Unexpected vet appointment

Hope all goes well for him.

The invalid ..... and DH's foot

When we had to give our cat anti-biotics it was a nightmare. In the end we used to wait until she was asleep on our bed and my husband would pin her down, put it in her mouth and hold her down until he thought she had swallowed it. Cruel but necessary.

We had to take our young cat to the vets the other week as he had a burst abscess. The vet asked how we were with giving tablets to cats, took one look at our faces and promptly gave Harry a long lasting antibiotic injection which worked a treat. Not sure if you can get long acting steroid injections though, he could get a bit hyper! Hope big cat is better soon.

Big Cat doesn't look too bothered! Hope he's better soon. Ikwym about medicating cats. Thankfully, our little poppet with a heart condition was easy to dose. You just touched her mouth, she would open it and in went the pill.

She passed away in April and today, for the first time, we went to look at the cats at the local SSPCA centre. None were suitable as we want an indoor cat but there were some beauties there.

If he's a cheese lover wrapping the pills in some soft cheese works well!

I wish I could do links. There was a hilarious post on Gransnet in 2012/13, called How to give a cat a pill, it was really funny, yet rang so true!

We have a syringe type thingy that we use but we have to wrap him up in a towel first.

Think I'll try the easy option first and hide it in a food treat. Will have to stalk him though to make sure he doesn't hide it under the radiator or behind the toilet. If that doesn't work, I can move onto the syringe thing although wrapping him in a towel could be problematic. He's currently almost a stone in weight so he's pretty heavy to handle when he's all squirmy. He's totally relaxed this evening and draped elegantly over the end of the bed in a Supercat pose.

I'm so glad you're now able to go and look for another cat SueDonim-he/she will never replace your last cat but they will find their own place in your heart.

katek that picture makes me want to rub that lovely tummy! Both mine adore tummy rubs and cat massages, however George the workshop cat, despite being quite a handsome cat is an evil vicious little git feisty young chap and you never quite know what sort of mood he is in.

He came up to me the other day and was rubbing round my legs, prior to attaching himself to them with all 4 paws and teeth!

Thank you, Katek. We haven't made a cast iron decision to have another cat, but if the right one comes along, we won't say no.

Poor boy but he looks very comfy laid out there - hope he soon feels better. I had to get mine to the vets for their annual injections on Wed - separate appointments as I can't get them both in the car. It's a military operation catching them so I took the easy option of booking the boy in first - managed to catch him through food (he lives outside in the summerhouse as he's scared of Madame!) so shut him in the conservatory. Moved on to the diva - she's impossible to handle and would be off if she saw gardening gloves (tried it). Tried the first tactical move of enticing her upstairs and into the bathroom with a bowl of food - too wily for that, tried getting her to go in the pantry so I can shut all the other doors - no way was she having that and by now had realised something was afoot so played the hiding behind the sofa game. I gave up and put her bowl on the side in the kitchen where she promptly jumped up and started to eat it so without hesitation or fear for life and limb I grabbed her and dumped her in her box! As her appointment wasn't for another 2 hours I swapped them round and took her first having rescued the boy from the red hot conservatory and shut him in the kitchen. Her records at the vets have a crocodile on them so they know she bites so we got her injection done in the box but by then she was too stressed out to be taken out and weighed so was spared that ordeal. Back home she paraded about in front of boy who by now had hidden himself in the toilet where the poor little guy had to wait until it was his turn. Too traumatised by the whole event he never left the summerhouse for the next two days and wouldn't eat. Thankfully he's ok now but next step is the dreaded spot on treatment for both! I love them dearly but they are hard work!!
Sue hope you find your next fur baby soon - I know how hard it is to lose them but there are so many out there looking for new forever homes yours will be waiting somewhere for you.

I know I shouldn't laugh willow500 but I couldn't help it reading about how you have to go about getting your two cats to the vets. Loved the crocodile on her records. Thank goodness I have two retired greyhounds who are happy to jump in the car but not quite so happy to jump out when we get to the vets. So much easier.

When our previous cat developed a thyroid problem which meant two tablets a day (morning and evening), the vet showed me how to do it by myself. When the cat is sitting you very quickly hold his head and tip it right back (so he's looking up at the ceiling). This will force his mouth open so you then throw the tablet right to the back of the throat and massage his neck until it's gone. It looks very painful but the vet assured me it is a foolproof method and so it was. You have to be prepared to do it very quickly to catch the cat offguard but I did it every day for a year until he passed away so it does work.

thanks brenh34 I will try that with my dog he is on three tablets a day and manages to leave them in his food bowl each time.

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Giving our old cats pills was achievable as they never bit or scratched, just wriggled frantically, but I hated putting them through the stress.

We have just taken on two Siamese kittens, who are wrecking the place as expected, has anyone found a foolproof way to stop them jumping on the kitchen work surfaces (and hob!)?

sooty, one of my cats, had a kidney condition and had to have pills every day.
i religiously wrapped her up in a towel so she couldn't move while my husband neatly opened her jaw and popped the pill in and massaged her throat so she swallowed.
we put her down and she spat the pill out!!
lo and behold she then sniffed it and ate it off the floor. so every day after we put the pill down on the floor and, bless her, she ate it up without any fuss.
haven't had to dose either of her successors [well not yet] but i think monty might well have been good although lucy would probably run a mile and stay out overnight if i tried!

Katek, I used to give pills to my next-door neighbour's cat while she was working. She is a vet so taught me a technique which worked well:
Hold the cat firmly by the scruff of his neck (feet still on the floor), tipping the head back.
Stick the pill syringe through the side gap in his teeth and shoot.
Wait until he swallows then release.

As you say, check the floor afterwards. I think there was only one occasion when the pill was spat out.

Good luck, I hope he will soon improve. Love the pic, he is enormous!

Make a little ball of either fish paste or chicken paste with tablet in the middle then make another smaller one with no tablet. If you give that one first they are lulled into a false sense of security and wolf the tablet one down! Have 6 cats so lots of practice??

RAF, what beautiful cats! One of mine jumps up in the kitchen too. I just have to use Dettol wipes on the work surface and have got into the habit of placing a silicone mat on each of the hob burners after use in case she burns her feet.
She does respond to 'No!' but that is no use when I am not watching.

Ha Ha ! had to laugh at the motorcycle gauntlets pill giving ! It was the same for our old cat, who lived till he was 24 or more .....you had to put his head back, wrap him in a towel and open his mouth ....and then, like the OP, he promptly spat the pill out as soon as we put him down ! Vet suggested crumbling it into food ....he then refused to eat it ! He was diabetic, and supposed to take med every day .......he was having none of it ! sometimes we held his mouth until he swallowed ,but this always felt cruel ! Vet said what about injections >>>>she must have been delusional bless her ....I think I would have ended up with the injection ! In the end, he passed away naturally from a weak heart and old age ....the vet came to the house and injected him and he just passed peacefully away !

We bought a stray cat from Spain here with us, she had bad asthma, and the vet in Spain said she would not make the journey to France ....that was 13 years ago, and she only just passed away from old age last year ....we think the weather here was better for her ....it may be the heat (if you are in a part of the UK with the heat wave at the moment) that is not helping....even our present (another stray !) cat is finding it difficult in this heat. She is given fresh water every couple of hours, but does not drink it, and I worry she is hot and uncomfortable. Most of our previous cats have gone to lie under a bush in the garden where it is cool and shady, but she prefers to lie in the heat in the conservatory ....and she has a thick coat, she must be so uncomfortable ! I did try a fine mist ....she leapt up and went outside (at least it did make her move to hide under the tree !)

The vet didn't give us any treatment for the asthma ,,,and did not have much to suggest really, but maybe nowadays they may have something they can suggest

Hope she gets better soon !

I'm laughing at the antics we get up to in order to medicate our cats - marvellous! And your account of a visit to the V-E-T, too, Willow!

Those are gorgeous kittens, RAF. What fun!

This is the comedy version of how to give a cat a pill.

I had a ginger cat who, no matter how frail he was, blind and with a thyroid condition, was adept at fooling me into thinking his pill had gone down. Cats are crafty.