by Pajarita » Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:41 am
Just follow the instructions and it should be OK. But you will need to wait a few days to see if it really had any discernible effect. I would not give him the Gabapentin... You already know how I feel about using mammal medicines on birds. In the case of this particular medicine, it's mostly because I don't like to give them any kind of medication that alters their neurological processes or keeps them sedated all the time. I don't mind using something that would calm them down a bit but gabapentin acts directly on the nervous system (that's why it's used for neuropathic pain) and stops seizures (although, in reality, they are not sure exactly how it does this). It causes sleepiness (which is not bad) and dizziness (and that I don't like). But the main reason for my not liking it is the fact that studies done on parrots (amazons) found that you need to medicate them orally every 8 hours for it to be effective which is very stressful to a parrot so how do you medicate for stress with something that is going to stress the bird even more? I am no vet but it seems to me that the only way is to give the bird a high dosage that would make him so groggy it would counteract the stress of having to be toweled every 8 hours - but that's not good at all! Avian vets don't always take into consideration the terrible effect of having to medicate the bird and are too quick to give in the beak meds... I would much rather put something in their water.