I'm really surprised they put a patch on her. Did they say if they used the whole patch or just half of the 12?
I used to work for a board certified vet surgeon and a fentanyl patch was protocol for dogs getting orthopedic surgery done. I just went to my work note book to look up the dosages for fentanyl and it says dogs under 7lbs do not get a patch. dogs 7-10lbs get a 12, 11-22 get a 25, etc...
So where i worked we would not have put a fentanyl on a dog this small.
As far as side effects go I rarely saw any. We put these on 90% of our patients (dogs and cats of all sizes) right after surgery while they are recovering and tell the owners to take it off on the 5th day. technically the meds only work for 3-4 but we do 5 just in case. I don't recall any breathing problems with the patients. The side effect i do recall is urine retention. Very rarely we would get a patient that just would not urinate, so the patch was removed. After removal the patient would either urinate a little while later or we would catheterize it to help them out a little. As far as eating/drinking problems i don't recall that being a huge problem either. Most patients handle it very well.
__________________ Kellie  and  Morgan |