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Oral gabapentin in cats – often without additional sedation/premedication – can be used by house-call and clinic-bound veterinarians to facilitate examination, blood draws, cystocentesis, blood glucose curves, ultrasound exams and additional injections. Gabapentin is often used to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in cats before potentially upsetting events. Veterinarians often prescribe 50-200mg to be administered roughly 1.5 hours before a vet visit, and a similar approach is advised for travel. The standard recommendation for using gabapentin for veterinary visits is to administer it 2 to 3 hours before the appointment. However, a dose the night before can provide a more gradual onset of the medication’s effects, allowing your cat to wake up in a calmer state. For example, if given 2–3 hours before a vet visit, gabapentin can help keep a cat calm during the visit, and its effects quickly fall off after 8-12 hours, so they are quickly back to normal. Seizure control: Gabapentin is used long-term to manage recurring seizures. Other medications are used to stop active seizures, but gabapentin is used “Cats are place-oriented beings,” said Robin Downing, DVM, MS, DBe, DAAPM, DACVSMR of the Downing Center for Animal Pain Management in Windsor, Colorado, during the 2022 American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) conference in her session on the use of sedation for veterinary visits. When gabapentin is given for a long time, the drowsiness effect wears off; if your kitty takes gabapentin regularly (for seizures, chronic pain, or other problems), a higher dose may be needed before the vet visit to achieve the same effect. It’s common for vets to prescribe a single dose of it to be given prior to veterinary visits to provide some sedation and help reduce the stress of examination and handling for certain patients. Anecdotally, it also appears to help keep some cats much calmer for car or plane travel and may be recommended to help make longer trips less stressful. Yes, giving gabapentin to your cat the night before a vet visit is generally considered safe and can be beneficial, particularly for anxious cats. Many veterinarians recommend this practice as part of a comprehensive sedation plan to minimize stress associated with veterinary appointments. In a recent study the efficacy of 20mg/kg gabapentin in hyperthyroid cats, given 1-2hrs before coming to the clinic, was evaluated. 6 This was a placebo-controlled study and the cats in the gabapentin group were significantly more relaxed during transport to the hospital, and more amendable to examination (exam, blood sampling, blood pressure). Recent studies from 2017 – done on cats – showed that the administration of Gabapentin before a veterinary exam, caused the cats to be far more relaxed. Other findings included: Owners gave significantly lower stress scores during transportation and examination to the cats who received Gabapentin. When To Give Gabapentin Before a Vet Visit. The timing of when to give your cat Gabapentin before a vet visit can vary depending on your cat's individual needs and the reason for the visit. However, in general, it is recommended to give your cat Gabapentin about 1-2 hours before the vet visit. Based on pharmacokinetics, gabapentin may be given to dogs and cats to prevent fear or anxiety at veterinary visits at least 90 min before the visit. Some benefit has been anecdotally reported for some dogs of starting the gabapentin the evening before and the day of the veterinary visit, with the final dose coming 90 min before the appointment Van Haaften and coworkers at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis devised a random, blinded cross-over study of twenty healthy anxious and/or fractious cats to determine whether oral administration of a single 100-mg dose of gabapentin by cat owners prior to a veterinary visit would be effective at reducing Van Haaften et al. (2017) investigated the use of a single dose of gabapentin (100mg) in pet cats, administered before transport and a veterinary examination. Each cat had two clinic visits one week apart and received one of two treatments on each visit, gabapentin or a placebo. For most cats, a visit to the veterinarian can be an overwhelming experience. Even though you and your vet team do everything possible to make their visit stress free, it can still be too much for some cats. Being removed from their familiar comfortable environment, a trip in the car, new smells and sounds at A third study, published in a 2021 issue of JAVMA, found oral administration of gabapentin to cats 2 hours before a veterinary visit can reduce fear-aggression behavior during a physical examination. This study set out to investigate the effect of giving a single dose of gabapentin for fear-based aggressive behaviors in cats during veterinary
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