Gabapentin: how much is too much?

**krp8128** · 06-21-2021, 08:12 PM

Tried the search, nothing came up even though I know this has been talked about.

Dog has seriously messed up dewclaw from an incident this weekend. Among other things, vet prescribed 200mg of gabapentin 3x per day.

Dogs pretty out of it. I suppose if it helps the pain while he heels that's ok, but damn,I didn't want a zombie.

1. Is the dose correct?
2. 3x Per day?!

**stealurface831** · 06-21-2021, 08:24 PM

It was always my understanding that it can be taken in pretty enormous doses if needed.

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**cspringsposer** · 06-21-2021, 08:30 PM

Our 16 year old dog was on it when he was fighting a brain tumor and was pretty out of it. I can't remember the dosage he was on, but he definitely slept 22+ hours a day when he was on it.

**scmartin69** · 06-21-2021, 08:37 PM

Don't have any insight, but as a dog owner (lover) my thoughts are with you...

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**Core Shot** · 06-21-2021, 08:55 PM

No idea on proper dose. But man that shit will knock a dog out.
I always dosed less than prescribed

Less dose.
Less frequent.
Less is better. For the dog.

I’m surprised junkies don’t snort that shit. It’s heavy.

Vibes to your dog.

**stealurface831** · 06-21-2021, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by Core Shot

I’m surprised junkies don’t snort that shit. It’s heavy.

that is exactly how i got kicked off a NOLS course.

**wkd-rdr** · 06-21-2021, 09:01 PM

How big is your dog?

**ötzi** · 06-21-2021, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by krp8128

2. 3x Per day?!

With humans, they want you to have a pretty steady amount of it in your blood and it drops a fair amount on a 2x/day schedule. One of the main uses in humans is as an anti-seizure medicine and apparently big changes in blood levels can trigger seizures even in people who haven't had them before. At least that's what I've been told. I would make a wild guess that it's the same deal with dogs.

So I wouldn't worry about the schedule. The dosage, I dunno. But as noted above, people can take a metric shit ton of it without ill effect.

**dannynoonan** · 06-21-2021, 10:08 PM

I seem to recall, when taking a bit o neurontin, that it would pretty well turn you into a zombie if you took enough. If it seems to be doing that, traper it off a bit, but not too much. Big changes in dosage too quickly can fuck your shit up.

**krp8128** · 06-21-2021, 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by dannynoonan

I seem to recall, when taking a bit o neurontin, that it would pretty well turn you into a zombie if you took enough. If it seems to be doing that, traper it off a bit, but not too much. Big changes in dosage too quickly can fuck your shit up.

This my he why after 3 days vet has me dropping to 2x per day ( or figured other stuff has worked, so less pain). But damn, seems I should have ramped it up too.

Kind of scary how fast that knocked him out. Plus ha nasty T storm roll through, pretty sure Baxter just had a bad trip.....

**Flounder** · 06-22-2021, 05:51 AM

No idea on dose for dogs, I’m guessing it depends on size. I was on it years ago for a while. 200 pounds and 500mg twice a day as I recall. It fried my brain, shits nasty. Felt great to be off it, could finally think again.

**ötzi** · 06-22-2021, 07:17 AM

I dunno, I guess it depends on your body chemistry or tolerance to substances, but I've been dealing with a medical thing the past few months and they've had me on 900 mg 3x/day so that's 2700 mg/day and I'm okay. Couldn't really say that I feel any different than I normally do. I've been tired but the Gabapentin seems to be the least of my problems.

**Tri-Ungulate** · 06-22-2021, 01:04 PM

That's pretty close to max dose icemang, 3600/day is as high as I've seen anyone on. Thing is, the somnolence/drowsiness tends to wane over time in most patients. If titrated up slowly the sleepiness becomes less of an issue and gabapentin can be well tolerated well even at high doses like you're apparently experiencing.

In general, it's one of the safer drugs out there, with exceptions of course.

Dunno about dogs, but expect it's similar, perhaps hutash knows.

**Viva** · 06-22-2021, 01:54 PM

I know that it can be used for chronic neuropathy, but why the fuck was gabapentin prescribed for a dew claw injury? What happened to the pupster?

**splat** · 06-23-2021, 08:30 AM

TU hits the nail on the head. I've had an eczema thing on my upper arms for which I was prescribed gabapentin and asked my MD what the OD level is and he said around 3000mg at once.

**Tri-Ungulate** · 06-23-2021, 12:42 PM

Yeah, 3gm all at once, especially in a treatment-naive patient could be a problem, but even that might not be deadly.

Again, if titrated up slowly (over the course of weeks) it can be tolerated at remarkably high doses, I think there are only a couple reported cases of deaths by gabapentin OD, intentional megadoses possibly mixed with other agents, rather than accidental. To answer OP initial question, it's dosed 3x/day because it has a pretty short half life in the body (about 6 hr, if I recall correctly, unless the kidneys aren't working well)

**Danno** · 06-23-2021, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by splat

TU hits the nail on the head. I've had an eczema thing on my upper arms for which I was prescribed gabapentin and asked my MD what the OD level is and he said around 3000mg at once.

so you took 2500mg, amirite?