ok our 18-year-old kitty is well feeling her age A LOT which means shes meowing A LOT
Can i give her say Tylenol or Advil anything OTC and if i can how much/strong and often can it be?
shes just a million for a dime shorthair black cat …
Ask your vet whether she needs anti-inflammatory or muscle-relaxant medication and go from there.
There are probably OTC medications that would work, but I’d hate to be the one to figure out a safe dosage for an 18-year old cat. I’d hate to be the one who had to measure it out.
I’m sorry for you and kitty.
Definitely NOT Tylenol!
[
](Because cats have altered liver metabolism (called glucuronidation), they metabolize acetaminophen poorly, making them much more susceptible to poisoning. The toxic dose of acetaminophen in cats is very low, seen at as little as 10 mg/kg. This means that as little as one Tylenol tablet could kill a cat.)
Consult a real vet, please, before dosing your cat with any meds made for humans. If nothing else, the difference in mass between a cat and humans means a very different safe dose.
Absolutely do not give any ibuprofen, acetaminophen, Tylenol, or Advil to a cat because it will poison the cat and she will die in agony.
Any analgesics or NSAIDs I could now name absolutely need to be prescribed by a veterinary doctor and you need to be very careful and give it exactly as recommended. Your cat needs to be examined by a vet, and, besides treating the cause of the problem, if it turns out she is in pain there are half a dozen different categories of drugs that may be appropriate. Do not start rooting through your medicine cabinet since you may easily do more harm than good.
Thirding this. [ETA: fourthing, now.] In addition to the difference in size, cats metabolize a lot of things very differently from the way humans do. While they can take some human meds, the doses often need to be drastically different, and can’t just be weight adjusted. Do not ever give a cat medication meant for humans – or for that matter medication meant for dogs, or for any other species – without approval from a veterinarian; and one who knows the condition otherwise of the particular cat.
Plus which, the cat may have some treatable illness, not just general aches and pains. Call the vet.
I third, fourth, and fifth the posters above who say to not give your cat anything OTC. What seems innocuous to humans can be lethal in cats. When was her last vet exam with blood work? It sounds like she might need a vet visit.
Too late to edit:
If the cat’s straining to pass urine or feces and not succeeding, call the vet. NOW.
If not eating or drinking and obviously distressed, maybe not quite as urgent, but still don’t delay.
If eating and seeming generally OK except for the meowing and maybe some stiffness, you can wait till regular veterinary hours.
Apologies if this seems excessive; but I really can’t tell whether you’re describing an emergency situation or just an arthritic old cat.
[Not just a cat, of course. No cat is ever “just” a cat.]
Really,really ask a vet. My vet has perscribed pain pills for my dog’s arthritis, and they are not acetaminophen or ibuprofen. They are carprofen.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. Carprofen is not typically labelled for use in cats, cats are especially sensitive to it (and moreover it has a half-life over twice that as in dogs), and unless you are a veterinarian who has just performed surgery on a cat, have experience with alternative/experimental drug regimens, and are extremely carefully and personally administering it yourself, do not give carprofen to a cat just because you have some in your medicine cabinet.
(not that I believe you would ever do such a thing, bobot, I mean the general phenomenon of giving a drug to a human or an animal just because one may have heard of it once under some other circumstances)
My geriatric cats (they’ll be 19 this summer) both have arthritis. We inject them with Adequan (which we get from the vet) every 2 weeks. They don’t mind the shots and it really seems to help them.
nightshadea, when you get a chance, could you update us as to how the cat, and you, are doing?
Took our cantankerous almost 17 yo cat and the vet prescribed Metacam for her arthritis which apparantly most older cats have. She has recovered really nicely and is downright sprightly now. Take her to the Vet!