My beloved Tanker Cat has terrible seasonal allergies. She’s fine in Fall and Winter, and miserable, covered in scabs and crying in Spring and Summer.
I’m going to take her to the vet and get some medication (hopefully another cortizone shot, as this seems to help her for several days) next week, but in the meantime, she gets catnip because it calms the itching and the crying that comes when she scratches at the unsatisfied itchyness.
She doesn’t roll in nip or sniff it and rub it on her face. She eats it. Big greedy mouthfuls of the dried stuff (the live plant does nothing for her).
So, with her peculiar habits of snarfing the stuff like there is no tomorrow… how much is too much? Right now, she gets the crack once a day, usually every other day. I’d like to be able to give her more, but I worry about screwing up her brain/body chemistry.
*crosses fingers that CrazyCatLady comes in here and sets my mind at ease.
IANAVeterinarian, but I believe that they can’t OD on catnip. However, too much at too close intervals will raise the cat’s tolerance, so that the catnip no longer affects it.
Purina’s website is a great place to go for information on all kinds of kitty questions. They have an article on catnip, and someone also asked a question about catnip tolerance.
The vet hasn’t given you any pills to dose her with? I know of a cat that suffers as badly as yours does, except it extends into the fall because his allergy is grass. Of course, grass is in his favorite outdoor spots to lay. (He doesn’t wander far, he stays inside his fenced in yard, he’s not mine so I have no say.) He’s got asthma as well poor thing. He gets shots, and has prednisone pills to take, along with an oral form of albuterol I believe. An antihistamine wouldn’t have helped, or wasn’t wise? Poor kitty. I hope you get answers for her.
Is the vet successful in getting oral meds down her? Maybe you can have him show you how to do it quickly and effeciently? I’d wrap her up burrito style in a large towel, and have another person hold her on their lap. Failing that, I believe there are shots that can be given that last a few months. Talk to your vet about your concerns for her misery, there must be some way to at least lessen it. Good luck. I’ll send anti-itch vibes your kitty’s way.
HOW TO GIVE YOUR CAT A PILL …
[ol]
[li]Grasp cat firmly in your arms. Cradle its head on your elbow, just as if you were giving baby a bottle. Coo confidently, “That’s a nice kitty.” Drop pill into its mouth. [/li][li]Retrieve cat from top of lamp, and pill from under sofa. [/li][li]Follow same procedure as in 1, but hold cat’s front paws down with left hand and back paws down with elbow of right arm. Poke pill into its mouth with right forefinger. [/li][li]Retrieve cat from under bed. Get new pill from bottle. (Resist impulse to get new cat.) [/li][li]Again proceed as in 1, except when you have cat firmly cradled in bottle-feeding position, sit down on edge of chair, fold your torso over cat, bring your right hand over your left elbow, open cat’s mouth by lifting the upper jaw and pop the pill in - quickly. Since your head is down by your knees, you won’t be able to see what you’re doing. That’s just as well. [/li][li]Leave cat hanging on drapes. Leave pill in your hair. [/li][li]If you’re a woman, have a good cry. If you’re a man, have a good cry. [/li][li]Now pull yourself together. Who’s the boss here anyway? Retrieve cat and pill. Assuming position 1, say sternly, “Who’s the boss here, anyway?” Open cat’s mouth, take pill and…Oooops! [/li][li]This isn’t working, is it? Collapse and think. Aha! Those flashing claws are causing the chaos. [/li][li]Crawl to linen closet. Drag back large beach towel. Spread towel on floor. [/li][li]Retrieve cat from kitchen counter and pill from potted plant. [/li][li]Spread cat on towel near one end with its head over long edge. [/li][li]Flatten cat’s front and back legs over its stomach. (Resist impulse to flatten cat.) [/li][li]Roll cat in towel. Work fast; time and tabbies wait for no man - or woman. [/li][li]Resume position 1. Rotate your left hand to cat’s head. Press its mouth at the jaw hinges like opening the petals of a snapdragon. [/li][li]Drop pill into cat’s mouth and poke gently. Voila! It’s done. [/li][li]Vacuum up loose fur (cat’s). Apply bandages to wounds (yours). [/li]Take two aspirins and lie down.[/ol]
The main thing is to be careful when opening the mouth, you don’t want to injure kitty by applying too much force. Once the pill is in, and the mouth closed again, gently stroke kitty’s throat to trigger the swallow reflex. (Allow kitty’s tongue to move in and out of mouth, watching to make sure it’s not spitting the pill back out. I’ve had a cat that was tricky that way, if you get the pill into the right spot they can’t spit it out though.) This is what works for me. The whole trick is getting the mouth open, pill in to the back quickly, and mouth closed again. Wrapping the kitty in the towel, and having someone else hold her, will help a lot because it will stop squirming, and defensive paws.
I’ve had good luck with putting the cat on the windowsill with his tail in the corner, my body between him and freedom, then using one hand to open the mouth and the other to drop in the pill. Then stroke the throat, as Zabali says. Making the whole thing quick seems to help a lot.
I’ve not had an allergic cat, but my dog had very bad fleabite allergies and he needed his oral prednisone during the summers. Otherwise, he was a mass of festering sores; there was no way I could keep him from clawing and biting holes in his skin.
FWIW I had a cat that would go outside to the catnip (live) plant (outside)and chomp several leaves till he passed out under it. He would then snooze several hours under it then come home and eat (then go to sleep - he was a cat after all).
The best way to get a cat to swallow a pil after successfully putting it in its mouth is to hold its nose…the cat must first swallow before breathing through the mouth.
Or you could try the pill-feeding technique that works like a charm with one of my cats - wrap up the pill in a piece of meat and give the meat to the cat, who then gobbles down the food, blissfully unaware of any “extras”. Of course, this doesn’t work with the other cat, who seems to be able to smell the pill in there and won’t eat it.
I asked my vet how often I could give cat nip to my cat, she said no more than three times per week. Something about how it affects their digestive system. (I didn’t read the links so I have no idea about their opinions or suggestions in this regard.)
Just my two cents.
(FWIW: Cat nip in no way affects my cats behavior. I’ve seen cats freak out in the cat nip (rolling around in it and sniffing and eating it) and then run about the house like loons or just roll on their back and “trip out”. My cat sniffs it, eats it, and then nothing. But he begs for his “treat” daily. Very odd.)
My problem is that she’s so big and so strong. Ardred and I together can’t hold her still, even with a towel. She weighs about 15 pounds and is solid muscle.
The vet can always do it because poor Tank is so scared when she goes in there that she doesn’t fight.
Plus, the pills they gave us were very crumbly when wet, so we just got a lot of pill residue all over her face and our hands. We were also supposed to squirt a little water in after and that just enraged her to even greater heights.
We’ve yet to find a people food that she’ll eat, so that method is out.
If people food is out (good kitty, eats only it’s own kind of food) then why not get some of that chunky canned food? It might be a bit icky to you, but put the pill in a chunk of the soft cat food that you know she’ll eat and try that way? Maybe see if she’ll eat it mixed in with the food if she won’t eat the pill whole? In any case, if those methods truly don’t work, maybe there are shots the vet can give that will last a bit?
My cat has allergies too. To what is not known. She gets these small scabs around her neck and head and then she scratches them off peeling away clumps of fur and exposing raw skin. The first time I took het to the vet he gave her a steroid shot and the cat was fine for about a month after which she started scratching again. She got two more of those shots and each time she would be fine for about a month. Then she got referred to a specialist(cat dermatologist), and the vet said that he would not recommend any more of the steroid shots. Somehting about having adverse effect on the cat’s health - kidney or some such thing. Anyways, the specialist was of the opinion that the cat was most probably suffering from a rare disease which they call “neck-and-head-disease” since there is no veterinary term for it apparently. According to the specialist, they don’t know what causes it and it does not seem to have any cure, at least they have not found one yet. She recommended a skin biopsy and allergy tests to rule out other problems. I am still debating whether it will be of any use, or will it just be giving away my money only to be told that they couldn’t find anything.
Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated. Also, I would like to know if the cat can be given steroid pills, like one every day(or every other day) and for how long? Can she be kept on pills for a long time, at least until they get a cure for this.
My vet seems convinced that it’s a food allergy. A food allergy that only happens in the Spring? We changed her food and it went away… in September. She’s on the same food and it came back. Her allergies and mine seem to coincide (tree pollen and mold for me).
I might try the wet food thing. She gets wet once a week as a special treat, so she gobbles it like there is no tomorrow. Plus, the kitten just tries to cover the food (like Tank made a mess on the plate) and gets frustrated when there is no litter to cover it with.
The vet also said that the food allergy is a head and neck problem, but she gets largish bumps on her back near her tail. If she could get to these and scratch them all day, she would, and she’d have the same scabs and raw skin.
The dog started to show itch signs last week too, and we found some raw spots on her belly where she licks. Vet time for her, too.
