Help! Beardie overdose?!?

I have a 6 week old dragon, named Falkor, I took him to the vet for a broken shoulder and she prescribed him Metacam, a pain reliever, for one drop a day. He was fine for a day or two then he couldn't walk right, really lethargic, he keeps flipping himself over and getting stuck on his back. Well, the real issue I have is that I saw a post on here that an 18 MONTH beardie was prescribed one drop every other day. I haven't called the vet, and I haven't given him a dose today (It's helped a little bit), but what do I say if I call the vet? What do I do to help him? He's eating ok, he doesn't have a rock or anything until his shoulder heals, but does have a basking spot that is 108-ish degrees (last I checked two days ago). He's not my first bearded dragon, but is my first baby. My other two are a year and a half-ish, I got them when they were 8 months old, so Falkor is my first little dragon. If you have any suggestions please help!

Hello,

Sorry to hear about Falkor. How much Metacam are we talking about here?
He is getting 1 drop daily right now for his shoulder?
Is his beard black now? Be sure to keep him hydrated while he is on meds, too. They can get
really dehydrated very easily.
Are you providing UVB lighting & calcium supplementation for him?

Tracie

He gets calcium dusted food everyday, and I give him water through a syringe daily, I was too scared to give him a full dose, knowing what pain meds can do to a human, so he wasn't getting a full drop, I just dipped the syringe in the medicine and only put a little on his mouth.

He also has the correct UVB set up.

Hello,

Did they give a specific dose for you to give him?
That is perfectly fine to give him a little less, as a precaution. In reptiles, less is usually better
anyway, so no problem there.
How is he handling the injury now?

Tracie

They told me he needed one drop a day for 2 weeks or until he state she using his injured leg full time, but he's not acting like himself at all and he won't use his back legs unless he has to. He just kind of scoots and he didn't do this until he was on the medicine for a few days.

Weigh Falkor and make a note of this weight in grams.

What I would do is :
>> continue the meds as instructed by vet until told to stop
>> I'd look up the med on line and go to the manufacturer's webpage , you need to check the correct doseage so YOU ARE ARMED with the knowledge and can't be fogged off
>> ask if has he diluted the drug to compensate for the small body mass of the dragon to get the dose of 1 drop per dose ?
>> contact the vet and talk to him / her over the phone (not the girl at reception or a vet nurse BUT THE VET (who is treating Falkor) and discuss your concerns with him, ask him to check the correct doseage .... vets are fallable and do make mistakes.

A quick literature review :
I found the following guidance >

dose of 0.2 mg/kg (bodyweight) SC, IM or IV (including pre-operatively), and this dose can be repeated at 48 hr intervals as necessary. Single oral doses are unlikely to be effective, and several doses are probably required to reach therapeutic levels

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from MELOXICAM AND REPTILES – A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO ANALGESIA
Stephen J. Hernandez-Divers,

and this handy table

from https://www.metacam.com/docs/Metacam_Oral_Suspenion_Dogs_PI.pdf

From my Chemical Engineers' HB (Perry) : a drop of water is about 0.05 millilitres . (Equiv to 50 micrograms for water).
Milli ==> 0.001x
micro ==> 0.000 001x

Ok, thank you so much for helping, I will call the vet when I get the chance today and talk to them. And I know the medicine isn't watered down because I asked that when she gave it to us,

Falkor stopped eating, and got worse very quickly. The vet was no help and Falkor has passed over the rainbow bridge...

Hello,

Oh no! I am so sorry you lost Falcor so quickly. How horrible.
It is possible of an overdose. Did he possibly aspirate any fluids?

I am sorry for your loss.

Tracie

rip little Falkor.

Oh I'm sorry, I just saw this thread...

Honestly, I'd pay the money to have a necropsy done to determine what happened, but have it done by a different, neutral vet who doesn't know about the metacam. Something was going on here, either he did overdose on the metacam, or he had an underlying health issue or something else going on with the broken leg, like an internal injury that occured at the same time.

Metacam isn't an opiate narcotic, it's an NSAID, people take it by prescription, usually under the brand name Mobic. So it's not related to morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, etc. However, an overdose of any NSAID (cox II inhibitor) can cause death from liver or kidney failure...

SamRenee1581":2wd4alta said:

Falkor stopped eating, and got worse very quickly. The vet was no help and Falkor has passed over the rainbow bridge...

Click to expand...

rip falkor and my heart goes out to you, the never ending story will always be one of my most favorite movies.

Thank you guys so much for trying to help. He did die from an over dose on the Metacam, and when I called the vet she told me he was fine, and that I should just keep with the daily dose. He was obviously not fine and I did not give him a full dose everyday, but very small doses spread out to every few days, but he was already dying, and there was no hope for him to pull through. I held him as he went, as I was trying to get him to eat, but my baby laid his head down and went into a permanent slumber. I did everything in my power to help him, but it wasn't enough or it was too late.