Buprenorphine Concerns For My Kitten...

[SmileForMe]

Hi all & thank you for taking the time!
My sweet baby Lucille is just over 6 months old and was spayed a week ago. She seemed to be in a lot of pain so I took her back to the vet. He confirmed the pain and said her belly was still a little swollen. He said this was on the far end of the spectrum of "normal" for a post-spay, but not to worry. He gave her an on site injection of antibiotics as a precaution and buprenorphine for the pain. He then prescribed her .2ml oral syringes to be taken twice a day. I have two questions, if anyone can help.
1. Is .2ml a high dose of buprenorphine for a young cat that weighs 6.4lbs? My brother's cat was also recently spayed and is almost the exact same weight and was prescribed .16ml twice a day by a different vet? I do trust the vet, but I myself have anxiety, and I dont want to over medicate or overdose her.
2. When I brought her home after the injection she didn't seem "high", just happy and pain free. But when I give it to her orally, within 30-45 mins she seems as though she's "high". This is another reason I'm suspicious of the dosage. Is this normal with Buprenorphine? She can walk and get around just fine but she looks at me with those giant eyes, rolls around acting a little derpy, and can even be a little paranoid at times.
It is late now so I can't contact the vet to ask if this is normal, although I will first thing in the morning before she gets her next dose. I wpuld appreciate any input.
Thank you!

 

[Wile]

Hi Smile, I'm so sorry to hear your cat is having trouble healing from her surgery.

1) I don't think that anyone here will be able to tell you if the amount of buprenorphine your vet prescribed is correct. It is a drug that has different manufacturers, and it is possible that the "version" of the drug that your brother's cat was prescribed is different from yours. The vet might also have decided that your cat's pain level required a different dosage.

Drug potency, from what I recall, is measured in units per mg not ml. Your cat's dosage might be more dilute, or flavoured. If you have concerns about the quantity being given I would suggest getting in touch with your vet to make sure the dosage is correct. My own 15lb cat was prescribed 0.12ml dosages twice a day during his recent UTI, which translated to 0.8mg (no idea of the units) per ml.

2) I've never seen my cat get high when given the drug. Much happier from being pain free, yes. What do you mean when you say she acts paranoid? Just more jumpy?

 

[Sandy Beach]

When Moon was spayed she received .1CC or .1mL 2xs a day of buprenex. On her discharge papers it was listed as CC, but the bottle that the prefilled syringes were in (and the prefilled syringes themselves) were marked mL, which I verified with the Dr. was the same amount. I didn’t notice any dramatic effects during that time, after that dose. She was just very quiet and kept to herself.
A week later, she had oral surgery by a different vet and was prescribed .2mL (this time listed as CC on the bottle that the syringes were in, while the discharge papers and prefilled syringes listed mL) of buprenex 2xs a day. Again, I doubled checked that these were the same.
The difference was very noticeable at .2mL. She appeared “high” at the onset of the drug ( 30-40 minutes after the dose was given). She was 7 lbs at the time of oral surgery and from my understanding medication is prescribed by weight and pain level of the animal, not age.
I, too, was concerned with the higher dose at first, but she appeared to be very happy and pain free. She seemed to be enjoying herself quite a bit. Maybe too much? Lots of purring, wanted lots of contact, laying on her back and catching her tail, rolling around like a complete weirdo with no care in the world lol. She didn’t appear to even realize she had just had half her teeth extracted.
Either way, it did not appear to effect her negatively at all at that dose and she bounced back more quickly after the 2nd surgery than the first, mostly likely due to less stress from being pain free.
After everything Moon has been through and seeing the difference in the 2 doses only a week apart, I feel like Moon should have been given a higher dose after her spay.
Anyhow, I understand your fears. I had sooooo many questions last week when we went through this. If Lucille is happy, pain free, eliminating regularly and having no issues eating or drinking she is most likely fine at that dose, although I 2nd the comment that only a vet treating her can answer that question for you.

 

[SmileForMe]

Thank you both for replying. I spoke to the vet about the dosage and he confirmed that it is not too much and that her reactions are completely normal. However, after the events of this past week I am starting to think I made a mistake by choosing this specific Animal Hospital.
Thankfully they gave her the antibiotic shot "as a precaution", because I now believe that she has an infection that they missed because they didn't care to look for it.
I took her back because I felt that something was wrong. I told the vet my comcerns; she seemed to be in a lot of pain, I suspected she had a fever a time or two, and she had been shivering. I had to ask him to look at her stitches because he wasn't even going to. He felt her shivering, and BARELY even looked at her belly and said her stitches looked fine but her belly is swollen and the shivering is pain. Her temp was normal so he acted like he didn't even care that I said she felt hot a few times. He assured me that the vet that did the surgery was top notch and an infection wasn't likely.
Tonight, while taking a look at her stitches I noticed a small amount of dried yellow discharge next to the incision. And she felt a little hot again. I can't help but feel that if he paid more attention to what I was saying and took a better look at the stitches that he would have found that she does have an infection. As I said, luckily he gave her an antibiotic shot anyways. I'm just hoping that the shot will be enough. I can't afford to keep taking her in as the vaccines, spay, and re-check has already cost me over $600. But I will do whatever I have to to get her well. I am keeping a close eye on her tonight, I'm sure I won't get any sleep, and I will be calling them again first thing in the morning to see if she needs anything else. As well as calling a different animal clinic in the area to get a second opinion.
After reading the Google reviews on both facilities, and realizing the one I took her to has quite a few horrible reviews, and the other has next to none, I will not be taking her back to that facility.