Yes, we’re there again. Feline Friday.

This was the week that we finally dipped into the Gabapentin pills that were prescribed for Romeo during his last vet visit several weeks ago.

Romeo has always had a funny walk. He was an adult when we adopted him, and it existed then. His right rear leg or hip has just never lined up properly, and you could always see it when he walked.

More recently, it seems to be hurting when he walks, and maybe more importantly when he visits a litter box and tries to do his business. Sometimes he yowls while walking around, or wants to be in my lap constantly as if for comfort.

It seems that it was an old injury, perhaps a congenital condition, that is getting worse as he gets to be a very senior citizen. Perhaps there’s now some arthritis involved as well.

Anyway, we reported to our vet that he seems to be in pain somewhat often. She prescribed these little Gabapentin pills.

Here’s what the VCA website has to say about them.

Gabapentin (brand names: Neurontin®, Aclonium®, Equipax®, Gantin®, Gabarone®, Gralise®, Neurostil®, Progresse®) is an anti-seizure and pain medication that is used with other medications to treat seizures and is also used to treat chronic pain, primarily nerve pain….Its use in cats and dogs to treat seizures and pain is ‘off label’ or ‘extra label’. Many drugs are commonly prescribed for off label use in veterinary medicine.

We brought it home but held off until we decided to try one earlier this week. Well, on the one hand, it did knock him out and let him sleep comfortably for most of the day. On the other hand, he was more wobbly than we were comfortable with. He was one stoned kitty.

Yesterday we tried cutting a pill in half. That dose seemed to do the trick. He appeared to get some pain relief but wasn’t totally zoned out. A reasonable compromise.

I don’t know if we’ll start giving it regularly. We may hold off and just use when he seems to be having trouble getting around.

Anyway, that’s the intro to this week’s photos. As usual, just click below to see all the pics.