Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [42]
She says owners are often very surprised at how quickly cats bounce back. Pets typically walk out of the hospital the day after surgery, feeling good, when a similar procedure would put a person out of commission for six weeks. “The degree to which we experience pain has a lot to do with fear,” she says. “They don’t worry about how long it’s going to last, or how much worse it might get. They don’t wake up and say, oh no I have cancer—they just say hey, this is how I feel,” she says. “We can make them feel decent every day, and they’re happy.”
Owner Attention
Illness, whether it involves hospitalization or home care, causes anxiety and stress. “If nobody visited you in the hospital for two weeks, you’d be depressed,” says Sheila McCullough, DVM, an internist at the University of Illinois, and so is your cat. Stress makes the immune system less efficient, and depression can cause loss of appetite and refusal to eat or move around. “I strongly believe that owners need to participate in the care of a sick pet.”
You should talk to other cat owners, says Dr. Garrett. Owners often feel isolated and don’t always have the support or understanding of friends or family members. Talking with people who have had similar experiences validates your feelings. “They understand, because they’ve been through it too,” says Dr. Garrett. Other cat lovers may offer advice and support for dealing with the situation.
Your veterinarian may dispense medication for you to administer to your cat at home. During your lifetime together, probably you’ve had experience already giving a pill now and then, or putting drops in his eyes. Care for chronic problems, though, may demand more from you than what the average pet owner is accustomed to.
Cats recuperating from surgery with mobility problems may need your help being kept clean or getting in and out of the litter box. Diseases such as diabetes or kidney failure may require insulin injections or subcutaneous (SubQ) fluid therapy that can be administered much more economically at home, and with less stress to the cat.
Restraint
Cats that feel bad may become short-tempered even with a beloved owner. It’s impossible to explain that you’re giving him pills for his own good. Struggling to get necessary medicine down the cat’s throat increases his stress level and may make him even more ill. Safely restraining the cat prevents either one of you from being accidentally hurt, and can make medicating him less traumatic.
Your veterinarian can demonstrate using an effective restraint for your particular cat. Usually, an extra pair of hands makes medicating go much more smoothly. One of you restrains while the other medicates.
The restraint technique you choose depends on which part of the body requires attention. For instance, a muzzle wouldn’t be appropriate if you needed to treat a wound inside the mouth. Here are some of the most common types of restraints. Several types are illustrated in the photos.
Scruff: To “scruff” the cat (top photo), grasp the loose skin over the neckand shoulders and gently hold her in place against the table surface, as demonstrated in the photo below. That may be all the restraint needed for a second pair of hands to apply the necessary medication.
“Clipnosis” Restraint
DVM360, an online veterinary E-newsletter, reported in February 2010 that researchers at The Ohio State University’s veterinary school and a veterinary clinic in Sainte-Foy-Lès-Lyon, France, studied how to safely calm and immobilize cats for minor treatments without using drugs. They found that applying neck clips produced similar results to “scruffing.” They used two-inch standard binder clips to induce pressure on the neck, just behind the ear in a study of 13 healthy cats and 18 cats with idiopathic cystitis. Each cat was evaluated for pinch-induced behavioral inhibition (PIBI), also called “clipnosis.” The response to the