Would our dog benefit from taking gabapentin or would that drug offer little value and perhaps put him at risk from side effects? What is most important for us to know?

We can reassure you that you are not being too conservative in wanting to avoid gabapentin for your dog and his recent symptoms. We see it of little value in a practical pharmacological sense, not simply because it has potential to interfere with normal bodily function, which is the case. So you are rightly concerned about the broad array of known and still unknown manipulations within the body this drug will produce. As you are keenly aware, all drugs are a kind of poison that blocks something normal happening in the body. When that has enough selectivity to block something that creates a symptom or participates in a symptom that is unwanted, it may or may not be feasible to inhibit that unwanted bodily change simply for personal convenience in avoiding an unpleasant symptom. The problem is, it might come at a cost if the body cannot tolerate being overridden by an outside chemical substance that blocks something the body wants to see happen, even for supporting a pathological change. Often, the creation of symptoms of illness, as you rightly point out, constitutes an important signal from the body to conscious awareness, of an ongoing problem that is stirring up trouble, potentially, and that is useful intelligence. It works both ways, to inform the conscious level of the mind but also to trigger further responses by the body itself in concert with the subconscious mind, primarily, to work on whatever the inner imbalance might consist of, and that is a normal response to things being out of alignment. One of the little-appreciated side effects of prescription drugs is that they interfere with warning signs of illness and can actually delay or dampen healing responses. It is much akin to suppressing a fire alarm. That might be all well and good if the fire is being attended to. But if the fire is being unopposed, having the alarm continue to sound at least provides a reminder and an incentive to keep looking for answers and apply every possible step to deal with what can become a crisis. The same is true of bodily symptoms. Masking them may bring greater comfort and peace of mind but at the expense of actually misdirecting attention from important matters that need a concerted effort in follow-up to address the root cause, not simply surface symptoms, and that is the basic problem with this drug to begin with.  Gabapentin is a superficial, surface, answer and not a deep one, and you will always be kicking the can down the road, so to speak. And if there is a fire underway, things can get much worse, and that may delay taking more effective action to not have the alarm going off as an incentive to keep at it.