Gabapentin???

Zach Pool

Zach Pool

Member
Has anyone ever been prescribed gabapentin for their buddy? If so have you. Noticed it increasing your cats bg?
 
Hi! Bella was on Gabapentin for a while for pain due to arthritis. I did not notice any difference in her BG. I stopped it gradually a few months ago.
 
Bell is pretty new to all this so her numbers were all over the place, but I didn't see anything significantly different in her readings when she was on gabapentin. She did really hate the taste of the liquid version they gave her. She actually foamed at the mouth to try and get it out so she didn't have to swallow it :rolleyes:. I don't know if they make a pill version, but if so that might be a more palatable for your cat.
 
bluesunshine said:
She did really hate the taste of the liquid version they gave her. She actually foamed at the mouth to try and get it out so she didn't have to swallow it :rolleyes:. I don't know if they make a pill version, but if so that might be a more palatable for your cat.
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They do make a pill version. It's a powder in a capsule - so you can either give them the whole capsule (if they allow it, Kit is a butt), or sprinkle it on food (again, Kit is a butt - she would rather not eat than have anything with gabapentin mixed in). We had to switch to a transdermal form, and only use the liquid for vet visits that have claw trims or blood work/urine samples.
 
Hi sinver we used it to go on a trip but it never relaxed him as his vet said the only thing was that he got diarrhea. The sugar was high because he was nervous from the trip.
 
So gabapentin raises BG levels for anyone wondering. Often there are vet visits, infections, or other instances that have also recently occured if you are using gabapentin, but nevertheless, it does add to the factors increasing BG. I noticed a 40 mg/dl spike 20 minutes after using it. I also read that raised BG is a typical side effect, along with my pharmacist confirming that.
 
Zach Pool said:
So gabapentin raises BG levels for anyone wondering. Often there are vet visits, infections, or other instances that have also recently occured if you are using gabapentin, but nevertheless, it does add to the factors increasing BG. I noticed a 40 mg/dl spike 20 minutes after using it. I also read that raised BG is a typical side effect, along with my pharmacist confirming that.
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That’s interesting. My cat is new to insulin, has pancreatitis and hypercortisolism/hyperaldosteronism so plenty of reasons his BG is all over the place besides highly possible caretaker error. But I was just wondering if gabapentin or cerenia could be part of the problem since he’s been on and off Cerenia and weekly vet visits mean weekly gabapentin. Apparently in humans there have been reported cases of hyperglycemia and of hypoglycemia
Edit: presumably in humans we can rule out vet-induced hyperglycemia and lay the blame directly on the drug. Theories include alteration of calcium channel transport or direct activation of GABA receptors in the pancreas but as far as I know still a ? And as always, cats aren’t small hairy devious humans
 
I did a couple weeks trial of gabapentin with Neko for her arthritis. She was fairly well regulated at the time. It made no difference to her BG. Cerenia similarly made no difference to her blood sugar.
 
Also re: dosage forms of gabapentin, the smallest capsules I’ve found are 100mg, and if I use those I open capsule and mix it in a tiny amount of food. But I prefer he not get 100 mg and I’m not sure I can guesstimate 75mg. You can also get it from a compounding pharmacy as tablets or medi-melts (put in their mouth and it disolves) or tablets in whatever strength desired, and Chewy (and I’m sure others) sells it in tablets as low as 25mg.
 
Zach Pool said:
So gabapentin raises BG levels for anyone wondering. Often there are vet visits, infections, or other instances that have also recently occured if you are using gabapentin, but nevertheless, it does add to the factors increasing BG. I noticed a 40 mg/dl spike 20 minutes after using it. I also read that raised BG is a typical side effect, along with my pharmacist confirming that.
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When you saw it 20 min post gabapentin what form of gabapentin did you use and was it mixed with food?
 
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