I've just managed to get off tramadol after a few months of regular twice daily tablets due to a back injury and the withdrawal was horrendous.

My parents vet wants to put their spaniel on tramadol for an injury and I was wondering if dogs suffer from withdrawal symptoms too.

I believe, as with all drugs, it depends on each individual, whether it be animal or human.

I can eat Tramadol like sweets with no effect whatsoever.  I could take 8 a day with no withdrawal symptons.

So I would want to give the dog a chance of some pain relief.

Eight Tramadol and no effect

I am comatosed if I take two !

A friend of mine has a GS with elbow problems and the vet had prescribed Tramadol and he had been on them for several months before being referred to a bone specialist. Medical history with x ray after consultation and specialist took him of Tramadol saying it is not a tablet he would ever use on dogs. He couldn't understand why vets are all using it as there are far more effective painkillers for dogs.

My husband has RA and was on Tramadol and he also could take them with no real effect on the pain.

Tramadol is very strong and seems to be the pain relief of choice for dogs these days, in humans we would start off with Paracetamol[not for dogs as the liver can't cope with it], then add in codeine [ not sure if dogs can process this OK]in increasing doses and when those no longer worked then something like Tramadol would be tried, I can remember trialing this on my patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis back in the mid 90's so it hasn't been around that long and filled the gap between the simple painkillers and the Morphine type meds.

I was on Tramadol for several years and like any strong pain meds you feel sleepy till you get used to them and eventually they stop working as the condition you are taking them for gets worse, I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms, not even when I was going into hospital for surgery and had to fast from the night before and take no meds either, back in 2006 I went on to Morphine after fighting against that option for several years and now have a patch with a drug equivalent to Morphine which lasts 3 days.

Like all meds there will be some folk that it won't agree with but I have only come across a couple.

If the specialist didn't like Tramadol for dogs I would have liked to know what other meds they would have suggested other than anti inflammatories.

There is no black and white and IMO if a dog is in pain you use what you can to ease the problem, I have a dog on anti inflammatory drugs  and tramadol and I think that is probable the reason vets are giving them it saves the giving of more and more anti inflammatory with less and less effect on the actual pain being experienced.

An animal suffering pain is more effected than we are, once we know the cause we only have pain to deal with but an animals whole life is effected as they do not know why they are feeling as they do, they feel not only pain but insecure or even frightened, in the wild an animal can expect to be left by its fellows and probably killed so for a dog it is more important to deal with pain than it is for us so I can see no reason to withhold or withdraw pain relief unless there is an extreme unwanted side effect and feeling dozy would not for me be a good enough reason.

When I meet people with elderly dogs who refuse to deal with their pain because they have this idea the there is something "dangerous or sinful" in allowing their dogs to take low dose NSAID or something like tramadol although in all likelihood they will be happy to take an aspirin a day to ward off a heart attack.

I would agree with all that Jackie except perhaps to say I would apply that to chronic pain.  In the case of an injury where the pain is likely to be short term I think you do have to be more circumspect about what is given and whether withdrawal is likely to be an issue.
I also think in some circumstances a little pain will prevent the animal from doing further injury with activity.  It could be a toss up between that or a cage for instance which may be more stressful than coping with some pain for some individuals.

Thanks everyone - I took 2 x 200mg of tramadol a day and really struggled with insomnia, nausea and the feeling of bugs under my skin when I was late for a dose and it was horrendous when I stopped taking them.

Even though I knew why I felt so bad it wasn't something I ever want to experience again and definitely wouldn't want a dog to go through if there was any chance of it happening.

Tramadol is a great pain killer if you're allergic to everything else but it's no fun when your script runs out :(

>Eight Tramadol and no effect <img alt="eek" src="/images/eek.gif" /><br /><br />I am comatosed if I take two !

Which is why I was careful to say that it depends on the individual.  It is not worth me taking Tramadol.  If it affords me no pain relief, I don't see the point.  But it wouldn't stop me from giving them to any of my dogs in pain.

I remember taking dihydrocodeine back in the late 80's and 8 a day only just touching the pain.  Yet my GP at the time said he would be on his back if he took 2! 

I find liquid morphine useless, so I still say it's very much an individual decision.

  Betty That was a huge dose of Tramadol to be taking, maximum I have taken or given to my patients was 100mgs 4x a day, when that dose no longer worked the Pain Clinic said it was time to rethink my pain meds and that was when I had to agree to morphine or the equivalent.

People worry about addiction but I was told on more than one occasion that if the pain was real and I didn't abuse the dose then it wasn't addictive and I have found that to be true. I did worry when I lost so much weight [10st] that the dose may become too high but that hasn't been the case.

I certainly would not leave any animal in pain when there are meds out there to relieve it.