutes had gone by. Vomiting was much faster – and a lot lest costly.
Ouchie; what a scare! My first order of business in a case like that is calling the vet, or, during after-hours, the Pet Poison Helpline. Particularly since inducing vomiting is not always a good idea. For example, some things that depress nervous system can cause aspiration of the vomit.
Since only about 15 minutes had elapsed, no effect had started from the drug. If it had been longer, I probably would have called them.
How scary! I’m so glad you acted quickly and had hydrogen peroxide in the house. I learned this the hard way too when my puppy ate some poison from outside the house that supposedly had bittering agent in it so this didn’t happen. Great tips for other pet parents to remember when giving a new medication. Glad she is okay!
I am so scared of that happening that I make sure all her medications when she gets them are cut up by the pharmacist to prevent that happening. Layla is allergic to Benadryl and it took me a couple of times of giving it to her when I first got her to realize it so I do not give her anymore.
Overdosing is a natural fear for us and thank goodness Buffy is fine and you were able to sort it all out immediately. Thanks to Google
It can’t be easy to admit your mistake and just wanting to sleep. Yet, by doing so you have helped many pet parents and perhaps even kid parents out there!
I have been there myself, with having a special needs child AND special needs dog there have been nights I would cry I needed sleep so bad.
I also have my own health issues which makes it worse.
We are NOT perfect! Us humans make mistakes and the most empowering thing we can do is let others know so they can avoid doing the same.
I love your idea to precut medication that needs to be given in smaller doses! Great idea!
Thank you. I’m glad you liked my post.
Whew! I’m just glad Buffy is okay and happy your “intuition” had you double check that label. Nope. I haven’t overdosed my pet however I have given medication to my pet that had a heart murmur (with a vet’s okay) and I think it may have further complicated her condition despite the vet’s okay. I’ll never know for sure. With March being Pet Poison Prevention month, it’s a good idea for pet parents to have emergency poison control and veterinarians number on hand, just in case.
Yes, it’s a good idea to have these poison control numbers handy – especially when it happens in the middle of the night.
Oh my mouses, that must have been so scary for you. It’s good that you were able to act quickly, even if Buffy might have been okay with the full pill. Glad to hear Buffy was okay in the mornin’ and was seein’ again. PURRS.
I am so glad that everything worked out ok in the end. I will have to check if hydrogen peroxide works for cats too.
I’m not sure about cats. I’d have to look that up.
OMG, how scary! I would have been beside myself with worry. The one thing, well one of the things I’ve learned from your post today, is get some hydrogen peroxide in my house! I have never had to induce vomiting in any of my pets, and I hope I never have too, but it’s important to be prepared.
I’m so happy that Buffy is alright and big hugs to you.
I’m glad to know that my post helped you better prepare. You just never know when you might need it.
Oh I hear you! At 3.5 pounds most of the time his weight range isn’t even ON the bottle. Lucky for us he’s a super healthy boy and so far we’ve had very little need for meds. But man … it’s tough. We tend to get liquid versions as a result. Wow … scary. glad it all worked out!
How scary! I’m so glad you were able to take care of Buffy and she’s doing OK.
Wow I know why you want to write this post! I will share it too. This is so important. Well done you for acting so far, I know I would be shaken by such an episode and agree 100% with your valuable tip of dividing a tablet into pieces. A small thing but potentially a life saver.
I remember the vet gave us something called Suppress for our Sooty. The effect on her frightened me. She went from being a cheery black cat to the image of utter desolation. I checked the label and symptoms, as you suggest here, and one of the indications was ‘severe depression’. I told the vet I was stopping the tablets as Sooty was over the worst of whatever it was and I was ‘losing’ my cat. Lesson – read label and be prepared.
Buffy, hang in there sweet girl. You are amazing and have a terrific mum.
Thank you for your great comments and for sharing my post. I’m glad Sooty was okay after her bad reaction.