In article ,
Dee wrote:

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004, Cheryl wrote:

Dee, I hadn't seen anything about h0p in so long, I actually feared
the worst. I'm sorry he's still having problems and I hope Dr
Tiches can help him. Scarlett has only had the one episode that I
know of, and I got her test results back today and all of the kitty
nasties came up negative, so no toxo, or worse, for her thank God.

I'm so glad to hear it Cheryl. I wanted to let you know about the
medication that h0p was taking because it's apparently fairly new to treat
animals with neurontin and it's helped him quite a bit. If Scarlett
should continue to have seizures (and I know how scary it is) it might be
something to keep in mind. h0p had a difficult year including an
accidental burn, but he's proved to be a little miracle. He's slowed down
alot and is obviously not in top form, but he'll celebrate his twelveth
birthday in six days, and there was a time we never thought we'd see that.


Neurontin (generic name gabapentin) isn't quite a major breakthrough
drug, as in a completely new therapeutic class, but it's an important
improvement both for preventing convulsion and treating pain from nerve
damage. In the present climate of problems in reporting side effects, I
thought I might add one that's been observed by several human physicians
I know, but isn't mentioned in the product literature.

I have no way of knowing if this will occur in cats, but it appears to
cause weight gain in a fair number of humans. In some of these cases,
that may even be beneficial, to a patient that's debilitated from
convulsions or intractable nerve pain. Up to very recently, it was the
best thing we had for diabetic neuropathic pain, although a new and
specific agent has just been approved for that indication. Research I'm
tracking indicate that it's reasonably likely that several new classes
of pain management drugs will be reaching approval soon, but I have no
idea if they can be used in cats.