- The Rules: When to Medicate Late and When to Skip
- Practical Examples
- Double Dosing After a Missed Dose - Why Not
- Accidental Overdosing
- Foreseeable or Unexpected Changes to the Medication Schedule
It can easily happen for whatever reason that you miss or have to miss taking or giving a dose of medication. Please don't panic; a single one-off application is not the end of the world.
However, if you have any concerns please call the clinic and follow the advice of trained personnel.
The Rules: When to Medicate Late and When to Skip
Here are the rules for when you can give the medication late and when you'd better skip the missed dose of medication and continue as normal with the following one. The rules apply to both humans and animals.
- You can give a missed dose belatedly during the first half of the interval until the next dose is due.
- But as soon as you are closer in time to the next due dose than to the missed one, please wait until the next dose one is due. Only give the prescribed dose so you are back in the normal swing. One skipped dose is usually not a problem.
Practical Examples
- With once daily medication at a 24 hour interval you can give the missed dose up to 12 hours late; after that you have to skip to the next normal dose.
- With twice daily medication at a 12 hour interval you can give the missed dose up to 6 hours late; after that you have to wait for the next normal slot in order to avoid overdosing.
- With three times daily medication at a rougly 8 hours gap you can catch up for the first 4 hours but have to leave be for the second 4 hours.
Double Dosing After A Missed Dose - Why Not
Never be tempted to give a double dose on spec after you have missed a slot; that could cause overdosing problems. You still need to give each dose time to be assimilated and processed in order to avoid creating more problems than you solve.
Accidental Overdosing
Please contact your vet clinic or out-of-hours clinic for advice as soon as possible if you have accidentally overdosed more than double the prescribed dosage.
Make sure that you know your guinea pig's weight; this will help the person at the other end with computing the potential impact. A large part of vet training consists of computing dosages, knowing side effects and interactions with different medications. All of this will be taken into account with more severe overdosages.
The advice may differ, depending on the medication, the individual body weight and the amount with which you have overdosed.
If you are lucky, the higher dosage may still be within the normal prescription band and won't need any special measures but a massive overdose may need medical supervision, especially if your guinea pig is showing symptoms of not being well; in which case you are dealing with an emergency situation.
Switch to offering (but not mindlessly forcing down) water and syringe feed if your piggy is unwell and off their feed if you cannot be seen promptly. Follow the advice for poisoning in the link below.
Emergency Information and Care
Foreseeable or Unexpected Changes to the Medication Schedule
Please contact your vet or doctor if you know that you are going to miss several doses or can only medicate once a day; if you are too ill to medicate etc. and ask for their advice.
Their recommendations may differ depending on the medication, its properties and purpose but you will hopefully be able to work out a practical schedule to get you through a difficult patch.
- Practical Examples
- Double Dosing After a Missed Dose - Why Not
- Accidental Overdosing
- Foreseeable or Unexpected Changes to the Medication Schedule
It can easily happen for whatever reason that you miss or have to miss taking or giving a dose of medication. Please don't panic; a single one-off application is not the end of the world.
However, if you have any concerns please call the clinic and follow the advice of trained personnel.
The Rules: When to Medicate Late and When to Skip
Here are the rules for when you can give the medication late and when you'd better skip the missed dose of medication and continue as normal with the following one. The rules apply to both humans and animals.
- You can give a missed dose belatedly during the first half of the interval until the next dose is due.
- But as soon as you are closer in time to the next due dose than to the missed one, please wait until the next dose one is due. Only give the prescribed dose so you are back in the normal swing. One skipped dose is usually not a problem.
Practical Examples
- With once daily medication at a 24 hour interval you can give the missed dose up to 12 hours late; after that you have to skip to the next normal dose.
- With twice daily medication at a 12 hour interval you can give the missed dose up to 6 hours late; after that you have to wait for the next normal slot in order to avoid overdosing.
- With three times daily medication at a rougly 8 hours gap you can catch up for the first 4 hours but have to leave be for the second 4 hours.
Double Dosing After A Missed Dose - Why Not
Never be tempted to give a double dose on spec after you have missed a slot; that could cause overdosing problems. You still need to give each dose time to be assimilated and processed in order to avoid creating more problems than you solve.
Accidental Overdosing
Please contact your vet clinic or out-of-hours clinic for advice as soon as possible if you have accidentally overdosed more than double the prescribed dosage.
Make sure that you know your guinea pig's weight; this will help the person at the other end with computing the potential impact. A large part of vet training consists of computing dosages, knowing side effects and interactions with different medications. All of this will be taken into account with more severe overdosages.
The advice may differ, depending on the medication, the individual body weight and the amount with which you have overdosed.
If you are lucky, the higher dosage may still be within the normal prescription band and won't need any special measures but a massive overdose may need medical supervision, especially if your guinea pig is showing symptoms of not being well; in which case you are dealing with an emergency situation.
Switch to offering (but not mindlessly forcing down) water and syringe feed if your piggy is unwell and off their feed if you cannot be seen promptly. Follow the advice for poisoning in the link below.
Emergency Information and Care
Foreseeable or Unexpected Changes to the Medication Schedule
Please contact your vet or doctor if you know that you are going to miss several doses or can only medicate once a day; if you are too ill to medicate etc. and ask for their advice.
Their recommendations may differ depending on the medication, its properties and purpose but you will hopefully be able to work out a practical schedule to get you through a difficult patch.