Feline Hyperesthesia-- Really Need Finanicial Advice

[fluffernutter]

(Sorry for the long post-- the short version is, I'm not sure if I can afford long-term pills for my cat's relatively mild feline hyperesthesia, and am interested to know anyone's experience treating this without medication and/or without going broke. I feel terrible for thinking twice about spending money on my cat's health, but the vet says leaving this untreated won't seriously impact his quality of life, though the twitching might annoy him when it happens.)

So because the world is a cold, dark place (well, except for things like cats and cupcakes), I've found myself facing a financial dilemma regarding my 2-year-old kitty's health. The vet thinks my cat, Robin Hood, has feline hyperesthesia syndrome-- however, not to the extent where he shows extreme symptoms. Basically, his skin will ripple occasionally and he'll lick himself a couple times afterward. I had noticed it in the past, but didn't think it was anything unusual (no one ever said anything at previous vet visits). However, during a vet visit for sniffles that turned out to be herpes (another long story), the vet noticed the skin-rippling and said it appeared to be feline hyperesthesia. She prescribed 50 mg. of gabapentin twice a day, for what is supposed to be long-term treatment. And after a couple weeks taking the pills, I've barely seen him twitch at all. So it does seem to be working.

The issue, of course, is money. I make a decent living, but I'm so worried about affording this for the next 20 years. I've checked with the vet and local pharmacies, and it seems like the lowest price will be around $70 per month for conceivably the rest of his life. (Gabapentin, which is also used in people, is actually fairly cheap, but apparently regular pharmacies don't carry 50 mg tablets or 100 mg tablets that can be cut in half-- believe me, I asked every question). I've been planning to get pet insurance at some point, but, of course, haven't yet-- and so now there's no hope of getting this covered. I could probably make the cost work, but with this extra expense over such a long period of time, I'm very nervous.

The vet said that if I do nothing, it will probably be an annoyance to him, but not a quality of life issue as long as the symptoms don't progress. I adore my cat and will do whatever it takes to keep him happy and healthy-- I'm just incredibly nervous that if I permanently spend so much money medicating a condition that isn't directly threatening his quality of life, I'll come up short if I need money for an emergency down the road.

So I guess my question is: do any of you have experience treating feline hyperesthesia without medication? Or is there some way to medicate it more cheaply?

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[denice]

I know very little about hyperesthesia. This will bump it back up to the top and hopefully someone with experience will see it. I did see an episode of Jackson Galaxy's show where he worked with a cat that had it. That cat had a severe case though. As many as 30 times a day he would hiss and growl at his tail and run under the bed trying to get away from it. He did take medication in addition to the things that Jackson had them do. He had them keep a log so that they could identify any possible triggers. He basically had them de-stress the environment as much as possible. A set routine was a big part of it. He also showed them the things to avoid because they can overstimulate a cat. Things like rough petting and rough play.

 

[jcat]

Basically, his skin will ripple occasionally and he'll lick himself a couple times afterward.

Our last cat was diagnosed with hyperesthesia, and those were his symptoms after we cut soy and beet pulp from his diet (he tested positive in allergy tests and the rippling skin was worse before those ingredients were removed). It was something that happened at most two or three times a week, was over in a minute and never got worse, so we didn't treat it.

 

[arouetta]

Shadow has feline hyperesthesia syndrome. Her symptoms were worse than what you described, the rolling back happened on a frequent basis and if you touched her near her rear end (lower back, upper tail, upper sides of the hips) she would start with pretty bad head shaking and tongue flicking and if you didn't stop she would start chewing on her front leg. The vet told me that if someone were to mess with her rear too much it could trigger a seizure. The vet simply told me to not mess with her rear end and she would be fine. That was the only recommended treatment, basically just avoid scratching the base of her tail or her upper back hips. It was discovered when she had an abscess on her upper hip and they needed to shave and clean it, and all that didn't trigger a seizure.

Seeing how Shadow's case was worse than your cat's and leaving her alone was the only prescribed treatment, I would talk to a different vet about whether medication intervention is even necessary. And Shadow's case got more mild over the years to the point of near non-existence. I haven't seen the rippling back in years. Just as I was typing this, I did a test and scratched the base of her tail pretty decently and while she was turning her head back and forth slowly and meowing like she wasn't sure if she liked it or not, that was the only reaction. No tongue flicking, no chewing and the side to side was tons more slow and it seemed like she had at least partial control over that.

I also saw that episode of My Cat From Hell, that cat was all messed up. The level of severity was unbelievable. To put it in human terms, it's the difference between a case of diabetes that can be controlled through diet and exercise and my friend's diabetes whose blood sugar was 2400 when his case was diagnosed. (No, that's not a typo.) So yeah, worlds of difference between that cat and your cat, so don't let the episode scare you.

Definitely a second opinion, and specifically ask if conservative treatment (as in just not touching there) could be a first option to try. If the second vet also prescribes medication, see if the prescription could be written in such a way that a compounding pharmacy could turn it into a liquid medicine. A decent number of the little mom and pop pharmacies (not chain pharmacies) can compound into a liquid, charge a cheap fee for doing so, and that way the 100mg capsules could be prescribed. Or even a higher mg pill/capsule, if a lesser quantity of higher dosage pills used makes it cheaper.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
Without second-guessing your veterinarian (which I see no reason to do, especially given that your cat is no longer symptomatic on the medication), Foster and Smith make a scored 100mg tablet:

Gabapentin (Generic)

which works out to 9½ cents per dose, or a bit less than six dollars a month.
.

 

[arouetta]

.
Without second-guessing your veterinarian (which I see no reason to do, especially given that your cat is no longer symptomatic on the medication)

If I might respectfully disagree, the OP did say that the vet said it would not seriously impact quality of life and the worst the cat have will be annoyance. Medications are not just like Smarties, they all have side effects and a lot of the potential side effects can be really nasty. If there's no need to take a medication, if the effects of a disorder are manageable without medication, there is no real need to risk things like tremors and fever and behavior changes (common side effects) or even irregular heart rhythms and pain (less common, serious side effects). A second opinion to determine if medication is even really needed in such a minor case is worthwhile. If we were talking about a human and not a cat, everyone would be recommending a second opinion from a different doctor, since doctors can make a mistake. A cat deserves no less.

 

[fluffernutter]

Okay, you guys are officially awesome. Thank you so much for all this advice, I really appreciate it and feel so much better. Usually I have a spare-no-expense approach to Robin Hood's care (I'm even getting allergy shots so snuggling doesn't give me bizarro rashes), but even I thought this was a little intense for a first-line treatment, especially one based on a brief observation by the vet in an already stressful environment when he was pretty sick. I think what I'll do is taper him off the gabapentin when we reach the last of the pills and monitor how he does without it. I know he definitely had the twitch before, but it seemed like such a minor thing that I have no idea how often it actually happened and/or if some external factor might have triggered it-- if it gets to be a real issue and nothing else helps, I'll at least be investing in a medicine I know for sure is helping. Another good thing is that next weekend he has an ear infection re-check with a different vet at the practice, so maybe I can mention this and get a different perspective.

 

[MizLizzie]

We have a cat on gabapentin -- temporarily, I hope -- and I am using my own prescription left over from a neck injury. They are the large 300 mg tablets and my house call vet mixed 4 of them in one ounce of Swanson unsalted chicken stock -- NOT broth! -- and stuck it in my fridge. He says it will last 14 days. Three times a day, I draw up a little bit in a syringe he left me -- 5ml, I think it is. I put it in a bit of tuna juice or other yummy tidbit, and he just eats it. Our cat is a fairly big boy, and the vet calculated the dosage amount by his body weight. I mention this not to suggest you find some gabapentin and mix it up, but to suggest a way to break down those big pills and make them more cost effective. Hopefully your vet will work with you on this. That said, your cat's case does seem mild, and at this stage, I am not sure I would medicate without knowing more about the long term prognosis. Good luck to you and your cat.