Medications Meloxicam dosage too high?

[Tanoposc]

Hello everyone,

My piggy was just diagnosed with a bladder stone, and he'll be having surgery on Monday to remove it. In the meantime, the vet prescribed meloxicam. The dose seems awfully high, and I wanted feedback on whether I should question it.

The strength on the bottle is 1 mg / ml.
Piggy is 1.178 kg
Vet prescribed 0.6 ml every 24 hours. That is 0.6 mg.
That is about 0.5 mg per kilogram.

The highest dose I've seen is 0.2 mg per kilogram which would be about .24 mg or .24 ml.

When my other piggy was on this drug, he only got .22 ml. He's a little bit lighter, maybe 1 kg but obviously you can see the difference!

I can always give less, but this is going to be awkward when he's in the hospital because they're going to dose him at this level unless I can get them to adjust it downward. Unless I can request that they don't give him painkillers until he gets home which would be kind of mean, but I don't want them to kill him with an overdose!

Thanks for any advice.

 

[4boipigs]

In 2020, my pigs were being given .4ml (Meloxicam 1.5mg/mL 32ml). They had just come from the shelter and were not in the best shape. I can't find what dosage my pigs were on most recently this year. My doctors generally were not worried about the possible liver/kidney side effects, as one may be with dogs.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

I have had several pigs on meloxicam, mostly either for mild inflammation after dental surgery or arthritic maintenance. Those were always .3 or.4 ml doses. .6 does not seem unreasonable to me for pre surgery management. My vet always told me that guinea pigs metabolize it far faster than dogs and cats, and the risk for organ damage was mainly with long-term use.

 

[Tanoposc]

I have had several pigs on meloxicam, mostly either for mild inflammation after dental surgery or arthritic maintenance. Those were always .3 or.4 ml doses. .6 does not seem unreasonable to me for pre surgery management. My vet always told me that guinea pigs metabolize it far faster than dogs and cats, and the risk for organ damage was mainly with long-term use.

What was the strength do you remember? Was it 1.5 mg/ml?

 

[Tanoposc]

Hello everyone,

My piggy was just diagnosed with a bladder stone, and he'll be having surgery on Monday to remove it. In the meantime, the vet prescribed meloxicam. The dose seems awfully high, and I wanted feedback on whether I should question it.

The strength on the bottle is 1 mg / ml.
Piggy is 1.178 kg
Vet prescribed 0.6 ml every 24 hours. That is 0.6 mg.
That is about 0.5 mg per kilogram.

The highest dose I've seen is 0.2 mg per kilogram which would be about .24 mg or .24 ml.

When my other piggy was on this drug, he only got .22 ml. He's a little bit lighter, maybe 1 kg but obviously you can see the difference!

I can always give less, but this is going to be awkward when he's in the hospital because they're going to dose him at this level unless I can get them to adjust it downward. Unless I can request that they don't give him painkillers until he gets home which would be kind of mean, but I don't want them to kill him with an overdose!

Thanks for any advice.

Another question I have, would it be effective for me to just split the dose into 0.3 ml twice a day versus 0.6 ml all at once. Or is 0.3 ml not even going to do anything?

I see that it's actually recommended to administer twice daily due to how quickly guinea pigs metabolize drugs.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

I actually took the advice of @bpatters on that. When my boys were on meloxicam, I DID split the dose and adminstered every 12 hours. It might not alleviate the issue as much, but keeps them more "level" I would say.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

What was the strength do you remember? Was it 1.5 mg/ml?

I actually still have it. It was indeed 1.5mg/ml

 

[Martha13]

I have a guinea pig with a bladder stone and he has much discomfort while peeing or pooping. Often squeals like in pain..
He's on antibiotic enrofloxacim (0.55 ml 2/day and moloxicam 0.35ml once/day) would it be better to split the meloxicam? what is the maximum dose per day? I would be greatly thankful of any help.

 

[bpatters]

We also need to know the strength of the meloxicam, not just how much of it you're giving.

But in general, I always split a pain reliever into two doses. A guinea pig just can't make it 24 hours on a pain reliever.

What I'd do is split the dose in half and add 10%. In your case, I'd take .18 ml, and add .018 (.02, really, since you can't measure that closely in a syringe. So you'd be giving .2 ml twice a day rather than .35 ml once a day.

There's a pretty wide dosage range with meloxicam, so I don't think you need to worry about it. But again, you have to know the strength of the medication before you can know how much you're giving.

 

[Martha13]

We also need to know the strength of the meloxicam, not just how much of it you're giving.

But in general, I always split a pain reliever into two doses. A guinea pig just can't make it 24 hours on a pain reliever.

What I'd do is split the dose in half and add 10%. In your case, I'd take .18 ml, and add .018 (.02, really, since you can't measure that closely in a syringe. So you'd be giving .2 ml twice a day rather than .35 ml once a day.

There's a pretty wide dosage range with meloxicam, so I don't think you need to worry about it. But again, you have to know the strength of the medication before you can know how much you're giving.

it is a 1.5ml meloxicam that the vet gave me in the bottle. 0.4ml/day is a safe dose then?

 

[bpatters]

That's still not the strength. The strength would be written as something like x mg/y milliliters. It's usually .5 mg/1 milliliter, but until we know, we won't know how much of the drug he's getting. There are other strengths.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

That's still not the strength. The strength would be written as something like x mg/y milliliters. It's usually .5 mg/1 milliliter, but until we know, we won't know how much of the drug he's getting. There are other strengths.

I think she meant it's 1.5mg/ml. That's the same dosage that my boys have always had.