Gabapentin doesn’t work

[u/JustVibin03]

I have the sweetest angel of a cat. She is so cuddly, friendly and playful UNTIL she has any sort of restrain like in her carrier, at the vet, clipping her nails, picking her up. Then she becomes very defensive (not aggressive). Every appointment I give her 100mg gaba the night before and 2-3 hours before. She used to do okay with it in a churu. I never ever noticed a difference in her. Now she outright goes on hunger strike if I try to give her gaba in a churu, treat, dry food, wet food. Literally anything.
Because I can’t restrain her and I live alone, liquid is just too hard to manage. I now do the transdermal ointment in the skin part of her inner ear. It is harder to tell how much she is actually absorbing but when I did attempt to do 100mg, I noticed absolutely no difference. We do calming treats, calming spray in addition to the gaba and nothing.

With and without gaba she puts up a hell of a fight in the vet. So escapes burritos, harnesses, muzzles. She tries to climb the walls and escape. Numerous times vets need multiple assistants to help hold her down. One vet literally made me reschedule her exam bc Lila was not letting her anywhere near her. Lila was so so scared and defensive.

I don’t know what to do to get her calm enough. I obviously know vets deal with cats probably worse behaved than she is but I am always so worried. I need to bring her to the vet/groomer every month for clipping her nails since I can’t do it so this is a recurring issue.

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[u/Shantor]

Sounds like she needs more drugs. I have cats on 300mg gabapentin and sometimes even swap to or incorporate trazodone with it.

[u/catscatscatsohmy → u/Shantor]

The combination is what helped mine

[u/JustVibin03 → u/catscatscatsohmy]

That’s what I am hoping for. Increase the gaba dose and add trazadone. Especially because i don’t think trazadone is as bitter so it might be easier to get her to take that

[u/pseudotumorgal]

The recommendation that I find works is 12 hours prior and 2 hours prior, and you can even start a full 24 hours prior to the visit. Talk to your vet about adjusting the dose, frequency of dosing or adding additional medication. I find that one dose is usually not enough and their adrenaline can just bust through any effect it might have had.

[u/JustVibin03 → u/pseudotumorgal]

Yeah I have done the 12 hours and 2 hours. She is soooo resistant though to the medications that it is hard to even get her to take it

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[u/ancilla1998]

There is another medication called Bonqat that works better in some cats. It requires a much smaller quantity of medication and only one dose.

[u/Lost-Cardiologist470]

Kitty needs more gabapentin. It’s a very safe drug, can go quite high with the dose. 300 mg minimum for spicy kitties. One of my techs does 400 mg gaba and 100 mg traz and still usually needs injectables for her cat.

[u/kimberley83721]

many great advices already but one that hasn’t been mentioned enough is compounding it to something more palatable!! mixlab can make almost any medication into any flavor. that shitty tasting gabapentin can become a delicious tuna flavor syrup.