Is 75mg of tramadol a high daily dose for a 6kg cat?

My 17 year old furbaby was on 12.5mg of tramadol 3 times daily for her arthritis, the vet has doubled that to 25mg 3 times daily. Is it me or does this seem a high dose?

Also, her resps regularly go up to the 80's-90's breathing from the abdomen, I phoned the out of hours vet who has booked an appointment for Monday (it's now Saturday). Is it fine to wait?

I hope you don't mind me asking but I'm a bit worried about this tramadol dose.

Thanks in advance!

First, I'm absolutely no expert at proper dosing of medications for animals, however, this does seem incredibly high to me since I myself, took Tramadol a while ago.  I am pretty sure I never exceeded even the amount your vet has now recommended for your cat.  

I do remember you need to start off in small amounts and then increase slowly - same with weaning off due to side effects.

The dosage is based on weight of the cat, so a larger cat would need more than a kitten or underweight adult cat.  

Bringing her back to the vet seems necessary to discuss why such a large dose is being given and it's safety.  I think it's ok to wait until Monday unless you see her exhibiting any signs of being in distress.  

Thanks you so much for your reply.  I've never taken tramadol but as you said my brother in law was on not much of a higher dose and he is a well built tall male.  I reduced it myself as I wasn't happy with it.

Thanks again for your reply, much appreciated.

The maximum daily recommended dosage of tramadol for humans is 400 mg.   In order for 75 mg to be even within the guidelines for your cat, she would need to be almost one-fifth the weight of an average human.  That calls for a mighty big cat.  I think you were very wise to lower the dosage.  

You also mentioned some concern about her respiratory rates.  What did the vet say about those?

FYI animals metabolize drugs differently than humans. So it may very well be that the dosage in an animal could be higher or lower than what a human would be prescribed.

Keep calm and call your veterinarian if you are worried.

I hope your baby gets better soon either way [emoji]10084[/emoji]

LinZ