I spent my Saturday morning at the vet’s. Tig has been vomiting every day, often more than once a day, for the past week or more. This has happened periodically in the past. Sometimes it’s because he eats the toughest, coarsest grass he can find and it forms a mat that takes a very long time to pass. Sometimes it’s because he has hairballs that haven’t come up yet. This time, I wasn’t sure what it was, so I called and begged an emergency appointment, trapped Tig, wrestled him into his carrier, and drove off to the vet with a yowling cat in the passenger seat.
We didn’t have to wait too long before we got an examination room. I let Tig out of his carrier, he looked around a bit, found nowhere to hide, freaked out a little, I put him back on the table and he waited uncomfortably until the vet came in, hiding in his carrier. Of course he refused to come out, so he got upended out.
Mind you, Tig has never been the best at the vet’s. I no longer get his nails clipped because it will cost far too much. The last time I tried, he was wrapped, the vet, the assistant and I all were holding him, and he still slashed two of us. This time, he was horrible the second the vet began probing away from his head. He lashed out with his front paw, landed a claw in the thick of my palm – fishhook style, thank you very much. The vet waited until I finished washing my hands before calling in the assistant to wrap Tig. The exam continued, Tig hissing and biting and fighting the entire time. I was extremely embarrassed, and apologized for his horrendous behavior. The vet said she’d seen worse.
The upshot is that the vet thinks it’s just excess fur due to the change of seasons, and she gave me a tube of some vet-strength hairball medication. She also gave Tig a shot to settle his stomach, as I assured her that if I had to administer medicine, most of it would go on me and almost none of it down Tig’s throat. I cannot give him medicine. At all. If Tig ever gets really sick, or needs regular medicine to stay alive, he will die. It’s that simple. If he ever develops diabetes, he’s a goner. He’d never let me give him a daily injection.
So. Yesterday, I put a dab of the Laxatone (such a great name, isn’t it?) on his paw. He started freaking out, I tossed him outside, he washed his paw immediately, which is what he was supposed to do. Today, I dabbed a bit on my finger, got a hold of Tig, started putting it on his paw, and he started freaking out again. He struggled like I was poisoning him or something. I finished and let him go, he ran off to wash his paw.
I don’t even want to think about what he’s going to do tomorrow.
Tig is going to die if he ever needs medication for something serious. He is the most impossible cat I’ve ever had. And yes, I’ve tried all of the food tricks. None of them work.
Stupid cat.
He threw up this morning again. Yeah, I found it. I checked near where he sleeps. It was there. I fully expect to clean up some more tomorrow.
Stupid cat.
The food trick NEVER works and yet people keep trying to get me to use it. Veterinarians keep trying to get me to use it, even, and they’re the ones who ought to know better.
But my cats will eat around the medicated portion of the food without fail.
Mine are difficult to medicate, too, and yet the diabetes injections go SO smoothly. You give it to them subcutaneously, i.e., just beneath the loose skin at the backs of their necks, and, well, their skin is fairly tough there–they’ve been getting bit and scratched there all their lives. So they don’t even notice the needle going in. What’s one little teeny tiny pin prick compared to having been carried around by the scruff all through kittenhood?
That said I hope Tig gets healthy and stays that way. He’s too cute to be sick. Besides, it’s so embarrassing having to bring a combative kitty to the veterinarian’s.
So true. Okie also sees food tricks coming a mile away. And vets will not stop recommending it to me. He’s never once swallowed a pill that way; but when I say so, the vet gives me A Look, as though I don’t know my own cat! I can, however, usually wrestle a pill down his throat if need be. Which is a damn good thing, because he has been seriously ill before.
Bear, on the other hand, is stupid enough to fall for almost any food trick. That’s a huge relief, since she never lets anybody hold her, ever. If I had to put a pill down her throat it simply would NOT happen.
A cat like Tig, who is both resistant to force and intelligent enough to avoid food tricks, is just not allowed to get terribly ill. That’s all there is to it!
Oh, I SO feel for you. Your Tig sounds like my Maine Coone, Vinnie- a total freakfest and strong, with it.
Our kitty girl, Clementine, was a diabetic, and ex-hubby was the brave one giving her an injection each day.
First of all, the babes always riff off your anxiety so if you can do it, keep it doused.
Secondly, with Clementine the diabetic, we made the injection (which hurts little and should be quick, rather than a production) a love-fest. She would get the shot and then she would be fussed over and she would get a treat. Invariably. She loved it! Looked forward to it.
Our Maine Coon, Vincent, all 22 pounds of him, under duress, could not be pilled. The total freak kitty.
We found ways- with butter disguise, food disguise, when it came to medicine. When he was calmed down the ex could open his jaws and pill him. But when he was freaked, even an experienced vet couldn’t do it.
Unsolicited advice: crooning, making it special with treats, gentle care till
Tig gets used to the Laxatone (which, btw, all the cats I have ever loved and known, just love), considering his freaked out rememberance, patience, will do the trick. Show lots of love, patience, dampen your own anxiety… if worse comes to worst, find ways to get them to eat the medicine, like mixed with chicken baby food (it must be Gerbers, I use it for sick cats and they seem to prefer it above all others and it is also recommended by cat rescue people) on your finger- baby him and you will be pleased. Just make it tasy and Tig will not be offended.
Compared to me, I think Tig got off easy yesterday medically-speaking.
Although I did have the urge to leap on top of the cabinet and hiss at the doctor at one point. But don’t we all feel that way when we see the bill?
Poor Tig and poor you. You might also want to check ingrediants in his food, sometimes the corn content can really irritate a cat’s digestive system. I can also suggest that you find out if the Laxatone comes in a flavor he likes. My two will lick the hairball paste off my finger as a treat because they like the malt flavor.
Laxatone is just flavoured vaseline; it’s the vaseline that’s the active ingredient. If Tig develops a taste for the flavouring, great. If not, there’s no point to it, and no point to wasting your money. There’s another common product, Petromalt. Maybe Tig will be a Petromalt, rather than a Laxatone, junkie. If I remember right, Petromalt (and maybe Laxatone too) is sold in pet stores as well as through the veterinary profession.
If flavoured vaseline doesn’t float Tig’s boat, try plan B: Vaseline is basically just solid mineral oil, and mineral oil works for hairballs just fine. A typical dose would be about a quarter teaspoonful every day or every other day, on food, but if you start out with that much most cats will just walk away from the bowl. Start out with a drop or two on the food every day. Wait patiently for his suspicious little mind to adapt to the idea, then gradually increase the dose over time. If he develops diarrhoea you’ve overdone the dosing and it’s time to back off a bit.