Arthrocam pain relief - confused about dosage

Beliboskop

Beliboskop

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Hi there, my vet gave me Arthrocam instead of Metacam today (because they had run out of Metacam). He made me sign a form saying I understand that Arthrocam is unlicensed in the UK. This doesn't sit well with me but I did it anyway so that my piggy would have pain relief. I'm concerned about the dosage the vet has given me. He said to give my piggy 0.4ml twice daily. When given Metacam I usually administer 0.1ml once a day. Why on earth is the dose so big? I'm too scared to give this dose. I actually re-checked the dosage with the vet before leaving his office and he assured me that the dosage he's given is correct, but I still don't feel good about it. The Arthrocam is 1.5mg/ml for dogs. Metacam is 0.5mg/ml for cats and piggies.

Does anyone else have experience with Arthrocam and this high sounding dose please? I just can't get my head around it. Please help.

Thank you in advance.
 
While not arthrocam, I do give the dog version of metacam at 0.6ml twice daily. You have been given a high dose, but still a safe one, the active ingredient is the same as in metacam. Personally I do not like using the cat/guinea pig version as it is so much weaker, you have to give a lot more for it to work and 0.1ml of the cat version would not be doing very much at all, unless your piggy was very, very small.

Unfortunately very few medications are actually licensed for the use of guinea pigs so they have to be given off label, and so signed consent is needed to prescribe it. I've been getting gabapentin prescribed for my piggies for years, only recently have I had to sign a form, it's possibly a new thing with legislation tightening up, but it's nothing to worry about.
 
Beliboskop said:
Hi there, my vet gave me Arthrocam instead of Metacam today (because they had run out of Metacam). He made me sign a form saying I understand that Arthrocam is unlicensed in the UK. This doesn't sit well with me but I did it anyway so that my piggy would have pain relief. I'm concerned about the dosage the vet has given me. He said to give my piggy 0.4ml twice daily. When given Metacam I usually administer 0.1ml once a day. Why on earth is the dose so big? I'm too scared to give this dose. I actually re-checked the dosage with the vet before leaving his office and he assured me that the dosage he's given is correct, but I still don't feel good about it. The Arthrocam is 1.5mg/ml for dogs. Metacam is 0.5mg/ml for cats and piggies.

Does anyone else have experience with Arthrocam and this high sounding dose please? I just can't get my head around it. Please help.

Thank you in advance.
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Athrocam is a generic brand name for dog strength metacam, which is 3 times stronger than the cat version.

Unfortunately, cat strength metacam is the only metacam licenced for guinea pigs. 0.1 ml of cat metacam is sadly purely cosmetic at the very bottom end of the prescription bandwidth. General vets not all that familiar with guinea pigs are not aware that guinea pigs don't have the kidney issues that other pet species have with metacam, need generall higher medical dosages and tend to err very much on the side of caution.

You are looking at 1-1.5 ml and more for meaningful stronger pain relief with cat strength metacam - but it only comes in 10 ml bottles so it is very expensive to give longer term. Hence the switch to dog metacam by vets prescribing for especially chronic health issues.

I hope that this helps you?

The dosage you have you have been prescribed is well within the range medium strength or chronic stronger pain (like more advanced arthritis) is treated in a guinea a bit over a kilo but your vet can go even higher safely for acute severe pain so you need not worry about overdosing.
 
Thank you for taking the time to respond Wiebke, I appreciate it very much.

When you say that 0.1ml of cat metacam is purely cosmetic, why do they bother to prescribe that at all then? Every time any of my piggies are unwell with some sort of pain we are prescribed 0.1ml once daily for a few days and it does appear to help. If that dose isn't helpful, why do they do that?

My piggy doesn't have chronic pain or arthritis, we are still trying to work out what's going on with her currently, besides her ovarian cysts, if anything. She may even just have a piece of hay stuck up her nose currently, so I'm a little concerned about giving her higher dose meds that she doesn't actually need. I also had no idea that piggie's kidneys were so tolerant of this kind of medication.

However, thank you so much for reassuring me that I can't overdose my piggy on the dose recommended by our vet. :)
 
Eriathwen said:
While not arthrocam, I do give the dog version of metacam at 0.6ml twice daily. You have been given a high dose, but still a safe one, the active ingredient is the same as in metacam. Personally I do not like using the cat/guinea pig version as it is so much weaker, you have to give a lot more for it to work and 0.1ml of the cat version would not be doing very much at all, unless your piggy was very, very small.

Unfortunately very few medications are actually licensed for the use of guinea pigs so they have to be given off label, and so signed consent is needed to prescribe it. I've been getting gabapentin prescribed for my piggies for years, only recently have I had to sign a form, it's possibly a new thing with legislation tightening up, but it's nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your response Eriathwen, I appreciate it very much. That's reassuring to hear, thank you. I still don't understand why vets even bother prescribing 0.1ml in the first place if that's the case though. I've learned something new today :)
 
Beliboskop said:
Thank you for taking the time to respond Wiebke, I appreciate it very much.

When you say that 0.1ml of cat metacam is purely cosmetic, why do they bother to prescribe that at all then? Every time any of my piggies are unwell with some sort of pain we are prescribed 0.1ml once daily for a few days and it does appear to help. If that dose isn't helpful, why do they do that?

My piggy doesn't have chronic pain or arthritis, we are still trying to work out what's going on with her currently, besides her ovarian cysts, if anything. She may even just have a piece of hay stuck up her nose currently, so I'm a little concerned about giving her higher dose meds that she doesn't actually need. I also had no idea that piggie's kidneys were so tolerant of this kind of medication.

However, thank you so much for reassuring me that I can't overdose my piggy on the dose recommended by our vet. :)
Click to expand...

Ovarian cysts that press on the gut or other internal organs (it is all very tightly packed in there) can be quite painful.
Some vets also take into account that guinea pigs are prey animals that will suppress any signs of illness to quite an amazing degree.

See how she is on the higher dosage. ;)
 
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