The Cat Behavior Answer Book - Arden Moore [68]
Giving medicine to our pets will never rank among our favorite activities, but remind yourself that you are doing a great job of taking care of your cat. Up to 40 percent of pet owners fail to comply with their veterinarians’ instructions on medicating their pets. The main reason? It’s too much of a hassle.
FELINE FACT
Feline eyes come in three shapes: almond, round, and slanted.
Since you must give pills to Cosmo twice a day, try stashing the bottle in a place he likes to hang out, like next to your sofa or favorite recliner or in the nightstand by your bed. Take the pill from the bottle and wait a bit. Let Cosmo come to you. Help him relax — and you, too — by treating him to a therapeutic massage. Listen for his purr machine to engage and his body to relax. Then quietly grab the pill and, while still speaking sweetly, calmly, and confidently, open his mouth and pop in the pill, making sure to place it far enough back in his throat that he can’t spit it out. Hold his mouth closed for a moment and gently stroke his throat to make sure he swallows.
If that isn’t feasible, here is Plan B: Motivate your cat to come to you at pill-dispensing time by associating a favorite treat (we’re talking Grade-A level, like canned tuna, not stale kibble) with the rattle of the pill bottle. Reward him for coming to you. Without making rushed movements, pick him up and pop in the pill — or sit on the floor so you can better hold him. You may need to wrap him in a towel to keep him from scratching you.
And then there is Plan C: This works more for dogs than cats, but there are always feline exceptions. You can try grinding the pill into a powder, concealing it in a tablespoon of canned food or meat baby food, or rolling it into a glob of cheese. Some cats love vitamin supplements or hairball remedies in a tube, and a dab of this, hiding the medication, can be put on the roof of the mouth, where it will stick. Please check with your veterinarian first, however, to make sure that pulverizing the pill won’t affect its potency.
Whichever option you choose, speak in upbeat tones and remember to breathe in and out deeply to keep your body from tensing. If Cosmo scoots away after the pill time, ignore him and walk in the opposite direction or stay put and read or watch TV. You want to communicate to him that pill time is not a big deal.
Pumpkin, a Plastic-Loving Cat
WHEN OWNERS REPORT THAT THEIR CAT IS VOMITING, I must do a little detective work to make an accurate diagnosis. In this case, Pumpkin’s owner made my job easier when she declared, “Pumpkin likes to eat plastic, especially those plastic grocery bags from the corner deli.”
Armed with this information, Pumpkin and I took a little trip to the X-ray table. Plastic bags, unfortunately, are radiolucent, which means they don’t show up well on X-rays. However, I could see on Pumpkin’s X-ray an abnormal gas pattern in the intestine and something not right in his abdomen. The verdict: Pumpkin most likely swallowed something that was obstructing his intestinal tract. Any food that he ate was unable to move past the obstruction and was forced back out.
The smell of the vomit suggested that the obstruction was far enough along in the intestinal tract for the food to be in the process of being transformed into poop when it hit the obstruction and came back out. I mention this not to gross you out but to illustrate that sometimes a seemingly trivial observation — the vomit smelled awful — can yield important clues for veterinarians.
Pumpkin was admitted to our hospital, rehydrated with intravenous fluids, and given preoperative antibiotics. During exploratory surgery, one section of the intestine was inflamed with a telltale bulge. I made my incision and spotted a shredded plastic grocery bag. Then I noticed two other