Help me understand?

shelee

shelee

Forums Enthusiast
Missy has taken 25 mg of carprofen every 12 hours for several years. It was a 100 mg chewable that was easy to split into 1/4ths. So now my vet has said the company changed forms and it is only available in a much smaller chewable that is still 100 mg total or a cheaper pill form. It is impossible to split either of these new forms into 1/4ths accurately even with a pill cutter. My vet told me to just give her one half once a day rather than 1/4 every 12 hours. However, I asked if how this is helping her pain level if there is nothing left in her system at 7 PM if I give her the whole dose at 7 AM. He said it will not make a difference, that it is all the same. How can this be? Can someone explain to me why this doesn't make a difference?
 
Hmmmm, not sure about that! Either the med is designed/formulated to last 24 hours or it's not. Some human NSAIDs that they came up with like Celebrex were meant to be once a day. I would question your vet's statement if it was not designated as lasting 24 hours (and if it was, you would have been double-dosing her for years, so that doesn't sound right either!) I am not familiar with carprofen myself.
 
I'm not familiar with carprofen but is this animal specific or a human med? If it's a human medication I'd ask a pharmacist as they have considerable more knowledge of medications than even doctors do.
 
Carprofen has a half life of about 8 hours when taken orally from what I could find. So even after 12 hours there is still ~35% of the drug is still available. after 16 hours, ~25%. after 24hrs, ~12%. I didn't spend more time looking at effectiveness/anti-inflammatory markers so this is a general thing. So yes, it does make a difference. Only you can tell if makes a difference to Missy. I would suggest giving it to her in the AM so she has more drug in her system when she is more active.
 
Carprofen (Rimadyl) can be used either once or twice daily. We often use twice daily for 2 days then daily for maintenance.
Here is the FDA dosing -
===DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION:
Always provide Client Information Sheet with prescription. Carefully consider the potential benefits and risk of Carprofen and other treatment options before deciding to use Carprofen. Use the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration consistent with individual response. The recommended dosage for oral administration to dogs is 2 mg/lb (4.4 mg/kg) of body weight daily. The total daily dose may be administered as 2 mg/lb of body weight once daily or divided and administered as 1 mg/lb (2.2 mg/kg) twice daily. For the control of postoperative pain, administer approximately 2 hours before the procedure. Caplets are scored and dosage should be calculated in half-caplet increments.====
https://www.drugs.com/pro/carprofen.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top