Long Term Metacam for IC

[Toffee and Oreo]

Hi Everyone,

A little backstory,
Toffee has been having cystitis episodes ever since May of this year. Our first vet treated Toffee‘s cystitis with metcam (0.2ml/0.5mg/ml)and antibiotics for the first flare, then once it was coming back every 1-2 weeks they stopped the metacam for some reason, but carried on with just the antibiotics. Anyways we decided to find a new vet who was more knowledgeable on guinea pigs, and they said we should just stop the antibiotics, and just give her a urinary supplement and metacam. So Toffee has 0.31ml/1.5mg/ml of metacam now twice daily and she is 930g, and is on a supplement called cystark+ and gets 1/4 tablet per day. Toffee has pretty much been on this dose of Metacam since July due flare ups. Our vet started with a month long course of metacam to calm the inflammation in her bladder, I then reduced her down to half of her metacam everyday, but the cystitis came back, so I upped her back up to full dose for another 2 weeks, then I did a half dose again, but it came back. Now this is the 3rd time it has happened, so I’m going to up her dose again, and it usually takes about 4 days for the blood to clear once on the higher dose.

Is it bad for her to be on this high dose of Metacam for a long period of time?

Would she need to be on Metacam for the rest of her life to keep the flare ups away?

Does anyone have any experience with cystark+ supplement and whether it is good at combating cystits?

Many Thanks,

 

[Wiebke]

Hi Everyone,

A little backstory,
Toffee has been having cystitis episodes ever since May of this year. Our first vet treated Toffee‘s cystitis with metcam (0.2ml/0.5mg/ml)and antibiotics for the first flare, then once it was coming back every 1-2 weeks they stopped the metacam for some reason, but carried on with just the antibiotics. Anyways we decided to find a new vet who was more knowledgeable on guinea pigs, and they said we should just stop the antibiotics, and just give her a urinary supplement and metacam. So Toffee has 0.31ml/1.5mg/ml of metacam now twice daily and she is 930g, and is on a supplement called cystark+ and gets 1/4 tablet per day. Toffee has pretty much been on this dose of Metacam since July due flare ups. Our vet started with a month long course of metacam to calm the inflammation in her bladder, I then reduced her down to half of her metacam everyday, but the cystitis came back, so I upped her back up to full dose for another 2 weeks, then I did a half dose again, but it came back. Now this is the 3rd time it has happened, so I’m going to up her dose again, and it usually takes about 4 days for the blood to clear once on the higher dose.

Is it bad for her to be on this high dose of Metacam for a long period of time?

Would she need to be on Metacam for the rest of her life to keep the flare ups away?

Does anyone have any experience with cystark+ supplement and whether it is good at combating cystits?

Many Thanks,

Hi

That dosage of dog strength metacam (1.5 mg concentration) for her weight is perfectly OK twice daily for long term use either with sterile cystitis or with arthritis in older piggies. I have had piggies of mine on it for several years for either issue with a leeway up.

What you can do is work out over time how low you can go in between flares (if you are dealing with one of milder cases; the medium ones and up you can't) and then up it to the max to get on top of a flare as quickly as possible. I have however found out that short term upping the glucosamine during a flare has actually been more effective than the metacam in bringing the flare back under control more quickly with piggies of mine.

 

[Eriathwen]

That dose is fine, it is half what mine are on long term either for IC or arthritis including 2 notoriously fragile lethal whites I've tried lowering all of them but symptoms pretty much always come back so they're just going to stay on the highest dose. I do agree that upping glucosamine really helps during flare ups also.

 

[Toffee and Oreo]

Thanks so much, I’ll up her supplement and see if that helps her too.

 

[Pigmeister]

Can I jump in on this to ask what low/medium/high flare ups look like? Does that refer to the frequency of painful toileting? Just saw this looking around for more info on cystitis.

 

[Toffee and Oreo]

Hi,
My experience is quite limited with IC, but from my experience with Toffee, I would say she usually has pretty mild flare ups, they usually start with one big wee, and then the blood starts and she would start with one big spot of blood and then the rest would just be little spots around the cage. She has never squeaked when she has urinated, and I haven’t really noticed that she is urinates more frequently while on a flare up either. IC is definitely a spectrum and symptoms do vary from pig to pig, so what Toffee experiences could be totally different to what another pig experiences.

I hope that helps you out a little bit, but I’m sure more experienced members will come along shortly and give you some better advice.

 

[Toffee and Oreo]

Here’s some photos of the wees that she gets during a flare up.

 

[Pigmeister]

Thank you for that, appreciate it.
I think Eggos has mild version of it too as we get the occasionaly squeak while pooping or peeing. It usually is just once, in the evening around the same kind of time. At it's worst it was happening every night which took us to the vet. Last week she went over a week without one.

Apart from that she's completely fine and has even been putting on some weight.

What I find confusing about it is with this mildness should I still be taking her to the vet - but I've set up a chat with the guinea pig vet to ask about that plus getting her to drink more water.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you for that, appreciate it.
I think Eggos has mild version of it too as we get the occasionaly squeak while pooping or peeing. It usually is just once, in the evening around the same kind of time. At it's worst it was happening every night which took us to the vet. Last week she went over a week without one.

Apart from that she's completely fine and has even been putting on some weight.

What I find confusing about it is with this mildness should I still be taking her to the vet - but I've set up a chat with the guinea pig vet to ask about that plus getting her to drink more water.

Is she on glucosamine and painkillers?

 

[Pigmeister]

Vet had her on metacam for a few weeks but didn't want to use it longer term. We were monitoring and there was a suggestion of trying a different pain killer. I did ask about glucosamine after seeing it mentioned here but vet said they weren't aware of evidence that it worked for this purpose.

I've been emailing the vet with a few of these questions and last time she did suggest trying different painkiller and getting another x-ray done. They are really helpful but they're a bit of a journey and I don't want to bombard them with emails as they're obviously busy. But talking to guinea pig vet tomorrow so that should help.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Vet had her on metacam for a few weeks but didn't want to use it longer term. We were monitoring and there was a suggestion of trying a different pain killer. I did ask about glucosamine after seeing it mentioned here but vet said they weren't aware of evidence that it worked for this purpose.

I've been emailing the vet with a few of these questions and last time she did suggest trying different painkiller and getting another x-ray done. They are really helpful but they're a bit of a journey and I don't want to bombard them with emails as they're obviously busy. But talking to guinea pig vet tomorrow so that should help.

We can only say that there are many IC pigs on the forum whose symptoms are under control because of daily metacam and glucosamine.

I hope your conversation tomorrow goes well

 

[Pigmeister]

Yeah I'm tempted to use glucosamine whatever our vet says to be honest

 

[Pigmeister]

IS there a recommended version and dosage that most people are typically using?

 

[Toffee and Oreo]

I know that most people on the forum give Feliway Cystease Capsules, and they usually give around 1 capsule per day, everyday. And they usually dissolve a capsule in 1ml of water then syringe feed it to the pigs.