Can a Dog Overdose on Carprofen? Signs & What to Do

Published 2026-07-01 · Updated 2026-10-26

If your dog has just eaten extra carprofen, call your vet, an emergency clinic, or a pet poison line now. In the US: ASPCA Animal Poison Control (888) 426-4435 or Pet Poison Helpline (855) 764-7661 (both charge a consultation fee). Treatment works best in the first few hours, often before any signs appear. The rest of this page explains what happens next.

Can a Dog Overdose on Carprofen?

Yes. A dog can overdose on carprofen, most often by chewing into a bottle of flavored tablets or by getting a dose twice. Too much carprofen can cause stomach ulcers and bleeding, kidney injury and, less often, liver damage. A single doubled dose in a healthy dog is usually low risk, but any suspected overdose needs a call to a vet or poison line the same day.

How much is too much depends on the tablet strength, how many were eaten and the dog's weight and health, which is why poison services ask for all three. Some context from the drug's US approval:

• In the manufacturer's safety studies, healthy beagles given 1, 3 and 5 times the recommended daily dose for 42 days had no significant adverse reactions.
• At about 10 times the dose, some dogs developed stomach and gut changes and low blood protein.
• Those were young, healthy dogs under observation. Older dogs, dogs with kidney, liver or heart disease, and dogs also on a steroid or another NSAID have far less margin.

The practical risk is the chewable itself: the flavoring that makes it easy to give also makes a whole bottle tempting. A dog that eats a bottle can swallow many times its daily dose in a minute.

Poison lines: in the US, ASPCA Animal Poison Control (888) 426-4435 or Pet Poison Helpline (855) 764-7661. In the UK, Animal PoisonLine 01202 509000. All charge a fee. Your own vet or the nearest emergency clinic is always an option.

I Accidentally Gave My Dog a Double Dose

This is the most common situation: two people in the house each gave the morning tablet, or a dose was given twice by mistake. For a healthy adult dog on a normal prescription, one doubled dose usually causes no problems, at most some stomach upset. The manufacturer's safety studies gave healthy dogs several times the label dose for weeks before significant problems appeared. Even so, call your vet the same day, because:

• older dogs and dogs with kidney, liver or heart disease have far less margin;
• a double dose matters more if your dog also takes a steroid or another NSAID;
• your vet may want to skip or delay the next dose, or add a stomach protectant for a few days.

Don't skip food or water to "balance it out". Give the next scheduled dose only if your vet agrees. To stop it happening again, use a pill box or a dosing chart on the fridge so everyone can see when the dose was given.

Larger Overdoses: Why Speed Matters

Flavoured chewables taste like treats, so a dog that finds a bottle may eat the lot. The risk depends on the dose in milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Small dogs reach dangerous levels with far fewer tablets than large dogs, which is why the poison line will ask for both numbers. As the dose rises, the main risks are, roughly in order: stomach and intestinal ulcers, then acute kidney injury, and at very high doses, effects on the nervous system. Because carprofen is absorbed quickly, vets can often remove much of it if the dog is seen within the first hour or two.

Signs of Carprofen Overdose and When They Appear

Also report wobbliness, tremors or seizures immediately. These are rare and suggest a very large dose.

What Happens at the Vet

• Making your dog vomit, if ingestion was recent, using a drug that does it safely.
• Activated charcoal, sometimes in repeated doses, because carprofen recirculates through the bile and gut.
• Stomach protection for several days, for example omeprazole, sucralfate or misoprostol.
• Intravenous fluids, often for 48 to 72 hours, after doses that put the kidneys at risk.
• Bloodwork at the start and again over the next few days to check kidney and liver values.

With early treatment, most dogs recover fully. Outcomes are worse when treatment starts after signs of ulcers or kidney injury have already appeared, which is why the advice is always to call straight away.

Preventing Accidental Overdose

• Keep carprofen in its original child-resistant bottle, in a closed cupboard, not on a counter or in a bag on the floor.
• Give one person responsibility for dosing, or use a written chart.
• Store other pets' medications separately. Never give carprofen to a cat (see carprofen for cats).
• Check the strength each time you refill. Switching from 25 mg to 100 mg tablets without noticing is an easy way to give four times the dose.

For what a normal dose looks like, see our dosage chart. For reactions at normal doses, see carprofen side effects.