Should I increase the dosage of metacam (meloxicam)

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Hermelin

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Hi everyone, as a few of you know my bunny Toste got his ears flushed yesterday. He have been eating hay but he’s not as food motivated as he normal is specially for things he love and I have to force feed him metacam which I never had to do in the past. I suspect his dosage is a bit low to numb the pain which make him lose appetite. He also eat a lot slower than what he normally would do. Instead of being the first near the food bowl and eating multiple pellets in one go, he take one at a time and it took over an hr to feed him pellets which he would normal eat up under 5 mins.

I’ve made sure to force feed him pellets which he would eat daily and I gave him a cucumber which I had to hold near his mouth as to make him eat. So he got more water into him, I’ve seen him drink water but it’s not the normal amount. Why I say not normal are because this morning I didn’t need to fill the bowl it was only half empty. I refill the bowl every morning.

I know that last time he went through this he had a dosage of 1.3 ml twice for 3 days and later went down to 0.7 ml x2. Now he’s only getting 0.6 ml x2. He get the metacam who have the concentration of 1.5 mg/ml and I suspect he’s in pain. His weight haven’t changed in fact he weights 10 grams more than last time.
 
What's his weight?

Personally I would go with something rather close to the 0,6mg/kg per day recommended here:
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Analgesics/safe_analgesics.htm

His weight is 1.9 kg. I’m just worrying about his stomach because he’s in pain, so he’s not eating normal. Maybe I should start to give him critical care as to make sure he get hydrated and get enough fiber into his stomach.

The vet told me I had to decide on my own what he needed depending on how his behavior is. Because I’ve gone through this before, they think I know Toste behaviors better.
 
The usual recommended dosage range is 0.3-0.6mg/kg, twice a day, with up to 1.5mg/kg once a day(can split into twice a day), for short term use(eg. 5 days or less). Toste being about 2kg, the highest short term dose would be about 1.5mg, twice a day, which would be 1ml of the 1.5mg/ml suspension.

https://www.vgr1.com/metacam/
So this is just the normal recommended dosing, based on available rabbit literature. It looks like before, he was actually getting higher than the normal recommended dosage. Since the dose he's currently at doesn't seem to be controlling the pain, I would want to at least try 1ml, twice a day for a couple days, to see if that helps. I would also start syringe feeding if he isn't eating well, especially having food and fluids in his stomach when you give the meloxicam. If increasing the dose seems to make him worse, then you might be dealing with a different problem, like a gastric ulcer. But if it seems to help him, then you know the dose wasn't high enough for this short term pain from his cleaning.
 
Am wondering why bunnies are being prescribed less than adequate painmeds. (It just happened to our spayed little girl recently.)


Inexperienced vets. Not up on the latest info on rabbit care. Vets are usually taught very little about rabbits in school, so it takes them having a special interest to learn and understand the more specifics about rabbits.
 
Thanks for your reply @JBun, I’ve increased his pain meds and he’s acting normal now ☺️
 

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