Metacam

Yes, but when I was googling I also found that many issues arose where the cat was given metacam designed for dogs because the feline version wasn't available. That isn't an issue in this country where there is a specific cat version on the market.
It may also be that with cats the difference between a safe dose and a toxic one is quite small, certainly less so than in dogs so if someone gets it wrong or goes down the cheap online from a less than reputable site route then it is more likely that problems will occur.
Have you ever googled human medication on US sites? It's enough to put you off taking anything ever again, and they can't all be that unsafe.

My cat has been on Metacam for years with no major side effects. She does have to have 6-monthly blood tests though to check her kidney function

50Twuncle wrote: »

Just google "Metacam problems cats" and tell me that this is an uncommon problem ?
From a US report http://www.optimumchoices.com/images/MetacamRisksInCats.pdf
Metacam Oral,
which summarize drug side effects reported by veterinarians.
Of 842 reports for dogs, 19 cases of kidney failure and no
deaths were reported. However in 320 cats, 105 cases of
kidney failure, 48 deaths and 35 cases resulting in euthanasia
have been reported. This clearly indicates that Metacam poses
a much greater risk in cats than in dogs

This is far FAR higher than 1%

320 is the number of side effects in cats reported to the FDA, not the total number of cats in the USA on Metacam! So one third (approx) of side effects serious enough to be reported (I don't know what the criteria for reporting is in the US) were renal problems.

Probably each veterinary practice will see more than 320 cats that receive metacam each year, especially once you include any one-off injections to deal with high temperatures, or for castrates/spays.

But the FDA probably won't have data on how many animals were on Metacam at the time, as they would have no need for or interest in that data. So they have no real way of working out what percentage of animals taking the drug will experience side effects.

GwylimT wrote: »

If you actually read that you will see those cats are being given dog specific metacam.

You didn't say anything about the fact that the product was licenced for dogs only, so I didn't feel it needed addressing. It is licenced for cats in the UK, which is why the company can market it as "Metacam for cats" (if the product wasn't licenced for the species then they can't market it at the species - which is why there's no specific Metacam for rabbits or tortoises despite it being the most popular pain relief in those species!)

When dispensing out of species, a lot of the time the dose will be worked out in ml and the Metacam will be dispensed into a separate bottle and handed out with a normal syringe to avoid confusion - to pre-empt the next question, a 3kg rabbit, a 3kg dog, a 3kg tortoise and a 3kg cat will all need different amounts of Metacam and being able to work out the four different doses is essentially just basic maths, whether the drug on offer is in cat oral concentration, dog oral concentration, or injection concentration. The other way to do is to say "your cat/rabbit/tortoise weighs Xkg, you need to give it the Ykg dose of dog metacam, NOT the Xkg dose" - but that can lead to confusion if you're not careful.