Medicating our Kitty

...

Our elderly kitty Niobe is not doing very well, and so we have started her on a round of antibiotics, in addition to the subcutaneous fluids that we give her for her kidney disease.

Robb is a real hero for doing the Cat Stabbing. And Niobe tolerates this better than you might imagine. Robb did the math, and if I were to have the same proportions of liquid pumped under my skin, I would be having to absorb a two-liter bottle of water every single day.


Got Milk?
Originally uploaded by shesnuckinfuts
We haven't worked out a method for getting Niobe to accept the antibiotics. She's barely eating anything at all, so we cannot add the medications to her food. At the moment, we're just squirting drugs into her mouth.

Robb read up on techniques for medicating a cat, and found the following:

The prize for the most ingenious method of pilling a cat has to go to the reader who long ago shared his Screen Door Method. He lifts his cat onto the screen, where the animal naturally reaches out and digs in claws. Once "hung" from the door by his own claws, the cat is in no position to fight, and pilling is fast and easy. It's sure to shorten the life of your screens, but if it works for you and your cat, so what?

The photo is from Flickr. (You've gotta click it for a closer view!)

Comments

Anonymous said…
OMG... what a visual! Hope I never have to resort to that... will take the bites and scratches first!!!

Bandaid
Anonymous said…
Oh yes, pilling the cat-- a truly delightful task.... Both for the pill-er and the pill-ee. Ack!!!

I agree, the fluids are easier, though I find the resulting large, wiggly, cold lump on poor kitty's back very unsettling, especially the way the lump comes to life and shimmies as our kitty runs away from me... Poor Niobe-- Zsa zsa and I feel your pain... Getting old and sick is really, really hard...

Getting the infections under control has helped pull our Zsa zsa out of many a deep, rough patch-- hope the antibiotics will do the same for sweet Niobe...

Anna
Lisa said…
We heat the fluids before giving them to Niobe.

They collect in her legs almost immediately, which is very strange looking indeed.
Anonymous said…
We used to crumble the pill in some tuna fish and have it get eaten that way- but our cats could somehow detect it so that didnt always work.

Annalisa
Barbara R said…
I have several cats that get pills regularly. I use "Pill Pockets", treats that come with a hole in them, in which you can hide a pill. One cat loves these things like candy; the other one is wise to them and jus t eats the treat before spitting out the pill!

For the wise kitty, I use a cat piller, which is a long syringe/plunger-like device that has a soft nubby end with a slit in it. You put the pill in the soft end, and you can jam that into the back of the cat's mouth without hurting them. Then you push in the plunger on the other end and it pops the pill into the back of kitty's throat so kitty swallows it before he knows what's up. Works like a charm!

I also do sub-Q fluids on an older cat, and if kitty doesn't hold still for it, it can be hard work. Fortunately old kitty kinda just sits there and takes it... though he tends to leak all over the house for a little while after.

Having old kitties is rough work; you have all my sympathies!

Eclipse
Lisa said…
Right now, Niobe isn't eating anything at all. This is terrifying to me. We're going to give her a pepsid this afternoon, since the fluids might be causing nausea.

Poor kitty.
Anonymous said…
When a cat isn't eating, try a couple of things: tuna water & baby food.

Both worked for my last cat when her health was failing.

Baby food is a natural treat for cats that many people don't think of but a vet recommended to a brand new, dehydrated kitten.

Only use the pure meat: turkey, chicken, beef, etc.

We had to give Sydney prednosone at the end. We ground it up and gave it to her in her baby food (she was unable to eat hard food at that point.)

She never tasted the drug and it kept her drinking and eating for several weeks.

KuKu

Popular Posts