Long term Metacam use

Hi all

Not posted on here for a while but just wanted some opinions/experience with metacam.

I took Zara to my rabbit savvy vet on 16th April as she had lost a lot of weight and was generally miserable. I had increased her food intake prior to taking her to vets but made no difference to her body weight.

Anyway vet did an examination and found a lump in her abdomen kind of between her bladder and kidneys (detached). She is spayed and vet doesn't think its do with any legacy uterine tumor. The options open to me at the time was to investigate (x-ray, likely leading to surgery and then likely end up having to put her to sleep on the table) or see how she goes and give her metacam as she was kind of hunching up when out in the garden suggesting maybe the tumor was pulling internally causing her some discomfort.

She weighed in at 1.1kg (very low even for a nethie cross) and so I decided to bring her in to keep her warm and give her more attention. She is on her own (her husbun died a while ago, I've recently moved following separation and was planning on getting her a husbun then this happened). She now weighs 1.4kg which is fab. Not really changed anything tho maybe she gets some more veggie offcuts being in the kitchen (same pellets and evening veg). Eats hay but very changable - no teeth issues found by vet.

She's been having 0.4ml of metacam daily since 16th April. Think that may be higher then some people think should be having but my vet said research has found bunnies need a higher amount of pain killers than previously thought. Everything was going well but over the past week she's started to get very picky with her food (not eating spring greens anymore, will eat carrot but only half then leave it and come back to it, took her a good half hour to begin eating parsley). She is eating hay, producing golden poos though they vary in size a lot.

So is long term metacam use a problem (spoke to vet and she basically said as long as she is ok in herself she's fine) and is this pickyness just a sign of her beginning to deteriorate? I am going to book her back in to see my vet in a week for her to be reassessed but just thought I would see what people thought.

Thank you

long term metacam isn't usually considered a problem. a warning has to be given about it just because of the group of meds it belongs to, but alot of buns are on it, mine included, and 0.4ml once a day is actually quite a low dose. mine have 0.5ml - 0.8ml twice a day and have been on this for years with no issues. :wave:

I know of a geriatric French Lop on at least double the maximum recommended dose for a good 18 months. The vet warned of the risks and expected him to develop side-effects, but he didn't and enjoyed years beyond his anticipated lifespan.

I'd have no qualms about long-term Metacam use especially in that situation. It seems to be the case that rabbits are less affected by long-term Metacam use than dogs and cats because they metabolise it differently.

Well thats a relief. I guess her pickyness is either her becoming a diva or perhaps things are beginning to deteriorate with her tumor. I will get her to my vet in the next week just to check if the extra 300g is weight or the tumor growing!!

Thanks again!

I've also got a rabbit who's been on metacam daily for almost four years. :wave:

My vet said Long term metacam use isn't considered a problem when the illness its treating causes more problems than the possible side effects from the metacam. For example with Evan he is on twice daily metacam as he has a mass in his abdomen as well if I stop the medication he will stop eating but my vet has made me aware a ulcer is a potential problem due to the amount of metacam he's on. I think you are meant to titrate the dose down if possible but in my buns and yours probably that isn't an option so metacam to keep them painfree for as long as possible is best.
I'm sorry your bunny is poorly x