Mucinex is an oral medication used to treat nasal congestion in people. If a person has cough and colds accompanied by phlegm, taking Mucinex can help clear out the problem in just a few days.
Can Mucinex be used in pet dogs too? In this day and age when dogs are living in households where dog owners treat them as part of the family, it becomes very convenient to administer people medicines to these canine companions when they get sick too.
But before giving any type of medicine to your dog (be it for people or for animals), it is important that you consult a vet first. Or you should at least find out if a certain type of medicine is helpful or harmful to dogs.
Can I Give My Dog Mucinex? Answer: Yes.
Regular Mucinex and Mucinex DM both contain Guaifenesin as the main ingredient. Guaifenesin is a safe ingredient for humans as well as for dogs. If your dog has nasal congestion or kennel cough, your vet can prescribe this type of drug for them.
Mucinex can be given to your dog in either liquid (syrup) or tablet form. Both are just as effective, so you can choose the type that’s easier for you to administer to your dog.
How to Administer
If you are used to shoving pills and tablets down your pet dog’s throat, then you can get the tablet type of Mucinex. By using this method, you can give the medicine to your dog in just a few seconds.
But if you find the method of giving tablet medication to your dog quite difficult, then you can simply get the syrup type of Mucinex. You can either use a dropper in administering this medicine or you can also mix the medicine in your dog’s food or drinking water.
Just make sure that your dog consumes all the food and water that has the medicine in order to make sure that the proper dosage entered the dog’s system. Otherwise the medicine might not work effectively. It is therefore recommended that you place the it on a small amount of food or water that can be consumed by your dog in one gulp.
Other Remedies for Sore Throat and Upper Respiratory Problems
In order to speed up your dog’s recovery from upper respiratory problems and sore throat, you can also give your pet dog some honey. One teaspoon of honey given three times a day can provide relief to sore throat. Moreover, honey contains natural vitamins and minerals that will strengthen your dog’s immune system. This will enable your canine friend to fight off other infections while recovering from their present illness.
It is also important to give other vitamin supplements to your dog when your pet is sick or under stress. Vitamin C is particularly important. You can give 500mg vitamin C once a day for large breed of dogs and 250mg per day for small breed of dogs. Aside from vitamin C, you can also give multivitamin supplements.
Possible Problems Associated with Coughing
While giving Mucinex to your pet dog is allowed in cases of upper respiratory ailments, it is still necessary to have a vet perform a series of tests on your dog regularly. This is especially needed if you observe that your canine friend is frequently having respiratory problems.
Frequent problems with cough and phlegm can be a sign that your pet has heart problems. And if this is the case, the vet will need to perform some tests on your dog in the clinic or laboratory.
If your dog frequently has dry cough, it could also be a sign of worms. Worms can reside in the intestines, lungs and even in the heart and too many worms can manifest its sign on your dog through respiratory problems.
Coughing which is accompanied by heavy breathing can be a sign of pneumonia. And should you observe this on your dog, you should immediately seek the help of a vet. Pneumonia cases in dogs are just as serious as pneumonia cases in people and this can lead to death.
Better Safe Than Sorry
You love your dog and you want your canine friend to be with you for a long time. That’s why you should always make sure that you keep a close look at your dog’s health all the time. By knowing which food stuff and medicines are safe for your dog, the chances of your dog getting sick will be very slim.
