Potential Side Effect From Metaclopramide / Reglan. Need Feedback Please

[jim peterford]

Hey everyone. I'm hoping someone on here has had some experience with this or can maybe give me some peace of mind. I'll spare everybody the long story of my baby Noelle who had some very serious issues in the past that we have fought through. She has been on prednisolone for years for issues stemming from chronic pancreatitis and IBD and after about 5 years she became diabetic. We switched her to budesonide which did a great job of keeping her flare ups in check although it still caused her blood sugar to rise. Just recently we did an ultrasound to find that her issues may actually be from her stomach not emptying properly. She was started on Metaclopramide and for about three weeks she seemed great along with every other day budesonide. Having her on the steroid every other day also helped bring her sugar down a bit. About two weeks ago we actually stopped the budesonide and the jury is still out on whether or not she needs to go back on, but the reason for my post is that I started to notice Noelle develop some muscle twitching in her head/face and maybe a bit in her legs. I stopped the Metaclopramide immediately after noticing and reading online that this is a serious side effect. I brought her to the vet who said he has never seen this reaction with any of the cats he has treated and usually with the medication once it is stopped the side effects slowly disappear within a few days. I stopped the medication on Saturday and it has been about three days. I'm still noticing the twitching and it's really scaring me. The next step is going to the neurologist but I probably wont be able to get an appointment for at least a few more days due to the holiday. She doesn't seem too affected by it but I keep reading about horror stories that this twitch is permanent. Does anyone have any experience with this happening to them and does the problem eventually go away? Worst case once I can get her to the neurologist is there something they can do to "reverse" or treat this so it's no longer an issue? I appreciate any feedback I can get I have been a mess since Saturday worrying that my baby is going to not get better or even potentially get worse. I so wish I never decided to try this horrible medication. Thanks for reading and I look forward to any replies.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I have never used this for the cats, but my husband used it and got tremors also. But continued to use it for years because he needed it and the tremors weren't that substantial that they outweighed the good the drug did for him.

I would think 3 days isn't all that long to have the side effects go away before panicking. I know it's hard, because she's your furbaby, but try not to freak out too much yet. Give it some time. Make the neurological appointment, then you can always cancel if she gets back to normal.

 

[abyeb]

The way that Metoclopramide works is that it increases the contractions in the stomach muscle to move food through faster. However, it can also affect other muscles too, causing spasms, so I think this isn't an uncommon side effect. I agree with mrsgreenjeens to make the neurologist appointment, because you can always cancel if she improves earlier.

 

[jim peterford]

Thanks for the quick reply. I just can't stand seeing her with any kind of problem and the more I dig looking for answers the scarier stuff I read about. I need to stop making myself sick by worrying because I know it's not healthy for any of us. The thing that scares me is that people are saying that since the medication affects your brain chemistry that the damage could be irreversible and that there are people who have stopped the meds yet still have problems years later.

 

[xostepho]

I give my cat metoclopromide. We've never had any twitching issues.

 

[jim peterford]

Yeah apparently it's not common.

 

[jim peterford]

So I went to the neurologist and the exam went well. She said that if this is a reaction to the medicine (which is rare) that it could take a few weeks for the twitching symptoms to lessen and hopefully go away. Not that I want to second guess a specialist, but does a few weeks after stopping a medication make sense to anyone here as far as the time it takes for a reaction to improve? I would think it would be quicker if the meds are out of her system. She is still getting head twitches and she is having issues with her back legs and finds it difficult to jump and go up and down stairs. This wasn't a problem more than two weeks ago. I feel so horrible that my baby is going through this and on top of that she didn't eat well this morning. Maybe she is just going to have to go back on the budesonide and this was all a failed experiment.