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Cat pills made easy!
Just wanted to pop in real quick with a handy tip! Mortar & Pestle. Bed, Bath, & Beyond is my hero.
Cleo's been on a lot of stuff lately, and traditionally injecting her is easier than giving her pills but now thanks to our lovely new $12 marble mortar & pestle it's a breeze! Undetectible fine powder in the food, in tuna juice, whatever works depending on the taste of the pill. This thing is a godsend! Anybody with an elderly or chronically ill critter should have one of these! I'm a weakling and can crush these things up so easily now it's rediculous.
So yeah, wanted to share with anybody else that may find this useful. :) Giving a cat a pill once a day is hellish. 3 times? Forget it. With this, it's a cakewalk and she's none the wiser! Everybody wins.
:carrot:
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
at petco we sell these things called "pill pockets" where you put the pill into a treat that is made so the pill goes inside the treat and your cat will never know!!
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
I think the pill popper is uber easy.
My cat got used to it too and everytime i put him on the table he knew the routine.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Maybe Cleo is just devious then, because she not only fights like crazy but eats *around* hidden pills. She also somehow spits out pills, and can squirt liquid meds out of the corners of her mouth. Very literally too smart for her own good. With the powder, there's nothing for her to eat around!
Anytime we come up with something that works, one or two attempts later she has figured out how to thwart it. The mortar and pestle is finally Cleo proof. We're still working on giving her subcutaneous fluids more easily though.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
I use a pill "syringe"( I think it's called the pill popper too) to you use to get the pill down into an animal's throat(back of mouth).
It works like a charm, especially for those meds that shouldn't be crushed up. If you can crush them to powder and put it in tuna juice, go for it.
For a little easier crushing.. they make a pill crusher, they sell them at drug stores. Little plastic cylinder, put pill in, screw section back on, unscrew section back off and pour out powder. I used it for a long time.
Wolfy
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Good idea with the pestle and mortar. Cats are HORRIBLE to pill and will even go as far as to start foaming and throwing spittle at you(which means no rescuing of the already dissolved pill...). I do like the pilling syringe, but if the cat starts to recognize it, OH BOY! That's a party right there, LoL.
Keep doin' whatcher doin' girlie :) Sounds like Miss Cleo is on the good road right now.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
I've tried both the pill popper and the grinding method, but for some meds (metronidazole) that just doesn't work.
Pill Pockets are my new favorite thing in the world. My old cat hangs out outside the bathroom all day now, begging for his "treat". Not every cat will eat them, but for most cats, they've been a miracle. For tricky ones, I'll mix them with a little ground dried catnip for a few times to get them thinking it's a treat, and then start sneaking a pill into the middle after a couple of days of plain "treats". We've had so many clients come back and thank us for them.
Grinding works well for meds that don't have a strong flavour, but many cats are discriminating enough to just refuse to eat any food so contaminated.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
I loooooooved using the M & P when I had to medicate Stripe, but I had originally purchased it for the kitchen and since most of the Stripe stuff was just vitamins, I'd wash and sanitized it back and forth.
Now that I've had to do the rat meds, and those were steroids, I wanted a separate m & p for it...(esp. since my first one is still "somewhere")....but NO ONE carries them around here!
Thanks for the link for B B & B. I finally found one at Target.com but if I can't get one from there, I'll head downtown to the BB&B here in Corvallis and look for one there. :)
RuLyn
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Good idea on the M&P!
I use the pill pocket with my dogs - they are absolutely great. A tad expensive when you've got to give 3 pills/day for 2 weeks, but it was well worth it for me.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alice
Good idea on the M&P!
I use the pill pocket with my dogs - they are absolutely great. A tad expensive when you've got to give 3 pills/day for 2 weeks, but it was well worth it for me.
You may have discovered this trick already, but if not....buy the large size and divide them up. One large pocket can easily cover 3-4 pills this way.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
That is a great idea. I know that Inky is notoriously hard to pill. if I ever have to again, I will be using your method.
Although, Mark took my mortar and pestle, that I used for herbal grinding, to grind gunpowder!! I do not use it for incense now; imagine exploding herbs!Gotta love having a significant other who enjoys blowing things up.. makes life interesting.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by slartibartfast
You may have discovered this trick already, but if not....buy the large size and divide them up. One large pocket can easily cover 3-4 pills this way.
Great idea Jess! I hadn't thought of that.:ohmygod:
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Cleo knows the pill popper trick all too well, but we still have the thing in case we need to give her an uncrushable pill *knocks on wood that this doesn't happen!* The pill pockets sound awesome! I can't really give Cleo treats much due to her diabetes unless her blood sugar drops impressively (that was... so not fun) and with her weird eating around things... viva le M&P for us! :D
But man, yay for all the happy tips! It's always hard with a sick critter one way or another and anything that makes it easier for folks is a godsend. The more options the better!
Exploding herbs, oh my! :O And yes, they're very hard to find. I searched everywhere before finding the one at BB&B!
On another making things easier note, next week Cleo may be getting a little add on. A plastic tubing shunt-like thing on the back of her neck that we can plug into her Lactate Ringer directly instead of having to inject her with a giant needle every 3 days for her fluids. Easier on Cleo and on us. *crosses fingers!* It's something she's going to need for the rest of her life, so it should be a blessing. She is doing very well, all things considered, and it's all about her quality of life at this age. Long as she's purring and bossing me around, we're good. :love:
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
Just an update on Cleo!
Cleo just got out of her minor surgery, and looks mighty pitiful all shaved and still half drugged... Her new add on will look/feel better once it heals and her fur grows back in on the back of her neck. Basically, it looks like a red and blue... inflation tube. She looks like an inflatable kitty, lol. A patriotic one. Poor baby. She is groggy, itchy, and very displeased right now but we're assured that it's improved the quality of life of both the cats with her issues, and their owners. She showed me before they put it in exactly what was going in under her skin, which is basically a length of tiny tube with holes in it. Like a tiny internal rudimentary sprinkler. We'll be plugging her in every 3 days to help out her kidneys and keep her hydrated. We have a recheck on Friday when I'll be using it for the first time with them helping me be sure of what I'm doing.
On the surface though, it seriously does look like something you blow up pool toys with, lol. Inflato-kitty. I will at some point get pictures, promise! I need to resize a ton of pics as is.
Other than being a bit bewildered and itchy from the stitches, Cleo seems nonethewiser and pretty much herself. With this added help for her kidney, the vet said she might even go on happily and healthy for a good 4 years! *knocks on wood* Long as her quality of life is good, we're all happy.
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
I would love to see pictures. We've yet to have a client feel comfortable with the idea of one, so I haven't gotten to see them in use yet. I'm glad she's doing okay!
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Re: Cat pills made easy!
I definitely will! Both before and after it's nice and healed up with fur there again and everything. Tomorrow will be the first time I actually use it, so this will be interesting!
Inflato-kitty doesn't appear to notice it at all now that the itchies have died down. It'll definitely be faster though, I can feel the flute like tube under her skin and it goes all the way down her back. The water will have lots of places to go much faster than all into the Hunchback look with the one-holed needle. And she's not in any pain, very minor sugery. She's more weirded off by the shaved spot than anything, heh!
The vet said that we are indeed in the minority of people willing to do it. A lot of folks say forget it at the lactated ringer, let alone a long term implant. But the few others she has done it with said it was a godsend, and that it's fantastic way to get fluids into a cat. *knocks on wood!*
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