Our Siamese mix is on her second round of antibiotics for a bladder infection. For the first batch of pills we wrestled her twice a day for two weeks and she became adept at 1) knowing when we were going to try and hiding, and 2) projectile spitting the pill across the room. Even bribing her with a reward of canned food each time she swallowed a pill didn't help much.
There are all kinds of web sites about how to medicate a cat; they range from serious, like About.com, to hysterically funny parodies, to special treats to hold pills, but none of these were much help.
We tried to put the pill in a treat (not the expensive treats I linked to above; treats we had that I know picky Miss Sophie likes!). She ate the treat and spit out the pill, of course. We finally resorted to sneaking up on her when she was asleep and pilling her before she knew what was coming. Even so, the tendonitis in my left arm is back, thanks to two weeks of cat wrangling. Thankfully for us all, the two-week treatment came to an end.
Unfortunately, the infection returned. This time the vet armed me with three weeks of antibiotics and a pill-popper gadget to get the pill in the back of her throat with (theoretically) much less wrestling. So far, however, we haven't needed it.
Why? Because it finally dawned on me that whole pills can be hidden in treats and spit out, but crushed up pills mixed into canned food (yummy, smelly, fish-based canned food) can not. So far it's worked every time.
Now the only problem is making sure I give the bowl with the medicine to the right cat -- but that's much easier on us all than cat wrestling.
Monday, August 22, 2005
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HI!! I did the same thing (crushing the pills and mixing them in a bit of tuna to get the cat to take it). But the next time I went in to the vet and was announcing proudly how I had outsmarted my tricky feline, he said that I shouldn't do that, as the pill he'd prescribed was a time release and by crushing it, I'd cause it to go all at once...and that it made it more likely to not work as it should. Sigh. Another round to the cat...
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