Metacam prescribed for Simon and I just read warnings!

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Simon'sMommy

Simon'sMommy

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I just decided to google one of the meds Simon was prescribed after his dental surgery and found out one of them can cause renal failure! I then punched it in the search box here and saw it has a warning for this! OMG! He has had two doses already (and I won't give him the other three prescribed!) along with his antibiotic and another pain killer. It said "anti-inflammatory and pain killer on the discharge papers for this med and then the bupronex said pain killer as well. I guess the bupronex (not sure this is spelled right as I am reading it off the discharge paper) is for short term pain killer and the Metacam is more for the inflammation. I don't know why I did not check before even giving him the first and now a second dose of this but something told me to check and now I am so scared! He seems fine although sleepier than normal, but he is eating and peeing, pooping and purring. Ugh!

Should I just stop giving it and leave it at that or should I call the vet and tell him I stopped giving it? (he has 3 more doses left)
 
Joyce... I did a post about this in health to send someone here....more eyes to see it.

I do not know about this med.
 
Metacam does have a black box warning on it, to alert vets there have been serious life threatening complications when giving this medication. Fairly significant percentages, I think it was somewhere around 8% of cats had problems. Your vet prescribed the Metacam off label, meaning it's not tested for or approved for uses other than neuter or spay surgery, or orthopedic surgery in cats.

Are you giving injections of the metacam or the oral meds? The oral is only approved for dogs, is a higher concentration and must be measured very carefully if being given to a cat.

My suggestion would be to stop the Metacam immediately and look for sings of ARF (acute renal failure) aka kidney failure. Unfortunately, the symptoms of the ARF can be the same as for many antibiotics.

Symptoms to watch for
What to Watch For
•Disorientation
•Incoordination
•Decreased urine production
•Straining to urinate
•Loss of appetite
•Lethargy
•Vomiting
•Weakness
•Changes in water consumption and urination

Wink just had a dental last week and was prescribed Metacam by the vet. I refused to use it, knowing about the black box warnings and some of the contraindications such as cardiac or kidney issues. Wink has cardiac issues and had these and more cardiac issues under the anesthesia. I decided I did not want to take the chance of ARF or sudden death, and just used some Buprenex for a couple of days. My thought was why risk the Metacam side effects when there are safer alternatives?

Did your vet do blood testing before the dental? Checked the liver values, kidney values? All normal?
 
I know this is worrying, Joyce. I think discontinuing is a good idea also, and then call the vet in the am.
I do think it is a small percentage of cats that have problems. Simon just won't be one of them. :-D
 
He seems fine although sleepier than normal,
Click to expand...
That could definitely be due to the "bupe". What dose and how often did the vet prescribe the buprenex?.

Just before I lost Bob, he was getting .1 "as needed" for pain, which in his case was three times a day, and as a pain killer, it worked great. My vet prescribed .2 but .1 did the trick. .2 made him a zombie.
 
Thanks for all the responses. Simon had blood work before the procedure and he checked out perfect. Even his blood glucose was normal and that was a shock since the vet sresses him out. Anyway, it was given in an oral form. I gave it to him twice (both evenings) and he got three pre measured doses of the bupronex and those are gone. He is wide awake this morning and ate well. His BG is 111 and he seems to be fine. He even ate a freeze dried chicken treat without any problems after I checked his Blood sugar. I am stopping the metacam immediately and making sure the vet knows why. I am beyond worried about this.

I cannot believe that I did not check first since I am a FANATIC about checking meds before taking any myself or for my family and I let Simon down by just giving him what the vet gave me. Then something told me to check the meds by googling (a little voice, I swear!!) and I went online and found the horrible things about the metacam.

I will keep you posted!
 
Joyce,
I am so glad that Simon seems to be ok. Good thing that you listened to the "little voice" in your head!! Please keep us posted on how he is doing.
Terriy & Chicken Little
 
Just for piece of mind, I texted the girl who watches Simon for us when we go away. She is a vet tech. I asked her (there are 2 vets in the practice she works for) if they prescribe Metacam and she said they do. Then she realized that she gives it to DOGS, not cats. So, she even went and asked BOTH of the vets if they would prescribe this drug for a cat after dental surgery.

Both of them said NO and to tell me that they don't prescribe the drug for cats with only very rare exceptions which was not a big surprise to me. I left a message for my vet to call me so I could speak to him about this but he is home sick today with a stomach virus so the on call vet was there. I did not wish to discuss this with him. I just told the vet tech that I am d/c ing the metacam and to have Dr. K call me as soon as he returns. Simon does not seem to be in any pain so I have not even asked for more buprenex (not sure of the spelling) since he is eating well and seems to have no discomfort, even eating the freeze dried chicken which is crunchy. The only drug he is now getting is the antibiotic. I am comfortable with my decision to stop this drug.

Thanks for all of your help. I will keep a close eye on him for any late effects of this drug as I know it can even surface several days to weeks later. Ugh!
 
I have made sure that Black Kittys and all my kitties charts state no metacam.
BK was given metacam during his first dental surgery and the dentist sent some home with us for post surgery pain.
the folks here told me of the potential danger (it was before the black box warning) . I called the vet and insisted on bupe.

scary stuff.
 
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