Cat and Meds -- A Vent

[red_mares]

I feel your pain. I could not pill my old cats. One of them I could barely pick up. When I absolutely had to, I think I got a syringe down Spooky’s little throat three days tops. After that she just avoided me.

When they went downhill, there was a bit of a come to Jesus with myself. What was more important, getting whatever substance into them or letting them enjoy what time they had left. I did moderate extreme measures for about a year with Spooky. Lucy lasted another year, but she was always easier to work with.

[Rackonteur]

Cool.
I wish I could tell my kitty about your kitties.

[Rackonteur]

I am kind of thinking that way myself, about my 17yo. But if she doesn’t get the laxative she gets horribly constipated and then nauseated and seems even more miserable than she seems resisting the meds.
Sigh.

[DMK]

If you haven’t tried it, fortiflora sprinkled on wet food is like kitty crack. My old Maine coon used to get 3x the normal miralax dose, some fiber powder and cosequin on his wet food. Mostly he had no issues, but if he did just a bit of fortiflora fixed the problem. Same thing with ruty, who gets Prozac. Not even a whole packet, just a bit

[Rackonteur]

Interesting. Thank you for the info.
One of my nephew kitties gets fortiflora on his food but he tends towards the very opposite of constipation.

How much prozac do you give your kitty? I have asked our vet about it for my kitty – still don’t know if she didn’t hear me or was politely ignoring my question …
I will ask it again at some point, I imagine.

[DMK]

2.5 mg give or take, it’s a 10mg capsule and I split it into 4 doses. I feel a little like I’m getting good at doing a line of coke when I break open a capsule, but it works. I started with splitting it into 3 doses them backed down. Poor Ruty doesn’t speak “cat” very well so he doesn’t play well with the resident cats. He is relentlessly insecure about his territory from random outside cats and helps me know that with non stop vocalizing and territorial marking. Fun stuff. After years of feliway and trying to find ways to make him feel secure I gave up the day he walked up to me and sprayed on some mailers I had tossed on floor while I was mailing out year end ribbons. Thankfully they were empty extras. Gotta say, Prozac makes us BOTH a lot happier!

[Rackonteur]

Thank you. I take 20mg myself once a day. I will definitely ask the vet again.

Sometimes I wonder what the maintenance man would think if he went into my kitchen and saw the white powder I’d spilled on the countertop that day lol. (Hopefully he wouldn’t sample too much of it!)

Ruty is blessed to have you.

[Rackonteur]

Good news! This morning I mixed her Miralax in a little of the juice from one of her favorite foods and she lapped it all up! I was thrilled. Usually when I do this she turns up her nose and stalks away.
I am going to try it again tonight – this time with Miralax AND Cosequin.
If that doesn’t work, I’m breaking out the ice cream.

[Larbear]

Great! It’s such a huge relief when they make things easier

I had to give Noel his chlorambucil last night and was extremely grateful and relieved he ate it in his nighttime snack. He had gone off his food for a bit (think it was pancreatitis) so I’ve had to try and pill him the last two times. Huge huge relief last night after I saw a spotless plate. Lol the little things in life

[Rackonteur]

Oh, yes, those little things that become the big things!
Congratulations to you and Noel! And best wishes for continued success.

[phantomhorse]

back when I was teching in the specialty hospital, one of our go-tos for fussy cats was meat flavored baby food, especially when it was warmed slightly (so stank terribly). that may be an option for your kitty if the current yummy food stops working.

[erinmeri]

I have had success with Hartz Delectables, Churu, and baby food (make sure it’s ONLY meat, water and cornstarch - no onions!) for powders. And depending on the volume, you can also fill empty gelcaps and dose like pills with a pill gun/popper and/or coated in butter.

Miralax is tough because of texture and volume given… so you really need to either mask it in a large volume of food/liquid (less “gooey”) or something really tasty. I would usually start out with minimum dose and titrate up to effective dose. Also, is cat constipated due to an underlying condition (CKD, for example)? Or a medication (buprenorphine, for example)? My CKS/Panc/SCL kitty was only ever on it intermittently, as needed… then we would taper off.

For small pills, I have success with hollowed out temptations. Bigger pills - pill popper with or without aid of gelcaps. I do find the gelcaps mask taste and you can put multiple pills in one.

I also use a silicone-tipped pill popper for pills… just be careful to ensure that the silicone tip is on securely so they don’t accidentally swallow it (ask me how I know…)

You might also look up the “parfait” method for medicating.

If you choose to syringe liquid medications, aim for cheek pouch or across tongue… cats are very prone to aspirating.

[Rackonteur]

Well, she loved today’s offer of ice cream…

…until I added the meds. Then she would not touch it.

Sigh.

So tomorrow I will try something else…

Meanwhile I think I will melt some of my Ghiradelli dark chocolate and spoon it over the ice cream. For me.

[erinmeri]

Feel free to reach out with more specifics of what has and hasn’t worked and I can brainstorm. At the end of Bergie’s life, she was on a TON of them, and every few hours - from pills to powders to subQ fluids to sublingual bupe. And she wasn’t a warm and fuzzy, compliant lady. I’m pretty good at all types of kitty medicating!

[Rackonteur]

And …
Tonight success with Inaba Churu, which just came in the mail today. Yay!

[Rackonteur]

@erinmeri

Miralax is tough because of texture and volume given… so you really need to either mask it in a large volume of food/liquid (less “gooey”) or something really tasty. I would usually start out with minimum dose and titrate up to effective dose. Also, is cat constipated due to an underlying condition (CKD, for example)?

Yes, she has CKD.
She gets 1/8 tsp of Miralax twice a day. Backup is Lactulose; that’s the one the vet wants me to titrate off. We will probably see the vet sometime this month for a checkup and labs update.

[erinmeri]

I just went back and searched the kitty CKD forum, and it appears my go to was mixing Miralax (and other powders like K+ and Visbiome) with a tiny bit of water and a small amount of Hartz Delectables Bisque in a soy sauce/condiment dish (so, small) and feeding in advance of the real meal when she was hungry. Hope that helps! (Hartz Delectables Bisque - the Kidney cat version - was a lifesaver for me and always on hand in case she wouldn’t eat or I needed to give meds. I used it sparingly so it was always a special treat in emergencies…)

[Rackonteur]

I am glad the Delectables work for your kitty.

I just posted that I’d read somewhere that Hartz products were dangerous for cats, but couldn’t remember where I’d read it.
So I Googled it. Seems I may have read it right here on COTH –

HartzVictims.org HARTZ KILLS PETS!

Is there someone that we can get a list of all products manufactured by Hartz? I was reading on the posted website about cats being harmed by Hartz Cat Treats, and I didn’t even know they made cat treats! It would be helpful to have a list to know what products to avoid.

[erinmeri]

This appears to be about their flea and tick medicines/shampoos. The treats don’t seem to be implicated in anything. That said, I can understand wanting to boycott a company who does shady business. The treats are basically junk food and we’re kitty crack with supposedly low Phosphorus, so I leaned on them heavily when needed.

[Rackonteur]

Low phosphorous is good. When I Googled them just now I saw that Chewy sells Hartz Delectables, and that is a second good recommendation seconding yours.
I will call our vet in the morning. I see these treats everywhere including my grocery store.