Manuela Lefort-Holguin_2025

Clinical efficacy and safety of an experimental therapeutic diet with/without meloxicam (group B) compared to meloxicam alone (group A), was tested on N = 27 cats with naturally occurring osteoarthritis. Group A received four 8-day therapeutic windows (MeloxTWs) with a placebo diet, while group B had two MeloxTWs atop the therapeutic diet over 103 days. Meloxicam was associated with significant gastrointestinal side effects, that attenuated with a reduction in dosage and the repetition of exposures. On the Montreal Instrument for Cat Arthritis Testing for Veterinarians [MI-CAT(V)], group B showed greater functional improvement during the treatment phase without meloxicam (Type-III P = 0.002), with a higher percentage of responders (92.9% group B vs. 50% group A, P = 0.020). It also showed steady improvement on nighttime actimetry monitoring (NAM), whereas group A exhibited fluctuating responses, with rebound effects at meloxicam withdrawal. The paw withdrawal threshold assessment highlighted the therapeutic diet’s anti-neuro-sensitization effect at days 64 (P = 0.008) and 74 (P = 0.022), which was not observed in group A. The therapeutic diet demonstrated an efficacy potentially superior to repeated pharmacological intervention with meloxicam, yet without evidence of synergistic or additive effects when combined: At this time, the intergroup difference on MI-CAT(V) was lost as group B slightly deteriorated, while group A improved (day 83, P = 0.067); group B exhibited a higher NAM decline than group A (– 29.19% vs. – 17.75%, respectively) and the NSAID abolished the anti-neuro-sensitization effect previously induced by the therapeutic diet. This would indicate some habituation to the repetitive meloxicam administration, as well as a negative interaction between the therapeutic diet and meloxicam, either direct or associated to the NSAID side effects. Management of osteoarthritis looks promising with the therapeutic diet, as the latter was similarly efficient on severely or moderately afflicted cats.