I will be extremely happy when I don’t have to give Gracie a pill twice a day.
I have tried giving it to her in the various ways everyone tells me to, and the upshot of it is she always manages to bite me. And those teeth are sharp.
The Catmage Chronicles
Andy thought he was going crazy when a talking cat showed up at his front door. He couldn’t have been more wrong.Goldeneyes is a Catmage – a cat with human intelligence and magical abilities. Andy is an eighth grader who is smart, impulsive, and trying to avoid the school bully at all costs. A prophecy threw them together. There’s just one problem: Goldeneyes can’t stand humans.The Catmage world is heading toward war. Goldeneyes and Andy must try to stop the enemy from getting stronger. And they must save a powerful Catmage who’s been kidnapped. For Goldeneyes, it’s personal. That Catmage is her grandmother.Andy and Goldeneyes must try to put aside their differences. If they can’t, the enemy will soon be too powerful to defeat…
Hve you tried grinding the pill up and then mixing it with cat food or tuna? Don’t get bit that way.
See if you can find a pair of chain-mail gloves used by crab and clam shuckers. These should keep you from getting hurt, and Gracie and Tig probably won’t like biting them.
chsw
I was bitten on the back of my hand by a cat while I was giving her a belly rub. She just seemed to get too excited. Afterwards, she was all over me, asking to be scratched. The next day, the back of my hand was badly swollen.
In any case, I learned that cat bites are potentially more dangerous than dog bites. The hand became infected, and I ended up in the ER. I had to take 2 antibiotics for about a week. They also gave me a shot, but I don’t know what it was. They said it wasn’t for tetanus, as I wasn’t due for it yet.
Well, she isn’t really biting me. She’s trying to get the pill and/or my finger out of her mouth. It’s just that contact with those sharp teeth hurt, even though she’s not breaking the skin.
Mike: My cats have never fallen for that one.
My vet once suggested wrapping the cat in a towel to control the claws, and the submission hold on the scruff, the pill to the back of the tongue, and then rubbing the throat to make sure the pill goes down. Never was bitten, but caught some claws a few times. It helps to be really calm but fast. In my experience cats are the worst for pills.
Friends of mine have a syringe-like tool that they use to pill their six cats. The pill goes in pincers at one end, and you push the plunger at the other, releasing the pill into the cat’s mouth. My friend says she’s been saved a lot of bites that way.
Well, my experience with the late and lamented Greta was similar to Rob’s. You wrap her in a towel, grab the nape of her neck and force it back and, although it may take a few attempts, drop the pill into her mouth and rub her neck to make sure it goes down.
It got the pill in but the cat won’t enjoy it and it was months before Greta ceased bolting from the bathroom if I picked up a towel. On the other hand, if there’s an easy way to do this that is not going to upset the cat I don’t know it.
P.S. If you try this approach, wrap her fully and carefully. I still have a small scar on my right hand from the time I didn’t and she squirmed out of the towel, her rear claw catching my hand as she escaped.
I had a piller for her. I don’t remember what happened to it. I should get another.
She doesn’t really fight. She tries to run away, and she clamps her jaw tightly, and then she tries to spit my finger out of her mouth (ergo, the biting). Gracie is a gentle, gentle kitty.
It’s Tig who is the demon. If he ever gets sick enough to need constant medication, he will die. Because I won’t be able to fight him.
I have found that if I get down on my knees, sitting on my heels, I can back my cat between my legs and pull her head straight up, pry open her mouth and drop the pill down the back of her throat. Since my cats all try to back away from the HAND WITH THE PILL, they can only back up closer to me.
It could be worse. Your vet could have prescribed suppositories.
chsw