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Metacam - once or twice a day? Confused!

B

bunnylover177

Alpha Buck
We have moved house and vets. Our last two exotic vets split the metacam dose for the day so we gave it morning and evening. Our new exotic vets are adamant that to get the full effect of metacam, which lasts all day in their view, you must only give it once a day. Is there any science out there which can answer this in a way my vet will accept?
 
I spoke to my friend who is a ''rabbit'' vet nurse and she insists that Metacam orally can't last more than 12 hours. It needs to be given twice a day, once every 12 hours.
 
I've always been told to give it twice.. And I really trust my vet.. So not sure..

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 
I'd love to know but my feeling is every 12 hours is preferable owing to their superfast metabolic rate
 
bunnylover177 said:
We have moved house and vets. Our last two exotic vets split the metacam dose for the day so we gave it morning and evening. Our new exotic vets are adamant that to get the full effect of metacam, which lasts all day in their view, you must only give it once a day. Is there any science out there which can answer this in a way my vet will accept?
Click to expand...



Yep, my Vet prescribes Meloxicam (Metacam) doses to be given every 12 hours too

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16521861
 
Thank you everyone. Especially, Jane, thank you for the link. I don't quite understand what conclusion it is coming to though as the bit in the middle looks like it is recommending twice a day as only 25% of metacam still in system after 12 hours (??) if I have got it right but then it concludes:

"Rabbits may require a dose exceeding 0.3 mg/kg given once daily to achieve optimal plasma levels of meloxicam over a 24-h interval".

Does that mean they think you should give a really big dose once a day despite rabbits fast metabolic rate?

Twice a day seems more logical to me so I'll ignore my current vet I think!

PS I know metacam and meloxicam have the same active ingredient.
Thank you.
 
I've only been giving it to Fran once a day and I think it was the same with Dylan when he was on long term metacam - and that was a different vet surgery. I did query it to check I hadn't misunderstood. Am off to pick her up shortly so will clarify it.
 
bunnylover177 said:
Thank you everyone. Especially, Jane, thank you for the link. I don't quite understand what conclusion it is coming to though as the bit in the middle looks like it is recommending twice a day as only 25% of metacam still in system after 12 hours (??) if I have got it right but then it concludes:

"Rabbits may require a dose exceeding 0.3 mg/kg given once daily to achieve optimal plasma levels of meloxicam over a 24-h interval".

Does that mean they think you should give a really big dose once a day despite rabbits fast metabolic rate?

Twice a day seems more logical to me so I'll ignore my current vet I think!

PS I know metacam and meloxicam have the same active ingredient.
Thank you.
Click to expand...

Yes, that conclusion seems not to make sense or being in keeping with the rest of the summary.
 
I think the implication is that Rabbits have a faster clearance rate of Meloxicam than other species and that Rabbits can also tolerate a higher dose than was previously thought.

All the Exotics specialists I know of now seem to prescribe Meloxicam 12 hourly. I believe it was Richard Saunders who told my Vet about it. There is also the BSAVA Exotics Drug's Formulary ( all Vets should have a copy) which should have reference to frequency of dosing.

That said, I guess all Vets prescribe a dose rate based on their Professional opinion about a specific case.
 
bunnylover177 said:
We have moved house and vets. Our last two exotic vets split the metacam dose for the day so we gave it morning and evening. Our new exotic vets are adamant that to get the full effect of metacam, which lasts all day in their view, you must only give it once a day. Is there any science out there which can answer this in a way my vet will accept?
Click to expand...


Some info here:

https://www.vgr1.com/metacam/

One study shows that the half-life of metacam in a rabbit system is about 8 hours (another study: "the mean time to maximum plasma concentration was 6.5 and 5.8 hours and the mean terminal half-life was 6.1 and 6.7 hours, respectively.") 24 hours after the last dose there is almost no medicine left in the rabbits system ("Plasma drug levels decreased rapidly to near-undetectable levels by 24 h." - "Oral clearance of meloxicam is high in rabbits, indicating rapid metabolism and elimination.")
 
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