One of the hazards of having six cats is the possibility of having six sick cats at once. Right now five of the six are sick. Actually Ernie just finished his antibiotics. Herbie has remained healthy; I think he was exposed to everything when he was living with my mom’s cat.
A week ago if you had asked me who would be the toughest to get a pill in I would have said Pippi or Lucky…turns out Hurley is The Worst. He bit me, he bit Bob twice and he sunk a claw into me that went so deep he couldn’t retract it himself, I had to manually do it. To say he doesn’t want to take a pill is an understatement. The next most difficult is Jack, he starts drooling and frothing so he can spit the pill out. It’s a huge production that always results in scratches and bites. Bob wraps them up in throw blanket creating a straight jacket. I have some water ready and we tilt their heads back and jam the pill in and follow it up with water. This technique works great on Ernie, not so good on the rest of them. Sometimes they swallow, more often than not they spit the pill out and we start over again. Lucky was crying and screaming before I even handed him off to Bob. If it wasn’t so stressful it’d be funny. He sounds like someone is torturing him and I haven’t even picked him up yet.
Hurley figured out what was going on and he hid in this soft cube we have. It’s soft sided, it’s got two holes in it. He wouldn’t come out, I tried shaking him out and he wasn’t budging. I tried to pull him out and he tried to bite me. So we turned it into his straight jacket. I really wish I could have gotten a picture of the face, he was SO mad. His pupils were fully dilated and he was squinting at us. He pouts all day afterwards, he won’t let us near him. Jack seems to forget and move on pretty fast. Pippi is actually pretty good about it, go figure.
This is the first time we both said six cats was insane. When they’re healthy and low maintenance it’s not that big of a deal, they’re manageable. But right now it’s just really, really stressful. They look pathetic because they don’t feel well and then we have to force a pill in them. It’s just horrible.
I want to know why someone hasn’t invented a nasal spray for cats. With all the new technology you’d think someone would have manufactured SOMETHING to make giving cats medication easier. I tried sneaking a pill in wet food, they sniffed it and turned their noses up. I stuck it in cream cheese, they licked all the cream cheese off and spit the pill out. I tried Cool Whip, same deal. It makes sense though, what cat is going to eat something that’s bitter? You can’t even bribe them like you could a kid.
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