sucha & the pills

[taxlady]

As most of you know, sucha has cancer and is on medication. Well, she seems to have trouble eating. It's probably because she has managed to eat around her medication, so the mass in her mouth is getting bigger again. So, since we can hardly get her to eat, though she seems to want to eat, we haven't been able to get the meds into her in her food. So, today I caught her and held her in a towel and tipped her head back. swestrup had the pills ready to drop down her throat. We got an anti-inflammatory pill down her. But, the damned anti-biotic pills just stuck to her tongue, so no luck with them. We lost one and found one on the floor. Next time we will try coating the pill with something so it won't stick to her tongue.

swestrup got two small puncture wounds. I appear to be unscathed. She squirmed, but didn't fight as much as expected and she never screamed or growled. Kinda weird that the snarky cat is much less snarky than usual

Comments

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Saash is very hard to "pill" so what I do for her when she needs medication is to grind the pills with a mortar & pestle and then mix the resulting powder into her food. It seems to work.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

That is exactly what we were doing. It worked fine until she quit eating "mushy" food, e.g., catfood or pâté. She doesn't seem to be able to use her tongue very much, so she seems to prefer eating food in chunks that don't need to be manipulated with her tongue, just swallowed.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Is she grooming at all? I seem to remember you mentioning that she wasn't, but if she still can a little, this might work (it was suggested to me by a vet): grind the pill and mix it into a little butter. Put the butter in the back of her paw (on the 'wrist' area). If she can lick at all, she will, and get the medication.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

It's a great method. I have used it in the past. But, no, she isn't grooming at all. I'm going to have to give her a bath soon. Yikes.

[swestrup]

Thats how we've been doing it, but she refused to eat her food for a few days, and now she appears to have trouble eating due to the swelling that the medication controls.

We're hoping that by forcing the medicine down her throat, we can get her eating again.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

[messiahdivine.livejournal.com]

What I do with mine is I physically shove the pill down the throat past the really rough tongue things... when you get it down that far, they physically can't bring it back up.

The other thing, if you don't want to do it with your fingers, is to ask the vet for a pill syringe...

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

I've seen one of those pill thingees. She managed to spit out a pill once when the vet used that o_O

But, it is worth a try. She is a tiny cat with a tiny mouth and a sore jaw.