Gabapentin For Diabetic Neuropathy In My Cat Eric, Age 12

SisterScrounge · Oct 8, 2018

Does anyone know of a company that has 50 mg or 100mg GABAPENTIN tablets/pills, NOT capsules. (My vet told me that gabapentin for humans is fine.) Why? Here's my little love's sad story:
Not long ago I began to notice that Eric's back legs were getting wobbly. When he slept, he didn't curl up in a ball anymore, and he had a lot of trouble climbing onto my bed. (I'm disabled, so I see him all day.) Although his diabetes is under control and his weight is normal, he has had trouble getting into the litter box. The vet, after examining him, made the diagnosis and gave me a week's supply of gabapentin (aka Neurontin) tiny tabs, at 50 mg. Eric was just starting to be a little more perky when the week was over. When I asked the vet if I could buy more from the clinic, he told me the cost would be $51 a month. I just can't afford it. I'm on SS Disability, and it just doesn't stretch. So now I have a script, at least a veterinary one, but no place to send it to. Thanks for any help.

Mamanyt1953 · Oct 8, 2018

BOY was that an adventure! They're harder to find than one might think, but try this sourcehttps://www.wedgewoodpetrx.com/items/gabapentin-tiny-tabs.html:

Tobermory · Oct 8, 2018

SisterScrounge said:
Does anyone know of a company that has 50 mg or 100mg GABAPENTIN tablets/pills, NOT capsules. (My vet told me that gabapentin for humans is fine.) Why? Here's my little love's sad story:
Not long ago I began to notice that Eric's back legs were getting wobbly. When he slept, he didn't curl up in a ball anymore, and he had a lot of trouble climbing onto my bed. (I'm disabled, so I see him all day.) Although his diabetes is under control and his weight is normal, he has had trouble getting into the litter box. The vet, after examining him, made the diagnosis and gave me a week's supply of gabapentin (aka Neurontin) tiny tabs, at 50 mg. Eric was just starting to be a little more perky when the week was over. When I asked the vet if I could buy more from the clinic, he told me the cost would be $51 a month. I just can't afford it. I'm on SS Disability, and it just doesn't stretch. So now I have a script, at least a veterinary one, but no place to send it to. Thanks for any help.

Do you live near and/or have access to a Costco? And a membership or a friend with a membership? You can get pet prescriptions filled there and it’s usually much less. My boy, Max, was an insulin-dependent diabetic, and I got his insulin at Costco with a vet’s prescription. It was about $40 less per pen (Lantus) than if I’d ordered online or gotten it at another pharmacy.

Max also had diabetic neuropathy, and I gave him vitamin B-12 methylcobalamin which is the generic version of Zobaline. You might ask your vet about it. It’s non-prescription and less expensive than gabapentin.

One other suggestion: You can get a lot of support here at TCS, but I recommend that you go to www.felinediabetes.com, a site wholly dedicated to diabetic kitties. Besides a lot of information, there are also message boards where you can post questions and ask for help. Someone there can probably guide you to a source for gabapentin.

Jem · Oct 8, 2018

I'm not sure if this would help you, but if you can't find them in tablets, You could still get them in capsule form and compound them yourself.
I did my own compounding for my guy as he had 7 different meds to take and having to give him that many pills (up to 3 times a day no less) was horrible.

So what I did was buy empty capsules from a pharmacy that does compounding (not all pharmacies do) Then I divided, and crushed (if I had to) all his doses and put them into one or two (if it was his big does of the day) capsules for easy giving.

If the Gabapentin only comes in capsules but not the right dose, you could open the capsule on a smooth surface and use a blade to divide it as evenly as possible, then fill an empty capsule to give it to him. Just put it (bottom part of capsule) on it's side and use the blade to push the dose in, then cap it. It's a little tedious, but it was so much better than fighting with and stressing mine out. I would simply get the capsule form that has the amount that would divide easily, like if you only had to make 2 piles of powder evenly, it would be better than having to fidget with making say 4 piles of powder evenly.

If you're unsure of this as an option, you could talk to your vet as to how EXACT the dose HAS to be, or if it's just a few mg off, if it still would be safe.
I know that even with using a pill cutter for tablets it's not always perfect and my vet has told me before that it's not a huge deal when the meds are given consistently.

Also, I'm not sure how much it would be for you depending on where you live but, 100 capsules from my pharmacy was only about 6$ (ON, Canada), and I used a #3 (size), but you can get them even smaller than that considering you're only putting a small amount of meds in it.

Also, going on what someone else mentioned about the Costco Pharmacy. You don't need a membership to use the pharmacy. It is illegal (in Canada at least) to prevent someone access to ANY pharmacy, or require a membership for it's use. And you don't have to go thru the checkout lines either, as far as I know you pay for prescriptions at the pharmacy window, I always have.

Aaaaaand.....I have just realized that the Gabapentin may come in liquid form and not powder, to which everything I just wrote would be very challenging. Unless of course your local compounding pharmacy (where you would have gotten the empty capsules) don't charge an arm and a leg to do it for you. We have a compounding pharmacy that works with vet clinics for this very purpose, but they do charge a fee to do it, and I'm not sure how much it is as I did it myself.