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Meloxicam dosage

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Gingerspider

Junior Guinea Pig
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Our Len was prescribed meloxicam a while ago for his tooth and/or some suspected arthritis. The initial dosage was for 0.4ml twice a day for a week with the vet advising to come back for more if needed.
After his teeth were burred down he made a mini miracle recovery for about 6 weeks so no further meds needed. His tooth has overgrown again but vet said his jaw was misaligned and not much more to do but pain relief, so we started him back on the metacam. Ran out and ordered some more from the specialist (and had to drive for hours to pick it up because our vets said they couldn't prescribe) to get there and the surgery advised all the exotics had how moved to another surgery. Got the prescription but was a bit worried about long term effects of taking it and surprised to see the recommended dosage it much much lower than we have been giving him. He's only 1kg and it's dog metacam so 0.4ml sounds far too high?
With no exotic now to consult, we dont know whether to stop it and try and find another exotic (probably even further away!)
Any advice appreciated
 
Gingerspider said:
Our Len was prescribed meloxicam a while ago for his tooth and/or some suspected arthritis. The initial dosage was for 0.4ml twice a day for a week with the vet advising to come back for more if needed.
After his teeth were burred down he made a mini miracle recovery for about 6 weeks so no further meds needed. His tooth has overgrown again but vet said his jaw was misaligned and not much more to do but pain relief, so we started him back on the metacam. Ran out and ordered some more from the specialist (and had to drive for hours to pick it up because our vets said they couldn't prescribe) to get there and the surgery advised all the exotics had how moved to another surgery. Got the prescription but was a bit worried about long term effects of taking it and surprised to see the recommended dosage it much much lower than we have been giving him. He's only 1kg and it's dog metacam so 0.4ml sounds far too high?
With no exotic now to consult, we dont know whether to stop it and try and find another exotic (probably even further away!)
Any advice appreciated
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Hi

0.4 ml dog metacam twice daily is an OK dosage at the higher end for a ca. 1 kg piggy but it can be taken longer term. Guinea pigs metabolise metacam differently to other species and don't seem to be as affected by kidney damage as other species.

I have had a number of my own piggies on comparable dosages for arthritis or high acute pain. None of them were ones that I had to put to sleep for kidney failure.

I hope that this helps you?
 
That's great to hear, thank you. It's a shame we can't do anything for his teeth but hopefully he's not in pain
 
hmmm, similar situation I’m in I think. My girl had her teeth trimmed start of the year and found an ulcer there. They fixed it all and she was eating like a new born again! Fast forward to now and she’s not eating much hay or anything, although they sedated her the other day and looked properly in mouth for 5 mins and said the mouth is good and fine so no idea having checked for most things. How is yours eating with the misaligned jaw? I wonder if I have something similar going on cause mine is a mystery case! Thrown everything at it as an owner :( although I’m clutching at straws, I don’t think she even in that much pain because the Metacam has done nothing unless we need to revise the dose. I guess mines just old age related to be fair and I need to accept there’s not much I can do, but keep an eye on her and see
 
Our Len lost a tooth that never grew back properly so his other teeth grew wonky and we think that's what's made his jaw misaligned. We only found that out under GA which we wouldn't repeat because he was so poorly with it. They trimmed his teeth but obviously with the missing tooth it's just grown back again. We don't have a vet anywhere near us who will trim without GA so we're at a bit of a loss. He lost a lot of weight initially but is fairly steady now. He struggles to chew but is very persistent. We've helped him but cutting veg super small, changed his hay up to make it easier for him to pick up and are letting him eat whatever nuggets he wants. He seems pretty chirpy, healthy coat so I'm just keeping fingers crossed he can burr the overgrown tooth down a bit again
 
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