Cats who suffer from a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders may benefit from regular use of cisapride, a medication that can help your cat manage GI ailments such as chronic constipation or megacolon. If other treatment options have failed to fully improve your cat’s gut health, talk with your veterinarian about the use of cisapride.
What follows is everything you need to know about cisapride, including what it’s used for in cats, potential side effects, and how to give this medication.
Cisapride is a gastrointestinal promotility (or prokinetic) drug, which means it helps move ingested food (and later feces) in the right direction—downward through the GI tract.
Cisapride is a generic medication that can only be obtained via a prescription from your veterinarian. It was originally available for human usage but was withdrawn from the regular market in 2000 due to potentially fatal cardiac complications. In people, cisapride can prolong the QT interval in the heart, meaning electrical activity of the heart becomes irregular and can progress to abnormal heart rhythms (ventricular arrhythmias) that can cause fainting (syncope) and sudden death.
Fortunately, such cardiac issues from cisapride use appear to be extremely rare in dogs and cats and have not been documented by the veterinary community. However, since cisapride no longer has FDA approval, it is not commercially available in North America. It must be purchased solely from your regular vet or compounding pharmacy as a generic drug with “off-label” use in dogs and cats.
Cisapride is considered an overall safe medication in the majority of cats when used at a proper dosage as recommended by a veterinarian.
Since cisapride is available only in compounded form, it may be formulated in a variety of ways. Cisapride is primarily available in oral form as a flavored or unflavored liquid, capsule, or tablet. Tablets may be regular, chewable, mini-tabs, or melt tabs. Some compounding pharmacies may also make cisapride in a transdermal gel that is applied topically. However, oral forms tend to be more effective, as they are more readily absorbed by the body.
