what is the pros and cons of Buprenorphine vs. metacam?

My 11 yr. old bun Bobby has skin cancer and requires small dosage of painkiller daily. Back 10 yr. ago, when my other bun Goofball had bone cancer, she needed metacam and by the 11th mth., we need to give him Ranitidine to offset the long term side effect of metacam.

So I wonder if Buprenorphine is better for him and whether it also requires Ranitidine after say 11+ mth. of usage

Does anyone has any experience on Buprenorphine and knows its pros and cons?

Happy Hopping said:

My 11 yr. old bun Bobby has skin cancer and requires small dosage of painkiller daily. Back 10 yr. ago, when my other bun Goofball had bone cancer, she needed metacam and by the 11th mth., we need to give him Ranitidine to offset the long term side effect of metacam.

So I wonder if Buprenorphine is better for him and whether it also requires Ranitidine after say 11+ mth. of usage

Does anyone has any experience on Buprenorphine and knows its pros and cons?

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Buprenorphine is a completely different type of analgesic drug to Metacam, it is an opiate. It has strong analgesic properties but the side effects can include marked sedation, reduced appetite/gut motility. It can also cause respiratory depression.

Some info about analgesics which could be used for Rabbits

http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Analgesics/safe_analgesics.htm

Happy Hopping said:

My 11 yr. old bun Bobby has skin cancer and requires small dosage of painkiller daily. Back 10 yr. ago, when my other bun Goofball had bone cancer, she needed metacam and by the 11th mth., we need to give him Ranitidine to offset the long term side effect of metacam.

So I wonder if Buprenorphine is better for him and whether it also requires Ranitidine after say 11+ mth. of usage

Does anyone has any experience on Buprenorphine and knows its pros and cons?

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Buprenorphine (aka Vetergesic) is an opiate pain reliever, and as such *could* cause drowsiness and lethargy. Not all rabbits are affected in the same way and it provides a good level of pain relief.

Metacam, I have found, doesn't always cut it for severe pain, and I went for Tramadol. This can also have the sleepy effect, but it doesn't always either and I have found it useful (in conjunction with Ranitidine/Zantac to protect the stomach)

That said, I have maintained a rabbit with cancer on Metacam .. it all depends on how they react to the various painkillers.

It's not something I'd be comfortable with, due to the sedating effects. Particularly when you've got an animal that needs to eat more or less constantly.

Beup as I call it is something I wouldn't consider using in a rabbit unless it's a completely last resort and nothing else seems to cut it. Mainly due to the sedative effects but also as JJ has mentioned, due to the effects it can have on their breathing.

Obviously your vet would only dose in small amounts, but I'd discuss in depth the pros and cons of each medicine so you can make an educated choice.

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It is a 'stronger' painkiller but is also slightly shorter acting in its effect than meloxicam, although not tremendously short compared to other opioids.

Also in the uk (I suspect it's similar in the US) buprenorphine is a controlled drug so it's not something that is dished out to clients lightly or in any quantity, and you can be picked up by sniffer dogs at stations/airports etc because it will make you smell like a banned drug. When we were discussing it as an option for one of my cats recently, my vet said she'd have to give me a letter to carry around confirming they were using bupe because I'd likely be stopped at some point!

I have taken Buprenorphine and found the side-effects to be pretty nasty e.g. severe nausea, dizziness. I think I would be concerned about possible side-effects, experienced by my rabbit, but not obvious to anyone else. As with any drug prescribed for an animal, it's not always obvious what the side-effects are.

I found buprenorphine was the only thing to help my buns when they were in severe stasis with blockages as metacam just wasn't enough. Yes it did make them a bit sleeper but it is what my vet would give for severe pain and tramadol also.

I had an arthritic bunny on buprenorphine trans-mucosally as I found the injections far too sedating. In the end arthritic pain was managed incredibly well for us with buprenorphine 2-3 times daily, gabapentin 3x daily and meloxicam 2x daily

HMacU2 said:

I had an arthritic bunny on buprenorphine trans-mucosally as I found the injections far too sedating. In the end arthritic pain was managed incredibly well for us with buprenorphine 2-3 times daily, gabapentin 3x daily and meloxicam 2x daily

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I was just about to mention you :wave:

I think you devised a terrific protocol there. Well worth exploring for our painful arthritic buns.

Nice to see you again

MightyMax said:

I was just about to mention you :wave:

I think you devised a terrific protocol there. Well worth exploring for our painful arthritic buns.

Nice to see you again

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I’ve always found multimodal analgesia to work really well especially as they work in different ways. Obviously you want the lowest possible doses/number of medications but by the time Roxy was 10.5 Years I wanted a quality of life over quantity. The fact that Roxy was able to binky again once in these meds was proof enough I made the right decision even if kidneys went into failure eventually (although I believe a big factor was EC from the year before!). Roxy was comfortable and happy up until being put to sleep (he licked me through the whole pts process).

Also meds was never stressful for Roxy... banana wins every time! - otherwise I’d never have caused stress/upset.

My last option would have been tramadol but it works in a very similar way to buprenorphine so I didn’t bother. Downside to this was it was expensive but thankfully I could make use of staff discount!

Nice to speak to you all again - I’m usually lurking!

First of all, thanks everyone for the reply.

Since buprenorphine also has all these side effect, to me, it's not worth it. The vet is assuming there is kidney failure due to his age, but there is no evidence of that.

If I pick this drug, it introduce those other side effect to my bun, it could be worse.

What's that old English expression, something like "?????, half .... or the other", it means either way we are screwed

For my bun, I use the light dosage of 0.08 ml instead of 0.14 ml per day. And so far, it works very nicely. He had 4 GI stasis, 4 days in a row, needless to say, I gave him 0.14 ml of metacam to fix it. Then on the 5th day and on forwards, I gave him that 0.08 ml light dosage, and he's been a happy bunny since.

Happy Hopping said:

First of all, thanks everyone for the reply.

Since buprenorphine also has all these side effect, to me, it's not worth it. The vet is assuming there is kidney failure due to his age, but there is no evidence of that.

If I pick this drug, it introduce those other side effect to my bun, it could be worse.

What's that old English expression, something like "?????, half .... or the other", it means either way we are screwed

For my bun, I use the light dosage of 0.08 ml instead of 0.14 ml per day. And so far, it works very nicely. He had 4 GI stasis, 4 days in a row, needless to say, I gave him 0.14 ml of metacam to fix it. Then on the 5th day and on forwards, I gave him that 0.08 ml light dosage, and he's been a happy bunny since.

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6 of one, half a dozen of the other !!

Glad to hear that your Bun is doing better now Jason x

Happy Hopping said:

First of all, thanks everyone for the reply.

Since buprenorphine also has all these side effect, to me, it's not worth it. The vet is assuming there is kidney failure due to his age, but there is no evidence of that.

If I pick this drug, it introduce those other side effect to my bun, it could be worse.

What's that old English expression, something like "?????, half .... or the other", it means either way we are screwed

For my bun, I use the light dosage of 0.08 ml instead of 0.14 ml per day. And so far, it works very nicely. He had 4 GI stasis, 4 days in a row, needless to say, I gave him 0.14 ml of metacam to fix it. Then on the 5th day and on forwards, I gave him that 0.08 ml light dosage, and he's been a happy bunny since.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear your bun is doing better now Jason!