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Can I crush my dog's Tramadol for pain relief after surgery?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Female | spayed | 9 years and 4 months old | 55 lbs

My dog (was 26kg, post op 23kg ,9 years old German Shepard cross) has just returned home after a GDV operation done 4 days ago. She was given tramadol 50 mg BD for pain relieve. As she's still not eating voluntarily and showing signs of pain, I crushed up One tramadol tab, mixed it with dog food to syringe into her mouth. I then searched the internet to find that it's not advisable to crush up tramadol, should I be concerned? This was about 1 1/2 hours ago. she seems fine

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on February 21st, 2017

That should not be a problem. The only risk is that Tramadol won't be effective. I would recommend to have Gum Gum checked if the signs (pain and inappetence) are not getting any better in the next 12-24hours.

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    Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

    Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

    Published on

    For most forms of tramadol, it's perfectly fine to crush up the tablets and mix with food if needed - we frequently recommend doing this for patients who are difficult to medicate :) There is an extended-release form of tramadol that is used in humans that is not meant to be split or crushed, but it would be extremely uncommon to prescribe this in dogs in my experience - it's much more costly than "regular" tramadol, and its effects are a bit unpredictable in dogs since the extended-release formulation is based on a human's GI tract. So I doubt very much that this form would have been prescribed for your dog. If you still have concerns, you could call the veterinarian who prescribed the medication to verify that "regular" tramadol is the kind that was prescribed. As long as this is the case, there's no problem at all with crushing the tablets if needed.

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