Okay, this is EXTREMELY unrelated to diabetes, but our cat got an infection, and long-story short we have to drug her with gabapentin 2 hrs before we can administer her antibiotic eye drops.
However, she’s seemed basically stoned for 8 to 9 hours.
I’m wondering if anyone knows about dosing gabapentin and whether you could lower the dose and still have her docile enough at 2 hours to give eyedrops, but if it would be out of her system faster?
@TiaG So sorry to read of this. I don’t have any answers, but I wanted to offer some support for your cat and family. I know this isn’t easy.
@TiaG I can’t speak regarding felines, but for me personally Gabapentin has a 75-90 minute onset with a 7ish hour duration. Dosage variations don’t seem to matter, but after a week or so of consistent dosage amount and administration time you adjust. The first week is the hardest (was the hardest I should say, for me). Every dosage change requires several days to a week to acclimate (for me).
Wow so it’s basically the same as the onset for cats. I guess there’s no point in trying half a capsule then. We have 9 more days so hopefully she acclimates a bit. They didn’t really mention “tapering” or anything, though I know in humans you have to do that…
@TiaG I would assume tapering is the protocol to eliminate gabapentin since you need to titrate up. My first 2 days I thought I had electrical short circuits in my head similar to a Gran mal seizure. I also felt like I was walking at a 15° list. I could not wait to actually sleep to escape. Fortunately gabapentin makes me extremely drowsy at onset.
FWIW, after having been on it for a week I no longer had those symptoms as I had acclimated.
If the goal is to make your cat a little loopy so you can give it medications, wouldn’t it be easier to give them antihistamines?
I think the goal is explicitly to slow reflexes. The veterinarian said they gave it because it allows us to open her eyes without her swatting us away and/or moving and/or scratching us.
Xanax might be another option, though the results will be the same, a drooling semicomatose animal until it wears off. We used it on one of our dogs who had a fear of fireworks to condition train him and while seeing him on Xanax was pitiful It actually did have the desired effect. He’s no longer afraid of fireworks.
I’m sorry you have to deal with that, it must be traumatic for both you and your cat
Why not swaddle her in a towel? That’s what I did when I had to give eye drops to my cat. Maybe vets didn’t automatically resort to drugs then.
My partner was on gabapentin for a short while to deal with TN. It was a horrible experience for the both of us. I imagine it might be rather unsettling for a cat, too.
So, we tried the towel this evening without the medicine and she’s too fast and she was scratching. Our cat is also the kind that is given gabapentin if they ever need to do an exam at the vet – she’s the sweetest, most docile cat normally but it’s like she gets possessed if anyone wants to examine her.
I think the drug is pretty unsettling for her too, but on the plus side she seems less zonked out today than she was yesterday.
sounds like maybe your furbaby is starting to acclimate to the gabapentin… fingers crossed 
It doesn’t hurt to give smaller doses if you think it is too much for them. Timing doesn’t change.
Btw, my wife is a cat groomer. So she deals with nice, and not so nice cats all the time. One trick she uses for the not so nice cats is to put on doggie boots. Make sure to get the ones with velco so they stay on. She calls them her ‘cat boxing gloves’. They may be able to smack you, but no claws!
There are a lot of options, but something that stays on the cat and doesn’t allow the claws to easily penetrate.
An Example of what I am talking about
Gabapentin is the only thing that makes my super sweet black lab a growling, angry asshole.
We have to give him Tramadol instead for pain post surgery.
He is 180 degrees different on Gabapentin. Frighteningly so.
I really like the idea of dog boots on cats.
The dog boots make a big difference!
My wife said she gets the extra small cold weather ones. I guess these are the thickest and safest to use, and stay on well.
The amazon dog boots look great! The only issue is that the smallest size on there was too big for our cat. She’s 9 lbs, so not super hefty.
Yeah, there are other brands that have some really small boots that fit cats. Always get the smallest you can find, and make sure they have velcro so they stay on.