[Gpdd] [health] Metacam, Asprin and painkillers

Candy G. crawdad1953 at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 27 13:11:25 EDT 2005


Susan - Sorry this is so late in getting to you.  Your post was in the GPDD 
that I didn't receive.  [[A **BIG** THANK YOU to y'all that sent me this 
issue or instructed me on how to find it in the archives!]]  I am probably 
the one who was talking in the digest about using aspirin with GPs.

The terapeutic range for aspirin dosage is extremely wide for piggies.  This 
is due to the fact that there is not a lot of information about aspirin 
being used for piggies.  The aspirin to use is Chewable Baby Aspirin - 81mg 
strength per tablet.  The most common dosage is 1/4 to 1/2 tablet twice a 
day.

I started Mollie out on one whole tablet twice per day - that would be the 
maximum dosage for a piggie.  BUT, that was an error as a result of a 
garbled phone message (inexcusable on my part and it scared at least ten 
years off my life!).  I am sharing it with you so that you can know that it 
did not hurt her and she actually became miraculously better on that dosage 
<WHEW!>, so it is possible to give the high dosage without mishap [but that 
really increases the chances of GI bleeding].  She was only on that dosage 
for two days.  The correct dosage should have been - and this is what she is 
on - 1/2 tablet twice a day (total of one whole tablet per day).  She has 
tolerated it very well and is as healthy and active as I have seen her in 
months.

HOWEVER, be VERY careful giving aspirin to your piggies that have had 
problems with bleeding due to Metacam or other anti-inflammatories (or who 
have had ANY bleeding problems).  ASPIRIN IS A BLOOD THINNER.  I would be 
very hesitant to give aspirin to a piggie who has shown a predisposition to 
bleeding with anti-inflammatories without first discussing it THOROUGHLY 
with a QUALIFIED vet (qualified for piggies!)

Bleeding is not an extremely common side effect with Metacam or aspirin, and 
I am so sorry that your precious Daisy had to go through that on top of the 
pain of her eye injury.  I would be very hesitant, now, to give her aspirin 
without really checking it out ahead of time with your exotics vet.

Hope this is helpful as opposed to confusing.  If any of you other digesters 
have other info or different experience with this, PLEASE send it in (or to 
me) - the broader information base we can build, the better.

Kisses to Daisy.

Candy; Topper and a feeling-much-better Mollie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have not tried aspirin as painkiller for g-pigs, could someone please
give
me the info about what dosage they should have again?
One of my texels, Daisy, had an eye injury about 6 months ago, and I
gave
her metacam (in correct dosage), while I treated with a prescribed eye
ointment. She started to bleed from the intestine at day two and I
called
the Vet at once to hear what was causing that, she was on baytril also
so I
did not know if it was that.
The Vet told me that that was a side effect seen with metacam once in a
while, and I should stop giving it to her or she could die. Which means
that
she had to be in pain until it was healed… But the bleeding stopped
almost
at once and she is fine now.
I would like to prevent this if she ever gets an injury again.
None of my other pigs, which have tried metacam, has had that side
effect
though.
Does anyone know about the side effects with aspirin, when given in
correct
dosages of course?
/Susan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~






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