My vet prescribed gabapentin for my 15yo terrier, who is showing signs of age-related aches and pains, possibly arthritis. He had been on loxicam for a month without showing any improvement and my reason for visiting the vet was to ask about whether I should discontinue the loxicam.
To my shame, after seeing the vet I simply started giving my dog the gabapentin, without finding out exactly what it is. I assumed it was something relatively light-touch -- a kind of dog paracetamol - because my dog doesn;t have any obvious severe pain. As I say, I was just concerned about standard old-age symptoms.
Shortly after taking it for the first time, he showed enormously increased weakness in his hind legs. He stood in a half-crouch, stumbled from time to time, slipped over, and couldn't get onto his chair.
Since his legs are already a bit ropey I initially thought this was a progression of his arthritic condition. But after two days, I began to worry that the meds were to blame, googled, and discovered that gabapentin is a significantly heavy-duty drug known to cause sleepiness, lethargy, ataxia and primarily used in relation to epilepsy.
I find it pretty amazing that a vet would just hand it out with a shrug (and with no examination of the dog -- this was a very rapid COVID-restricted appointment) to an elderly dog with no severe symptoms, and without briefing the dog's owner on the kind of medication that it is.
What's done is done, however, and my only concern now is to get my dog safely off this drug. I understand that abrupt withdrawal can cause seizures. So my question is this: If my dog has only taken it for two days (ie, 100mg twice a day, so four doses in total), can I just stop all at once, without tapering?
I'd be so grateful if anyone with veterinary knowledge could give me a steer on this. I'm thinking that stopping suddenly is ok at this stage but just wanted to double check.
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Gabapentin withdrawal - can anyone answer a question?
16 replies
Random789 · 12/07/2020 09:18
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