Andy has high blood pressure. He gets medicine for it. He doesn’t like it. But we have to go through the ritual of catching him each day to make sure he gets what he needs to be healthy.
Andy enjoys the fresh air and view out the back door., but it is time for his medicine!
Andy hears me sneaking up on him. His eyes start to glow…!
“Stand back! I’ll use ’em!!!” Andy sends me a piercing glance.
He hops off the little chair and hides under the computer desk.
Dougy isn’t helpful.
“Ha! Ha! It’s medicine time,” he taunts! Andy’s feelings are hurt….!
Andy eventually gets over it…after I give him his medicine and kitty treats for being a good kitty. Mostly.
Do they know why Andy has high BP but Dougy doesn’t?
Dougy’s his brother? I don’t know. He also has a heart murmur. Perhaps it’s related to that. His veterinarian says it’s better than when first diagnosed (his blood pressure), but is at the top of what’s acceptable or the bottom of what’s not. I had the option of continuing his medication or not. I opted for continuing, on the chance his blood pressure is still high enough to cause him vascular issues, kidney disease.
I agree with you. At least with some humans, that’s what keeps them in the acceptable range. It’s probably a good thing that Andy didn’t get a vote. 🙂
I have low blood pressure, and the political news helps bring me up into the “normal” range. Seriously!
I’m with you there. I can’t wait for mid-November.
Yeah. So.Sick.Of.It!
Being Good…Mostly; boy do I understand that. My remaining kitten, Beanie, is only 4-6 weeks old but doesn’t take the bottle well and my little finger is mutalated from his teeny tiny claws. OUCH! ~~dru~~
Kitten claws are amazingly sharp, eh!? I remember well how mine had to learn not to climb on me as if I were an inanimate object or a tree. OW!
This is sweet and I can relate to it because I have to give my little bird a daily dose of anti-biotic and he is not particularly fond of it. On some days I can’t get him to open his beak to take the syringe even though I capture him gently in a soft towel to do the work. But he hasn’t gotten too angry with me yet because once I put him back into his cage and tell him what a good boy he was in taking his medicine (a lie but I tell him anyway because he doesn’t know…) he will still come to me when I call him. So I know that in a few minutes after the ordeal I am forgiven.
I lie to Andy, too! LOL! I can’t imagine how difficult it is giving a bird a dose of medicine, they are such delicate animals.
You gently wrap him in a soft cloth and hold him feet upward so you can look at him directly in the eye and you talk softly and sweetly to him to calm him and you put the tip of the syring to the edge of his mouth and he should open his beak as a natural reflex. But today he was being a little closed-mouth about the whole thing.
The process is the same with Andy. Some days it isn’t necessary to wrap him up, but he’s been less than cooperative lately, so it helps calm him to be wrapped. It helps immobilize his head a bit, too. Without the towel, he can turn his head quite a large range to avoid the syringe! I bet your bird can, too, maybe even more so than a cat. With a cat, at least, their lips are easy to breach if they get closed mouth. With a bird, you still have to get some cooperation, eh!?
My birdie will sometimes suddenly shake his little head to try to know the syringe away but the wonderous thing is that some days he just opens up and takes the medicine without asny complaint at all. It is hard to figure his moods.
Same with Andy. Don’t know what the difference is from day to day, John, but one has to figure it out if the little darling is to get his medicine!
Looks like a ritual !! 🙂
On friendship
Michel
Ritual…or ordeal! Andy does not like it! I had to wrap him in a towel the other day to give him his medicine. He was struggling to get away so hard, I was afraid he’d hurt himself. Once wrapped up, though, he settled down and took his medicine like a big boy!
Sorry Andy needs meds. Love the laser eyes though 🙂
Yeah, me, too. Andy was very sick as a kitten, but is active and (I guess!) a happy adult cat.
Those laser beam eyes look dangerous, Doug! 🙂 Hopefully the day will come he won’t need the medicine anymore. That will make it easier for both of you.
Yes, one has to watch out for them. LOL! It is possible he will not need medication in future, but I have to take him in periodically to get an evaluation of that.
Andy looks so cute on the little stool. Kali knows what he goes through having meds as Kali’s an old pro at taking meds. kali would like some lovin’ after this cwappy pill so get with it mom and take a lesson from Andy.
Shoko
OMG! I’m glad Andy’s medicine comes in a chicken-flavored liquid I give him in a plastic syringe! I can;t imagine how fun it is to give Kali a pill!
The children’s chair is one that was my mother’s when she was a child. It is just right to get the boys up to a level for easy snooping on what’s happening outdoors!
She fooled me today and took the dust in her food…even ate her food. Bonus!!
I had to change from pulverized lysine tablets to a paste made in your country. When I mixed the pulverized lysine in their food, the wouldn’t eat it. The scarf down the food with the paste mixed in it. You know cats! And you are lucky yours ate the food with the pulverized pill in it!
what is this paste you are talking about? It sounds like a great way to go.
It’s called L-Lysine. I get it from their veterinarian. It is a probiotic additive primarily for Dougy’s benefit, though Andy gets it too. .Persians tend to have goopy eyes, and it seems to help. Ask their veterinarian if it is suitable for your cats. Here’s a link to Amazon. They sell the same brand I get, so you can read up a bit on it there and get it (if you do) wherever it’s best for you. It is made in your country, so you may have a local source that’s cheaper than listed in the link or that I pay here in Nebraska.
https://www.amazon.com/Vetoquinol-Enisyl-F-L-Lysine-Nutritional-Supplement/dp/B0012GWCPM/ref=sr_1_8?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1469949249&sr=1-8&keywords=l+lysine+for+cats
A cat showed up when these two were giving each other the evil eye and both turned their attention to the intrudoor. They got along well after growling the introoder down.
Sounds familiar! “We may be having a snit at each other now, but we are a team when a stranger comes into our territory!”
haha….so true! They are now buddy, buddy….too bad there isn’t an inflatable cat we can blow up for those snitty moods.
Kali was growling at a neighbour cat and Shoko joined in as it was leaving with a, “And don’t come back!.” They are quite chummy now.
Yeah, an inflatable catnip cat….1
Love the glowy eyes. It’s good that cats live in the moment and are soon over things like getting their medicine
That is for sure! If they didn’t. I’d have to watch out for Andy when I slept!
Poor guy; seems high blood pressure is the bane of the 21st century for a lot of us. [but at least WE know what’s going on].
I was surprised a cat could have this problem, but I’ve heard from other cat people where their cats have/had it, too. Of course, the process of giving the medicine may contribute to the need for the medicine…! Andy gets a little extra loving before I put him down, though, because I want him to have something positive (besides the kitty treats, which he shares with Dougy) to associate with the medicine.
Poor Andy! I feel your pain, as I have a special needs cat who used to require the stealth attack for meds every other day. Luckily he doesn’t need them anymore. Is Andy’s condition permanent?
Andy gets periodic evaluation of his condition. It’s hard to say. I suspect it will be. Persians tend to have kidney issues in later years, and high blood pressure can aggravate that, just like in people.
I hope there might be an end to it for him someday. Louis Catorze used to have syringing into his mouth every other day, but now he gets away with a monthly steroid shot.
It could happen that he won’t need medication some day.