Why is gabapentin still being widely prescribed as a pain reliever in veterinary medicine?
There is still an overall scarcity in any real scientific proof that gabapentin does anything for pain relief. And yet it is still being prescribed to dogs amd cats as a firstline pain medication.
I wrote a blog post for Dogs Naturally that can be found here:
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/gabapentin-why-this-vet-will-never-prescribe-it/
Gabapentin is one more example of a drug that the pharmaceutical company foisted onto veterinary medicine after it was included in a large lawsuit settlement on the human side of medicine.
Here is an editorial from a human medical journal back in 2019:
https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2019/1201/p672.html
“The transition of gabapentinoids into a first-line pain medication is in part due to an intentional marketing strategy by the pharmaceutical industry (now well documented in the medical literature) that involved widely promoting off-label use with low-quality, industry-funded studies manipulated to exaggerate the perceived analgesic effects of these drugs".
This quote sounds vaguely familiar in terms of another newer “miracle solution to arthritis with no side effects”.
The sad thing is, this drug is still being routinely prescribed as a stand alone pain med for everything from lameness, disk herniation, and post-surgical pain.
These dogs may just be high and sedated and still feeling the pain, but there is no way to ask an animal. Just think about that for a minute.
How they get away with following the same play book over and over and over again is beyond comprehension, especially when thousands of people and pets are negatively effected, even to the point of death.
It has to end. One way to bring that about is to keep questioning, do your research and demand alternative solutions. Many of my clients know enough to decline the gabapentin or to dispose of it without administering it.
I had a client tell me the other day, that when she asked the emergency room vet for an anti-inflammatory, he told her that was “old-fashioned medicine” and they didn’t use those anymore. I guess I am just an old-fashioned vet, using ancient forms of medicine, including acupuncture needles and plants. So be it.
Thank you for writing this. I had never used gabapentin until a few months ago, when it was prescribed for pain relief both pre- and post-surgery for our kitty Lovebug. I noticed after administering gabapentin and an opiate the first night post-surgery, Lovebug started having really noticeable muscle twitches. I thought it was the opiate, so I suspended that, which left an anti-inflammatory med + gabapentin. After his next gabapentin dose, he began twitching again. I immediately stopped the gabapentin. He did perfectly fine and showed no signs of pain (purring and making biscuits) on just the anti-inflammatory for three days, so I have no intention of giving anyone gabapentin again.
I noticed he still has subtle muscle twitches now. Is it possible the gabapentin caused permanent neurological damage, and is this something I should be concerned about?
Another weird thing is the gabapentin seemed to evaporate in the bottle, so even thought I was supposed to give him a dose the morning of his surgery, the bottle was empty (despite having plenty in there originally; this had happened with the first bottle, too, as it ran out before I was able to complete the recommended doses). Is that a common occurrence with gabapentin?
I’d never even go to a vet who would prescribe it- why I don’t go to conventional vets. That and the “Rx” diets and Flagyl for every little tummy problem- agh,just no.