Primary Care II Senior Dog Care Exam 2 Practice

When organ function is impaired, how the body handles drugs changes, so dosing must be adjusted to stay effective without causing toxicity. The best general principle is to use reduced doses or extend dosing intervals, monitor liver and kidney function, and adjust as needed while keeping polypharmacy to a minimum. In senior dogs with liver or kidney disease, clearance of many drugs is slowed—liver disease can reduce metabolism and kidney disease can reduce elimination—so drugs can accumulate if given at standard doses. Starting with lower doses or longer intervals helps prevent adverse effects and allows you to see how the patient tolerates the medication. Regular monitoring of function tests and clinical signs guides further adjustments. Minimizing the number of concurrent drugs helps reduce interactions that could worsen toxicity or reduce efficacy. In contrast, using higher doses would increase risk of accumulation, standard dosing ignores the impairment, and stopping all medications isn’t appropriate when some drugs are needed for comfort or disease management.