Gabapentin. Any experience with it?

[Bristol_Bay]

My dog started taking gabapentin a few days ago and it doesn’t seem to be helping. Does it take a few days to build up, or is it effective right away?

We are at our wits end this week. This dog has dysplasia in both hips and one elbow. She has been waking us up anxious and panting lately. The vet thought adding gaba (she already takes Novox and gets weekly Adequan injections) would ease her pain, and that pain may be causing her insomnia.

She’s 13 and close to the end. I’m hoping the gaba will give us a few more months.

[Justmyluck]

Gabapentin does not work for pain right away can cause sedation quickly but pain control is more of a long term benefit. Gabapentin is not an acute pain control drug.

[betsyk]

Our dog has been on it because she’s on steroids and can’t take nsaids. I don’t know that it does much… but maybe it does… it knocks her out at bedtime so she sleeps soundly. She has a collection of problems and nerve pain is probably not the main one.

[LauraKY]

Might be time to add tramadol too.

[Bristol_Bay]

@LauraKY

Might be time to add tramadol too.

My vet said that they now believe tramadol doesn’t really help the pain so much as sedate them.

In any event, my dog is doing much better. Yesterday she stole a shoe! That’s a really good sign. Sleeping through the night, too.

[MsM]

My dog has been on it for back problems and immune mediated polyarthritis. It does take time to build up (and you need to find the right dose). For breakthrough pain until then we used metacam.

[Gainer]

I use gabapentin to sedate a cat before going into the vet. As far as I know, it’s not used for pain, just sedation.

[MsM]

Nope, used for nerve pain, at least in dogs! Other name is neurotonin.

[khall]

Yes, one of my fosters developed neurological symptoms along with joint pain (thought he had tick borne disease, testing showed he did not, now thinking he has meningitis). He was in severe pain and then 36 hours later he showed gradual improvement. He is still on gaba along with some other drugs and will be for at least a month plus. Gabapentin saved his life so far. Now to see how he does without gabapentin once he is weaned off of them.

[maybedog]

I had a dog on Gabapentin. Didn’t see much improvement. She had blown her carpal joints hunting groundhogs for 11 years. She was on Carprofen, Tramadol, Adequan injections, Cosequin. What helped her some towards the end was adding Amantadine, it can compliment the Nsaids for a little more pain relief. Good Luck with your girl. I know how hard this is to go through.

[Callista17]

Glad they are doing better. I have seen it help many be more comfortable with it.

[TheHotSensitiveType]

It has really helped our senior dog with his arthritis pain.

[McGurk]

When prescribed for people, gabapentin is for nerve pain and does require some time to be effective. Tramadol is a pain killer and is usually given along with an NSAID for maximum effectiveness. It is especially effective for arthritis pain.

I found that gabapentin did have a sedative effect - in addition, it made me goofy and wasn’t very effective for my pain, so I stopped taking.

Hope you find something that helps keep your pup comfortable.

[rubles]

My Cavalier King Charles Spanial has been taking gabapentin for 6 years as treatment for syringamyelia( sp?). SM causes severe neurological pain. Too many Cavs share this disease. So far he is doing well. Can’t comment on other uses though.

[davers]

Tramadol works

[Houndhill]

I’ve used gabapentin for pain in dogs, usually in conjunction with NSAIDS and have found it helpful for some, not so much with others. It made them sleep more (which might be a good thing for your dog) and did have an adverse effect on balance and steadiness if they already had issues.

OP, has your vet considered Galliprant instead of the Novox? It is expensive, but said to work well for arthritis pain, with supposedly fewer GI, liver and kidney side effects than the other NSAIDS.

if your dog is at all portable, you might try cold laser treatments. That has worked better than almost anything for my arthritic dogs, and I’ve tried most things.

Good luck! It is so hard when they are in pain.

[vxf111]

I just used it for my dog who cut herself and had to have surgery. It was surprisingly effective for her, I could tell when a dose was due. It took a couple of days to kick in though. It also made her really drugged out and lethargic. It would not be my painkiller of choice for her in the future. Post spaying she had Rimadyl and I felt that effectively targeted the pain without lethargy. They all have different physiology, what works for one dog might not for another

[Sugarwells]

I use it daily for my dog and it seems to help significantly, while I save up for surgery on his TPLO.

[RaeHughes]

My (now RIP) BC got the severe muscle spasms from week 2 chemo - the worst one. She was given Diazapen and Gabbapetheine. Although this was a high dose for her size, it worked within minutes . But i had to be strict on the dose rate.