Canine and Equine Dosages for herbs

[dspadeStudent]

Hello,

What is a good rule of thumb when giving your herbal products (or ones I decide to make) internally, i.e.: Bleeding Formula or IFXN-Bug Buster to dogs and horses? I recently received some tinctures in the wound kit and it says the adult dosage is 10-30 drops twice daily, but I’m assuming that’s for a human. Would it be better to give animals the powder or dried herbs since the tinctures contain alcohol? Thank you!

Danielle

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

As you know (probably?) Im a veterinarian as well. For longterm herb use, I just have the owners mix the powdered herbs with a little canned food and most dogs will eat it just fine. If you get a persnickety pomeranian or some such, you can encapsulate or use tinctures. I don’t worry about the alcohol at all.

I usually only use tinctures for emergencies. I use a lot of yarrow for bleeding, cayenne for shock etc…

This Bleeding formula works really well.

http://homegrownherbalist.net/products/bleeding-formula

I also have a little jar of this formula in the powder form that I use to stop bleeding when I’m doing oral surgery and hit one of those pesky intraosseous arteries.

On herb formulas, I use a teaspoon for big dogs and work from there based on weight. These plants have wide margins of safety so you don’t need to worry too much about over dosage. Remember that herbs are drugs and so if you’re sedating/anesthtizing a dog that is on any kind og herbal depressant you need to be really careful. I’d use propofol or mask them down for induction rather than using ketamine or diazepam or things like that IV.

For tincture formulas I do 20 drops for big dogs. 5 drops for little dogs.

Horses seem to need much lower doses per pound. A tablespoon or two twice a day thrown into the feed seems to do the trick.

Cats are almost impossible to administer herbs to orally. They just hate them. If you have the good fortune of treating a compliant cat, dose them like little dogs. 🙂

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[Author]

Posts