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What factors influence dog anesthesia dosage based on weight?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Female

What’s the ratio of amount of anesthetic to weight of a dog needed in order to put a dog under? I promise I’m asking for hypothetical reasons for pure curiosity. It’s for science!

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on February 4th, 2018

This depends on the drug used, the range of safe doses of the drug, and the health status of the dog as well as the weight. There are a lot of factors taken into account when putting a dog under with anesthesia, and there are a lot of different drugs to chose from when doing it. For example, you have pre-anesthetic drugs, induction drugs, and then the anesthetic gas itself. Unfortunately, I can't give you an exact answer to your question because of all these factors, but I hope this answer helps you understand there are a lot of considerations taken into account when making an anesthetic plan for a dog :-)

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