Benadryl interaction with Gabapentin or Tagamet?

My 5 year Cavalier, Jeszel, has had SM for a couple of years, but was only diagnosed recently. She is on 200mg Gabapentin 3x per day and Tagamet 50 mg 2x a day.

She has had a stuffy nose for the past few days, so I took her to the vet today. He said her heart and lungs are fine and she does not have an infection because her fluid is clear. He thinks it is allergies. He wants her to take take benadryl twice a day for a few weeks. He looked and does not see my drugs on the benedryl drugs interaction list.

I'm worried because the sites that tell what drugs interact with benadryl won't list Gabapentin or Tagamet since they are not usually used for dogs.

I'm emailing my neurologist about this, but he has no experience with SM dogs and may not know. So far everything that we have done for Jeszel is from my research using Clare's site and others sites like this one.

Has anyone give there SM dog benadryl? Should it be taken separately from the Gabapentin and/or Tagamet.

Thanks, I appreciate any help.

According to this site there are over 400 drugs that interact with Gabapentin (neurontin). The degree of interaction is important and while the neurologist might not be up-to-date on SM I would hope he knows the drugs that can be used with Gabapentin successfully.

http://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/gabapentin,neurontin-index.html#B

I would e mail Clare Rusbridge I am sure she would help and give
you some advice.

I checked drug.com and there is a moderate interaction between Gabapentin and Benadryl that can cause CNS or respiratory issues. However, my neurologist emailed me back saying that there are no interactions and that I may use the Benadryl freely. I just emailed him what I found.

I get so frustrated that I don't have a vet or neurologist that has experience with SM dogs.

I'm so scared to give Jeszel any additional problems. This can all get so overwhelming at times.

I will ask people for consider for a moment and respectfully suggest not emailing Clare Rusbridge with personal questions about their own SM dogs unless she is actually one's own consultant or is being paid for the consultation -- I know she is inundated with requests for information all the time and this has become difficult for her to manage. It is very time-consuming to try and reply to people, though I know questions are well intentioned. Keep in mind it is a bit unfair to expect her to give advice for free on her own time, that would normally come from an appointment or phone call to one's own neurologist.

So: I'd contact your neurologist, as you have done.

However, I don't imagine there's any difficulty -- I have heard of cavaliers taking SM drugs being given Benadryl as well. And it is only a short term.

Also: a vet neurologist needn't have direct experience of cavaliers with SM to know how to address SM and to be familiar with these drugs so I'd not overly worry about that aspect of things.

Don't worry, I was not going to email Clare. I do use her website often for info.

I just worry because the various vets I used did not diagnose Jeszel for years with the symptoms being so clearly SM. Even after my visit to the neurologist, he did not suggest SM. Only after I did some research on my own and brought it to him did we discovered that is what she is suffering from. My local vet had never heard of it when I told him that is what we are treating her for now.

Luckily, Gabapentin has been a blessing and has reduced her symptoms. I recommended Gabapentin to the neurologist after I read Clare's research findings. Jeszel used to have about 4 scratch episodes a day with wimpers and sometimes yelps, but now only has 1 scratch episode per day and rarely yelps. Jeszel is playing with her toys again every day and even shakes the stuffed toys like she did when she was younger... she had not played with her toys much at all over the past year or two. Excitement is a big trigger for Jeszel and my little angel does get so excited over any kind of food or treats. I added Tagamet about a week ago and I'm hoping that will help reduce the neck scratching even more.

I apologise for the suggestion