Veterinarian, or Cat Help

Parent Cafe
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<p>If it’s just one drop, you might be successful mixing it with cat food or milk or turkey flavored baby food and just letting the cat eat it.</p>

<p>If you have to use the medicine dropper: Have one person hold the cat by the scruff of the neck fur (cats instinctively stay put when grabbed by the scruff) and at the back. Second person controls the head, forces the mouth open by squeezing at the sides of the mouth. Come in with the dropper from the side rather than the front. Then hold the mouth shut and rub the chin to get the cat to swallow rather than spit it out. </p>

<p>Reminds me, I haven’t done today’s antibiotics yet. The cat is really “on to” our tricks and now runs when she sees us getting ready!</p>

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<p>“Have one person hold the cat by the scruff of the neck fur (cats instinctively stay put when grabbed by the scruff) and at the back. Second person controls the head, forces the mouth open by squeezing at the sides of the mouth.”</p>

<p>This reminds me of all the light bulb jokes :)…
<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?4/51252[/url]”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?4/51252&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I had to give my cat pills daily for over three years, so here is my one-person technique: put the cat on the floor and straddle it with your knees (it is much easier then it sounds); open its mouth with your left hand, and stick the medication in with your right hand. If it is a pill, you have to stick it in deep enough that the cat won’t be able to spit it out. If the medication in question is antibiotic in a liquid form (like children’s syrup), you might get lucky - your cat might actually like it, and look forward to it! So let the cat taste it before forcing it down its throat.</p>

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<p>I have learned that pilling a cat can be done with practice! Our female has asthma and was on oral prednisone for years and I became quite the expert of giving her two pills a day. Now she is on an inhaler and has a little kitty mask. At least with the inhaler the kids will give her the meds; with the pills they wouldn’t!</p>

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<p>Another method … big thick bath towel, or even better thick pillowcase … immobilize cat in towel or pillow case with only head showing. Open mouth and slip in meds.</p>

<p>Just demo’ed yesterday how to cut bunny nails using this method. I had the bunny asleep by the end and the bunny owners totally amazed at how easy it is when animal is swaddled!</p>

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<p>Here’s what the website says about tail amputation:</p>

<p>“If the tail is not expected to recover mobility or sensation, there are some reasons to consider amputation. If the cat cannot lift its tail, he may soil it regularly creating an infection issue or simply an odor issue. Further, the weight of the tail dragging may further stretch the cauda equina nerves. Whether or not tail amputation is helpful or speeds recovery is controversial but certainly amputation could solve a soiling problem.”</p>

<p>Hmmm—let’s hope the tail recovers fully. Please keep us informed and good luck.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone for all the tips as to how to get a drop of this stuff into him, but at the moment everyone has other plans. The vet said “put it in his food” so D has a plan to place only a very small amount of food in his dish tonight with the expectation that somehow magically he will manage to eat the exact piece of food containing this one drop. Sounds ridiculous to me but I am outvoted for the moment. I will work on it tonight though and see if I can convince D to try ID’s method first, and failing that will try cnp’s.</p>

<p>Nngmm, I’m starting to remember why my D wants to stay with the “put it in his food” plan - she thinks that giving him the one drop in his mouth will be awful - she thinks it will be the equivalent as, say, a human eating an aspirin or something by chewing on it. </p>

<p>Ellemenope, thanks for that, I am hoping we don’t get anywhere near that, and it will take a LOT to convince me to consent to that - I would be very, very opposed and would only consent to such a thing if more than one very experienced vet told me there was no other choice for his health and well being. I am staying home with him today, doing my work from D’s apartment. She will stay home with him tomorrow, then he’s due back at the vet Wednesday. Basically he’s just sleeping and sleeping with occassional brief visits to his food and water. I’m guessing this is a good thing. I’m hoping that one of us being here for him 24/7 will make him feel better in some small way, as he loves people and doesn’t like to be left alone.</p>

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<p>Good luck with everything. We are all hoping for tail twitches soon. Don’t be surprised if he won’t eat the food with med–my experience has been that they will eat every last bit around the medicine, but won’t touch it. All of the above suggestions were good and I have used them all with different cats. Just see what works best with yours—actually I am better with pills than liquid as you can see if you don’t get it in and as someone above posted if you push the pill in deep in the throat it goes down easily (keep your nails short).</p>

<p>He is certainly lucky to have such loving, caring owners.</p>

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<p>My sympathies, latetoschool. If it’s any comfort, we had a cat for ages (died of old age) with an amputated “bobcat” tail after she broke her tail. It didn’t slow her down a bit. :p</p>

<p>If you do have to use pills, I suggest trying a pill gun. I had to use it as part of my training, and it’s surprisingly easy to use (certainly much easier than struggling with an angry cat).</p>

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<p>LTS - Our outdoor Siamese was left indoors one weekend when we were away. On return his long black tail hung limp and dragged behind him and he appeared stressed (probably hanging from chandelier or hurling himself at doors). The Vet thought he may have either injured it or aquired a urinary infection which can sometimes affect the nerves in the tail. Had him on antibiotics and switched to “Preventative Formula” cat food, but it did take 3 -4 months before he could hold it up again. Regarding litter box & tail at one point I was picturing tying a piece of elastic from the end of his tail to a shoulder harness (joking …this is just in my cartoon brain :slight_smile: Am I the only one who has an outdoor hunting cat who comes in to use his litter box? Quite the gentleman cat! … Anyway great advice and stories from everyone, hope your cat’s tail recovers <<<<cat hugs=“”>>>>></cat></p>

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<p>LOL thanks for the very kind words and messages of reassurance. I worked all day today at D’s kitchen table and even restricted myself off of CC during the business day so that it wasn’t a total wash. The cat slept all day, and just now woke up - at least he is moving around, using his tail somewhat and looking a lot more lively than yesterday. </p>

<p>D is home and put exactly five small pieces of food in his dish, with a drop of the stuff on it. Predictably, he hasn’t gone within ten feet of it. D says it smells really bad so I think I see where this is headed. There’s no way he is going to eat this voluntarily. I am going to have to sell her on ID’s method, or cnp’s. </p>

<p>BHappyMom, I am so happy to hear that your Siamese recovered - how in the world did he keep his tail clean for the 3-4 months it took to be able to hold it up again? </p>

<p>Warblersrule, thanks for that, it is comforting although I just cannot force my mind around the concept of him having half his tail taken away. Not at all. I just can’t do it. From the way it looks tonight though it looks as if he has tone in the top half but not quite yet the bottom half. I am praying for a bruise as the vet held out hope for but not a break. Hopefully we will know more on Wednesday.</p>

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<p>You might try a bit of salmon oil to mix with the liquid. My cats adore salmon oil and the odor seems strong enough to cover anything.</p>

<p>I’ve known a surprising number of cats with half-a-tail or less after amputations and you get used to it immediately, really.</p>

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<p>A pill gun…another new thing I’ve learned about on CC. Putting my fingers down the dog’s throat has never been one of my favorite things.</p>

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<p>Also, one of the pet supplies mfgs has come out with something called Pill Pockets. It’s a soft treat with a hole to put the pill in. Comes in salmon for cats and beef and something else for dogs. I have customers that swear by it. (I don’t know what’s the matter with the old peanut butter around the pill or wrap it in velveeta tricks … but hey!)</p>

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<p>LTS - regarding cleanliness…the total droop lasted about a week and then he got enough feeling back for a slight lift :slight_smile: , however until then his tongue and my obsessive use of baby wipes !!</p>

<p>Best Wishes</p>

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<p>LOL, if you can believe, he ate the stuff, sometime in the middle of the night. D insisted on mixing in his food; she said she didn’t want to try to give it to him straight “because that’s not what the instructions say to do; that’s not what the vet said to do; and besides it might be like chewing a straight aspirin”, so, we had a night where she first mixed it in a very small amount of his food, which he outright refused to eat. Then I tried to spoon feed him, which of course was absurd and didn’t work. Then we tried to TALK him into eating it, which also didn’t work. </p>

<p>So, DMD, I went out and got some salmon oil, and that also didn’t work - but - this stuff smells REALLY bad. </p>

<p>Then, he kept snuggling up to one of us, and then the other, then walking over to his food dish and looking mournful and pitiful - this went on for about an hour - I couldn’t stand it any more, and tried to talk D into going ahead and feeding him his dinner and the medicine be damned. (He has this way of organizing his face into an expression that conveys “I’m only one day old and helpless and cute”.) </p>

<p>D wouldn’t fall for it, saying “he’ll eat when he’s hungry” and then firmly telling me “you’d better not sneak and feed him when I’m not looking” and so on. And, ah, since, ah, this is HER “house”, I was stuck with the decision. D would only commit that if he hadn’t eaten by this morning she would call the vet and ask for instructions first thing. </p>

<p>When we woke up this morning he’d eaten the medicinal food! So then we fed him his regular portion. </p>

<p>Tail is starting to look a LOT better but it is very clear that whatever the problem is is right in the middle of it - I’m still very hopeful that this is a sprain, muscle thing, not a break. </p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for the terrific ideas and all the great posts. I’ve printed out most of the thread so I have the information on hand, since he is getting older and it seems that medical events are certain to become more frequent.</p>

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<p>Is there a 2 week update on the tale of the tail?</p>

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<p>Ellemenope, thank you for asking, I didn’t want to bore everyone with cat tales, but, there is very good news in that he has been on medicine and seems to be almost 100% back to normal.</p>

<p>After no improvement after the first few days, D took him back to the vet for X-rays - end result, no breaks anywhere, thank goodness. The vet decided soft tissue damage, which we still cannot figure out how. We are guessing that perhaps he saw another cat or a bird or something outside and threw himself at a window? Anyway the vet said that sometimes it happens that indoor cats manage to injure themselves. </p>

<p>So he’s been on medicine, and as of today his tail looks and functions almost 100% normally. $500 later we are very, very thankful. D loves him very much and says that in her mind it diminishes him to refer to him as a “pet” because he means so much more to her than just a “pet” and he has brought so much joy to us over the years.</p>

<p>As to getting the medicine in him - lol - we tried everything posted here and couldn’t really get anything to work - mostly because not really knowing for sure where he is injured (tissue damage doesn’t show up on x-rays obviously) we were afraid to be too firm with him physically. D however finally thought of the solution - she puts a drop of it on his nose. He HAS to lick his nose - he has no choice. It works perfectly and no trauma lol :slight_smile: BTW the vet swore the medicine tastes like honey, although I don’t know how this could be as it smells like rotten fish.</p>

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<p>latetoschool–glad to hear that the cat is almost back to normal and you are only $500 out of pocket (could have been WORSE).</p>

<p>As for the medicine that smells like rotten fish but allegedly tastes like honey, I guess you’ll just have to taste the medicine yourself to see. I’ll be looking forward to your report.</p>

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<p>Pill Pockets are a great idea! I needed to give our dog an antibiotic recently and naturally he wouldn’t take it. The first time he took it, I made him do a trick and used it as a treat. So much for dog psychology, because that only worked once. Later, I made my own Pill Pockets of sorts be hiding the pill little slits I made in hotdogs and cheese, as well as burried in jam and whipped cream. Still, I had to hold his mouth shut because he would eat the treat off of the pill and then spit the pill out! </p>

<p>latetoschool, I’m glad to hear your cat is recovering so nicely! :)</p>

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<p>For giving dogs medicine I have found that the spray cans of cheese work well. Spray some on your finger, push pill into it and the dogs eat it off. We have two dogs with daily medicines and it works so well that we just yell “Pill time” and all 4 dogs and 1 of the cats line up to get their cheese treats!</p>