My cat has a nasty infection and has recently had surgical uterus removal. She was on IV treatment for two days at the animal hospital and came pretty close to dying, so it’s very important that I keep up the antibiotic treatment.
But she hates the medication I’m trying to give her with a passion. Even though she’s weak and tired, she resists with great enthusiasm.
I’ve had to give her the medication alone, which has been pretty difficult. Whenever I get the dropper (it’s a syrup) near her mouth, she waits until the very last second and then jerks her body as quickly and violently as she can - if I don’t let go at this point I feel like I’m either going to break her neck or rip open her stitches. She’s also the fastest animal I’ve ever seen and I can’t keep up with her mouth when she’s squirming around.
So far, I’ve got the stuff into her mouth 3 times - usually after 20-30 minutes of attempts - at least twice she has gagged and drooled up at least half the dose - the other time she ran out of view and I didn’t see if she swallowed it.
I’ve tried cradling her like a baby, so my arm could support her back while I held her neck. I’ve tried wrapping her tightly in a towel so she’d feel trapped and might not resist as much. I’ve tried just grabbing her head and forcing it in. Nothing has worked well at all, and even when I get it in, she spits it up.
I’ve tried mixing it with food and she won’t go for it.
What are my options here? I can’t afford to board her at the animal hospital and give her IV antibiotics - I’ve already spent more than I could spare on her surgery. But her infection is bad enough that she could still die so she needs the antibiotics.
I could attempt to hold her mouth shut after squirting the medicine in her mouth, but I honestly think that with the force she resists she’ll end up hurting herself badly.
Any advice?
Edit: Related question. They gave me one of those conical collars so she couldn’t tear up her stitching. She hates it and spends a whole lot of energy trying to escape it when she should be resting. Today she got out of it somehow and just slept peacefully. Do I really need to keep it on her? She gets a lot more rest with it off. I’ve seen her lick her stitches but nothing aggressive or strong.
Cats sometimes remove their stitches after they’ve been spayed. This greatly surprised me the first time I took a girl in to have her stitches removed, only to have the vet comment that this kitty was another do-it-yourselfer. You should ask the vet.
As for getting the medication down her…I feel for you. Are you using an eyedropper? I had better results with an oral syringe. Oral syringes are usually found in pharmacies next to the thermometers, they are useful for giving medicine to human babies. The syringes will squirt the medicine further back in her throat, so it’s harder for her to spit it all back out.
I was going to tell you to try the towel method, but I see that you’ve already done that.
I have had very good results with dicing up a small amount of ham or turkey (just a couple of spoonfuls, probably less than half an ounce) and dropping the medicine on it. The cat in question vacuumed up the ham or turkey in a matter of moments. Of course, she got the idea that every time I opened up the fridge that I was going to give her a treat, and she also got the idea that she was ENTITLED to get ham or turkey twice a day. She’s a smart kitty, and is very food motivated.
I urge you to call your vet, if she still resists her medicine after a couple of days. Perhaps there’s some liver flavored concentrate that can be added to the medicine.
One subterfuge Pepper Mill has used with our cats (when they have to take pills) is to shove it as far down their throats as she can, cklose their mouth, then blow suddenly in their face. It startles them and they swallow by reflex. It might work with liquids, as well.
Another dodge is to hold their head up, neck extended, and stroke the neck after you’ve given them the medicine.
Mixing it into food almost never seems to work. And just putting it in the cat’s mouth isn’t much better – they can “palm” it in their mouth and spit it out.
I have both available to me. I’ve been using the eyedropper because it has a tapered end, whereas the syringe just sort of ends in a larger tube. I have to pry her mouth open with it because she has her jaws clenched shut, and the smaller end of the dropper seems better for it.
I’ve used the syringe before and it seemed to result in more cases of spraying it all over the cat’s face if she jerks her head back during it.
I can try, but I tried lightly coating her favorite treats with the stuff and she took it into her mouth and then dropped it instantly. I’m guessing no food method is going to work well. And she’s already a very light eater… she’s 5 years old and weighs well under 2 pounds (the receptionist at the animal hopsital didn’t believe me at first that she wasn’t a kitten) so I don’t want to make her hesistant to eat by associating food with the icky stuff.
I did call the vet yesterday after the first dose had gone badly… she told me to try squirting it further down the throat. I’ll have to call again tomorrow.
I know antibiotic shots are available - but they cost somewhere around $40-50 each. The one time I used it before, I still had to start oral antibiotic treatment a few hours later anyway, so it wasn’t a very long lasting dose. I doubt I can take her to the vet every day for shots, even ignoring cost - I don’t know how much useful vein space there is on such a tiny kitty.
Are there any sort of long lasting antibiotic shots or something like that which could be an option?
I’ve had success with mixing medicines with milk, and possibly adding a bit of sweetener to make it more palatable, but my cat has a big sweet tooth, so it might not always work.
Also, the stroking technique works, but with liquids it’s less effective than with tablets.
You need to combine the towel method with sitting on her. Don’t put your weight on her, but kneel on top of her with her head facing forward. Cross your feet under your butt so she can’t back out. Gentle pressure with your legs should help keep her from squirming. Your hands will be free to administer the medication and hang onto her until she swallows. Good luck.
Burrito her up in a towel–lay out a large, thick bath towel, plunk kitty down in the middle with her head in the middle of one of the long edges while holding her scruff, wrap each long end tightly around her, fold the back part up over her butt. Hold the resulting burrito up against your chest with your off hand around her neck under the jaw. You’re not squeezing, just holding the head steady so she can’t jerk around or bite. There should be space between your palm and her actual neck, just not enough that she can pull her lower jaw down and nail you.
Then put the syringe in the corner of her mouth, angled back toward her throat, and work it between her teeth. Be patient, she can’t keep her jaws clamped shut very long. Eventually she’ll either relax or open her mouth to bitch at you, and you can pop it in then. Use the hand under her chin to tilt her head back, and squirt the medicine in.
If you’re having trouble getting her wrapped up, or don’t quite understand how I’m describing to hold her, talk to her vet. They’ll be happy to do a training session with you. Don’t feel like you’re being a pain in their butts; this is a very common problem, and we do these training sessions on a regular basis.
I wonder if your vet would be willing to give her injections if you bring her over each day (or twice a day). If the medication is critical, this may be an option.
I have had the best results with the “sitting on the cat” method described by Miss Violaceous. Sit on her, open her mouth and shoot the medicine in. Then hold her mouth closed and her head up until she swallows it. It’s not fool proof, but it’s the best way I’ve found.
I don’t know if this will work with all cats, but here’s what I did with a cat I used to have that I had to give liquid medication to. He hated the medicine (even the salmon flavored kind that was supposed to be yummy to cats), but he was very fastidious. I found that if I used the oral syringe to squirt it on his face around his mouth, as soon as I let him go he’d wash his face and end up licking it all off of his paws. He hated having a messy face more than he hated the medicine, and I guess he just wasn’t clever enough to try to rub it off on the floor or furniture or whatever. This was a lot easier than anything else I tried.
Some medications can be added to a transdermal gel that you put on the cat’s ear. You’d have to have a compounding pharmacy do it, but I’ve heard it works well for very resistant animals.
I’ve always had bad luck giving my cats any type of liquid medication. I tried everything you did with the same results. I seem to have an easier time with pills.
Could you ask your vet if you could get the same medication in pill form? My vet has no problem working with me on that.
I have to give my cat a pill everyday for life and i found a plunger type device at the local Petsmart thats a life saver.
It’s taken awhile to master it, but basically I straddle her (just like Miss Violaceous said in her post) and hold her in with gentle pressure. I put my hand on top of her head, tilt it up and pinch her jaws open. She resists me, but she will open her jaw for a quick second. Take that moment to put the plunger in as far as you can in the center of her throat and pop the pill in. When she closes her mouth I gently stroke her throat until I can tell she’s swallowed it.
If you don’t get the pill in the CENTER of her throat, she will cheek it and fake like she swallowed it (she’s a smart kitty) and as soon as I let her go she spits it out.
No method is perfect and your cat will come up with ingenious ways to fake you out, but the pill and plunger method works really well.
I feel for you. Good luck
I’ve always given medicine during feedings to take advantage of the distraction. If you have to mix it in something then try cat’s milk (don’t use regular milk unless you like cleaning up a case of the runs).
I’ve used the burrito wrapping method, and to the syringe I’ve added about 3-4" of plastic tubing (like for IVs or aquarium filters) to the end, so I could stick it far back in her thoat. The tubing is flexible enough to squeeze between teeth even if she tries to clench her mouth. Than just push the plunger hard enough to really propel the liquid.
The thing with cats and liquid meds is that if you’re not careful you can cause them to aspirate it (inhale it), especially if they’re struggling. Aspiration pneumonia is no fun.
What’s the antibiotic you’re trying to give, anyway?
There is an injectable antibiotic called Convenia (Pfizer) that is relatively new and not all vets carry it yet, but it’s a good product that entails one subcutaneous injection (under the skin - NOT in a vein) that lasts 10-14 days in cats.
Both animal hospitals I work for have recently started carrying it, with very good results. I don’t know if it’s labeled for antibiotic use in your situation (post-op pyometra? - this stuff might be just for abscesses and other skin infections) but if you can’t get oral meds into her, it may be an option.
Since I’m a tech, I can get doctors to script injectable medications to me much more easily than general public, but if you ask, and are clearly not able to give meds to your cat orally, they may be willing to teach you how to give injections at home (if something like Convenia isn’t appropriate). It would just be 1 or 2 injections under the skin each day. I have one cat who vomits pretty much all meds, so I give him injections whenever the option is available.
If pills are easier, ask your vet if there are any pill options of a different antibiotic available, if not you may also be able to get pills or capsules made by a compounding pharmacy for you (Wedgewood or Roadrunner are good) Your doctor just has to call in the script, then you give them your billing and shipping info.
Otherwise, all the advice for trying to get the stuff down her throat given above is good stuff!
This is how I’ve done it. While holding her mouth closed, you can blow on her nose, or mess (gently) with her whiskers in a way that will tickle/annoy the cat. Sometimes you can feel when the cat swallows, but if not, you can also look for the cat to stick out her tongue (in an effort to get you to stop bothering her whiskers).
I know you said you tried mixing it in food, but have you tried mixing it in (human) baby food? I learned that trick right here on the SDMB. My cat thinks the meat varieties (chicken, lamb, veal) are like kitty crack.
I find it easier to wrangler The Bernie if she’s up higher, so I take a big fluffy pillow and put it on the kitchen counter. I flip her on her back (since it’s cushy, she kind of sinks down and it keeps the back end from squirming much). Left arm across her chest, pinning her front paws down, using my left forefinger to open the maw of evil kitty breath. Right hand drops the pill in / puts the syringe in and done.
She does sometimes spit them out, but it’s far and few between now.