Editorial: Meloxicam in Cats

Abstract

In this issue of the Journal, we have a Commentary titled: ‘Should injectable meloxicam be approved for use in cats?’ (Wun et al. 2026). JVPT always welcomes Commentaries and Letters to the Editor since they represent the views and opinions of members of our JVPT readership. These articles are not normally peer reviewed, since, as noted, they represent opinions, although the majority of these articles are written to comment on articles published in JVPT. Our policy is then to show the Commentary or Letter to the Editor to the authors in question and invite them to submit a response if they wish to, with both Commentaries then published in the same issue as JVPT. However, the Commentary by Wun and colleagues refers to a paper published over 25 years ago and in a different journal; therefore, it was not possible to pursue a response. But it is the JVPT editorial policy to seek a balanced response and to perhaps comment on any changes in the scientific understanding of the topic. Therefore, I invited experts in pharmacology, critical care and anesthesiology, and knowledgeable of NSAID administration to cats, to provide a responding commentary (see Pelligand, Cole and Pang in this issue). On a personal note (so yes, I am providing commentary also, despite wishing JVPT to remain neutral), the Commentary by Wun and colleagues may be interpreted by some of our readers as a personal rebuke of the authors of the original Carroll et al. (2005) regarding the availability of the original data. What has changed over the last 25 years as we moved towards digital publishing is the increased ability to include significantly more information, particularly as supplementary files, with many journals, including JVPT, requiring that raw data sets be available. This was not possible 25 years ago due to space restrictions. Since this article was in a different journal, it is not possible to investigate this further, although the full data from the Carroll study were disclosed and freely available on the FDA FOI for Meloxicam in Cats. Ensuring that Commentaries are collegial is an important component of encouraging scientific discussion and advancing knowledge.

As always, we invite our readership to submit Commentaries and Letters to the Editor on topics of importance to the JVPT community.

The author takes full responsibility for this article.

The author declares no conflicts of interest.