Hiding in the dark under the computer desk…
Poor kitty! Andy has no choice but to get his blood pressure medicine twice a day till his veterinarian is satisfied it’s in control. In the meantime, he’s spent a fair amount of effort hiding from me.
I, of course, spend a fair amount of time figuring out where he is and planning countermeasures to make sure his hiding place is blocked when it’s time to give him his medicine.
He’s a good kitty boy, though, once I catch him. He resists the medicine, but he gags it down. And I reward him with kitty treats, then, for being a good boy!
Andy deserves a star on his belly for having to put up with meds.
After he gets a haircut, perhaps we can get a tattoo! (No, I wouldn’t do that to my sweet kitty boy!)
Poor Andy, trying his best to escape, but to no avail!
It helps keep us both active playing the game! Of course, the faster we can get it over, the happier we both are.
that’s what YOU think.
Ha! Maybe so…
Does he like soft treats or cheese? I have 5 cats that need thyroid pills twice a day and luckily, some fall for it-not all though.
No cheese for my kitties and they get a grain-free soft food twice a day in addition to dry food formulated for kitties of their age and activity level. The cat I had before them liked deli turkey and a little milk, but I know better now. Poor Louie! He was a shelter cat that obviously got spoiled by someone because he quickly let me know his preferences.
As all parents (“parents”) hope to do, I decided to start Andy and Dougy off right, keeping their food and treats strictly on the high end and only what cats should have. I succeeded there, but failed on behavior . Dougy is a terror on furniture, though I tried and failed to get enough scratching posts around the house. Andy got the message, Dougy just saw that he then had many, many more places to sharpen his s=claws than before and he was pleased about that. Of course, he gave me his cute kitten look when I caught him being a bad boy and I turned into his enabler, I fear.
I am an enabler too 🙂
Oh, come on! We all are! All pets, any species! LOL!
That’s a challenge for you every day Doug. At least Andy is benefiting from the pill.
Jean
It’s pills that are crushed and added to a chicken-flavored liquid. It’s a much easier way to get the medicine down. I don’t look forward to having to get a tablet or capsule down a cat! I had to give myself insulin shots one time when a couple of medications I had to take on the onset of Wegener’s granulomatosis (“weggieboy” is derived from that) caused me to have a faux-diabetic response. I think I could handle giving shots to them if I ever had it. The big thing for me when I gave them to myself was not thinking about (ick!) what I was about to do! By the same token, I was pleased when the medication causing the situation was decreased is amounts till I didn’t have to give myself shots any longer.
I guess it’s about the same problems as it is to convince young children to eat their medicine. Is this something he will have to eat always?
As far as I know, Andy will need this blood pressure medicine the rest of his life. Of course, he has regular veterinarian visits to check his blood pressure among such things such as weight and teeth. While Dougy has them, too, he requires only one a year at this point compared with Andy’s two or more. His last time, Andy’s blood pressure was 140 systolic and something I forget diastolic, down from 167 the time before. His veterinarian had double his dose in the interim, and when he and Dougy go in for their required rabies shots in October, Andy’s blood pressure will be checked again. If it is better than the last time, he may get to have a lower dosage a =gain or maybe even get off it as long as his blood pressure is at a healthy level. Like people, though, animals can suffer “white coat syndrome”, that is, have elevated blood pressure in the doctor’s office because they are in the doctor’s office! I always encourage the technicians to do Andy’s blood pressure first, then weigh him, etc. to help minimize that effect. I also encourage them to take it on his foot because he gets very upset when they shave the underside of his tail and take the blood pressure there: “Don’t squeeze my tail!!” Yes, it is an interesting conundrum, but Andy is a pretty good patient until he’s had enough of it.
So cats are not that different from humans when it comes to blood pressures. I honestly had no knowledge about this. Interesting facts!
I wish them all well in the future.
Me either till Andy developed the problem.
Be a good boy Andy. Take you medicine, you need it.
Yes, that’s what I tell him, Dan! “We gotta do it, Andy! We gotta do it!” (I don’t think he believes me, but we get the medicine down him most days. Some day he moves his head right at the time I press the plunger on the syringe. The medicine squirts outside his mouth then, and Andy wins the day.
There is a way to make cats eat their medicine: Cover the pill with tuna (you can’t use liquid medicine though)! This way works for Smoky, so I recommend it to Andy.
I’ll stick with the method that works for Andy. I pet him and talk softly with him after I catch him, and once he’s calm, I give him the medicine. The side benefit: He now likes to be held for long periods of time and get loving! I like it, too. It tells me he is more trusting, and that he may just be getting to understand the medicine is icky but for his good.
I can really appreciate your challenge. One of the dogs had surgery yesterday and needs meds twice a day for the next 10 days. Luckily he loves his food so it should be ‘easy’ to hide the goods in his meals. Fingers crossed.
Whew! If your dog is like any dog I’ve had or know, he finishes his food in two, three gulps, so I suspect you will luck out! LOL! Persian kitties, because of the shape of their faces, have difficulty eating food they can’t lap up. I turn their wet food into a slurry that looks unappetizing but is just right to assure they get virtually all of the nutrition on the plate. They can’t (or won’t?) eat cat food in chinks in gravy, though they finish the gravy. The dry food apparently is just right for Persians because they eat it without hesitation or problems.
All that said, best wishes for getting your pooch medicated! Maybe you need to make a bunch of those wonderful page 32 recipes for him! Ha! They may gulp it down like no tomorrow, but I think dogs are especially appreciative of new and exciting foods.