ABSTRACT. In this study, we elucidated the difference in nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug sensitivities between young and adult cats on therapeutic and adverse effects. In the prevention of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced hyperthermia using flunixin-meglumine, young (<3 months old) and adult (>12 months old) cats of both sexes were given LPS (0.3 g/kg, i.v.), and body temperature was measured 24 hr later. Flunixin (1 mg/kg, s.c.) was administered 30 min before the LPS injection. LPS-induced hyperthermia was almost completely inhibited by pre-treatment with flunixin in both adult and young cats. In addition, flunixin showed almost the same antipyretic effects in both young and adult cats. The animals were administered flunixin (1 mg/kg, s.c.) once a day for 3 days, and sacrificed 24 hr later to examine the gastrointestinal mucosal lesions. In adult cats, flunixin caused many severe lesions in the small intestine. In contrast, very few gastrointestinal lesions were produced by flunixin in young cats. In the pharmacokinetics of flunixin, plasma concentrations of flunixin were analysed using a high performance liquid chromatography. There were no significant differences in plasma concentration of flunixin between young and adult cats from 0.5 to 4 hr after the injection. These results demonstrated that NSAIDs could be used more safely in young than in adult cats from the points of gastrointestinal adverse effects. Furthermore, this difference in gastrointestinal lesions between adult and young cats was not related with the plasma concentration of flunixin.KEY WORDS: flunixin-megulumine, gastrointestinal effect, lipopolysaccharide, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, pharmacokinetics.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 73(12): 1591-1596, 2011 Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most widely used analgesics in veterinary and human medicine. In most species, they are very effective in acute and chronic pains. For example, NSAIDs are often the first drugs used for treatment of pain caused by osteoarthritis in veterinary medicine [20]. In the analgesic study of cats, the effect of flunixin-meglumine (FNX) has been reported in 40 cats undergoing a variety of surgical procedures [9]. It is also well known that NSAIDs cause some adverse effects such as gastrointestinal side-effects in the veterinary medicine. In rats, many kind of NSAIDs have been reported to cause gastrointestinal lesions because of the inhibition of prostaglandins synthesis even new NSAIDs [1]. However, the data on the usage of NSAIDs in cats are less complete than in dogs and, to date, there are no published data about gastrointestinal side-effects in cats.Most NSAIDs are cleared from the body through hepatic metabolism comprising primarily glucuronidation followed by excretion of the resultant polar metabolites via bile and/ or urine. Flunixin is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and undergoes enterohepatic circulation, resulting in a bioavailability of >100% in dogs and cats [16]. At least, two other active transport pathways are invol...