A Whole Year's Trust Gone Down the Drain! :(

[Caspers Human]

Casper got sick a few nights ago.  We had to take him to the Animal E.R.

After much wringing of hands and wrenching of hair, Casper is home and he is on the mend.

But now Casper has to take pills and he hates it!

Casper is very picky about his food.  He NEVER eats food out of hand and is even circumspect about eating treats.  Pill Pockets are probably out.

(Although I might try them anyway.)

The meds he has to take can't be made liquid or compounded.

He doesn't eat his food all at once.  He's a nibbler.  Sprinkling on his food is out.

The only way to get Casper to take his medicine is to throw a towel over him and use a Pill Popper.

Honestly getting (or making) Casper take his pills isn't the hard part.

I've been giving medicine to animals since I was a kid.  It's not the most fun job but I do what I have to in order to keep Casper healthy.

Problem is...  He is afraid of me now. 

Casper was a rescued cat.  We don't know his whole story but, from what we gather, he was abandoned outdoors and was likely abused before that.  He has always been skittish around men.

I spent a whole year, since we got Casper, treating him as nicely as possible.

Just recently, he would come and sit on my lap while I type at the computer and he would even lay next to me in bed.

Now I have to be the bad guy...  Twice a day for the rest of the week then once a day until Casper's problem has cleared up.  (Another week or two.)

Casper is such a sweet cat!  He's the nicest cat I have ever known.

Now I feel so sad because it seems like everything is all ruined because I have to wrestle him down and shove icky medicine down his throat twice a day.

Will Casper ever be my friend again?

 

[hellomisskitty]

Oh no poor Casper!! I'm so glad he is on the mend.
I would definitely give Pill Pockets a try. My girl is picky about eating (very similar to Casper) and she gobbles Pill Pockets up!! To make them seem less "suspicious", I first gave her a Pill Pocket without the medication in it in order to really hook her in and then gave her one with the medication. I just put the Pill Pocket on the floor and let her do her thing. They make giving pills a breeze and reduces stress on both the cat and the human. Definitely give them a try!!

Yes, you and Casper will get through this and be friends again. I once had to give my cat eye drops twice a day for two weeks. It was a horrible nightmare and Kitty cowered or ran every time I approached her but we got through it. Oddly, towards the end of the eye drops, I think she started to make the connection that I was helping her feel better and started to resist less. After going through that, I felt like our bond deepened: she knew I helped her and cared for her and was grateful for that.

I know it took a while for you to gain Casper's trust and while this is a setback, once you are able to stop the meds and Casper is feeling better, your relationship will get back to where it was [emoji]10084[/emoji]️

 

[Caspers Human]

My fingers are crossed.

Casper has crystals in his urine.

The E.R. wanted $1,400 to catheterize him, take X-rays and everything.

I said, "No way!"

I got them to just do the urethrocentesis to empty his bladder and we gave him some drugs to make him comfortable for the night until we could get him to our regular vet.  It still cost us $300!

We took Casper to his regular vet, first thing.  She's a good, "country doctor" who really knows her shizzle.  She already had Casper's report from the E.R by the time we got there.

She felt Casper's tummy, listened with the stethoscope and looked up his hind end and said, "Yup!  He's got crystals!"

We're putting Casper on a special diet, right away.  We're also going to put him on bottled water to drink, at least for the time being.  This also means no more drinking from the fish bowl, either!

We are giving him 5 mg of Phenoxybenzamine twice a day until tomorrow then once a day for the rest of the course.  (Probably a week or two.)

The vet says this ought to clear him right up, at least temporarily.  We'll have to wait and see what happens afterward.  She says that Casper will probably be fine, as long as we watch his diet and stuff but he still may have flare-ups from time to time.

Casper was visiting me in bed every morning or so and he just started nosing his way into the bathroom while I was doing my morning business but, now, every time I walk into the room, I just get the Stink Eye!

I have been loading the Pill Popper and putting it behind my ear like a pencil BEFORE I even approach Casper.  That way, I can have my hands free until I get him down and hold his mouth open.  It also prevents him from seeing what's coming until it's too late.

I think I WILL go out and get some pill pockets.  I don't know if he'll fall for them but it's worth a try.  Right?

I also think I'm going to stop hiding the pill bottle and the popper.

The idea is that, if he sees the pills, he'll know that it's "Medicine Time" and I'm not just being mean to him for no reason.  In other words, try to get him to associate the pill bottle with Medicine Time.

If this is going to be an ongoing thing, I'm going to have to figure out something to keep Casper from being afraid of me forever.

Casper is such a great cat!  He's the sweetest cat I've ever known!

Here's Casper's Christmas Video: 


His Christmas present was all the catnip he wanted and a bag of Temptations cat treats.

We just put the bag down and let him have at it.  (Yes!  He was supervised the whole time!)

Casper has made so much progress!  It would be a shame if he ended up being afraid of people all over again! 

 

[pegleg]

Can you get liquid cat treats? Mine love them so I grind up pills and mix them with the liquid and feed it to them with a syringe. No problems.

If only I could sort out the eye drops that way.

 

[di and bob]

I, too, hate giving pills, and I don't know of any cats that enjoy it either. I have to give lasix to my elderly cat with a heart condition, so I don't want to traumatize him either. The best way I have found that never fails is to take a piece of pill pocket, a tiny piece just big enough to 'cement' the pill to the back of a piece of bacon. Put it pill side down and usually they gobble it right up. A 1/2 pound of bacon cooked up lasts two weeks in the fridge. The pills can also be 'pasted' to the back of a favorite hard treat too.   If the pills are large, call your vet first, but most can be cut into smaller pieces with a pill cutter. Do NOT split a capsule though, those are meant to be 'timed released' usually. Liquid antibiotics can be mixed with a SMALL amount of tuna juice and is readily lapped up. 

Don't worry about him regaining trust, he will as soon as the 'torture' stops, it may take up to a week, but they come around as soon as they realize you are the bearer of treats,  not pills, once again. Give him a little extra love right now, his routine is upset and he is scared. 

 

[hellomisskitty]

Casper really does seem like such a sweet, gentle boy....such a cutie [emoji]10084[/emoji]️
di and bob made an excellent point that Casper is scared and his routine is upset. That and vet visits impact any cat plus he's not feeling great...all that impacts any cat!

I'm sorry to hear that Casper had crystals. I went through that with Kitty two years ago but she's been doing well with dietary changes, extra water etc. so it is manageable. The medication will get him through the emergent situation and Casper will be feeling better soon.

Please give Casper some extra [emoji]10084[/emoji]️ from me!

 

[Caspers Human]

I got some Greenie's Pill Pockets on the way home from work, last night.

I hope they work!

Problem is...  Casper has been hiding all day.  He doesn't even come out long enough to get a treat.  Even in good times, Casper doesn't take food from the hand.  He doesn't eat people food, either.  You'd be hard-pressed to get him to lick a dollop of butter or a bit of egg yolk.  I've never seen a cat turn down a treat like Casper does!

We're going to fix up a pill in a pocket and leave it in his food dish.

Maybe he'll eat it on his own.

 

[di and bob]

Bacon seems to be the best, my cat is hard pressed to refuse that! A piece of hot dog. or Arby's roast beef works well too. Just find what Casper WILL eat and use a small piece of pill pocket to cement it to the treat. My Burt has been dosed for two years now, it always amazes me how now he can eat a treat and still spit out the pill. If he smells the pill pocket at all, that treat will lay there. They get sneaky with practice. think he does it so he can have more treats! Getting them to eat the pill on their own is so much less traumatizing, I'll pray you succeed, I know how it breaks your heart to see him hide from you, I've been there!

 

[hellomisskitty]

I've got my fingers crossed and my Kitty has her paws crossed that the Pill Povkets work [emoji]127808[/emoji]

 

[jcat]

that the pill pockets work. Have you tried liverwurst? A lot of ferals and semiferals that are almost impossible to pill are quite happy to get their "special treats" every day - a couple of little balls of liverwurst on a saucer, with a pill stuck in one of them. If you can cut the pill in half or quarters, it works even better.

Usually cats will forgive you for pilling them after several days of no pills, IME.

 

[Caspers Human]

We left a loaded pill pocket in Casper's food dish, last night, an when we woke up it was gone and we didn't find the pill lying around anywhere.

Here's hoping that he took his pill!

Casper does not eat any people food. We tried giving him bacon... nope.

Chicken, egg yolks, butter, fresh fish... all the things that cats are "supposed" to like, he turns his nose up.

Liverwurst? If I was a cat, I'd love it! Casper? Dunno... I suppose we could try it.

 

[hellomisskitty]

Hooray!!! I'm thinking he took his pill [emoji]128516[/emoji]!!

 

[Caspers Human]

...and another one!

When I came home from work Casper's girl-human said that she left another one in his food dish and it is also gone! No remnants of any partially chewed gelatin capsules were found lying about the immediate area, either.

The way I figure, if he was spitting them out, we would find them within a couple feet of his food dish.
Don't you think so?

BIG sigh of relief!

 

[hellomisskitty]

Yayyyyy!!!

The reason Pill Pockets work so well with giving pills is that the gummy texture of the Pill Pocket makes the cat gulp it down without chewing so the cat doesn't have a clue they've taken medication plus the flavor masks any taste of the pill as it's being gulped down.

 

[hellomisskitty]

Caspers Human how are things going with pill giving?

And more importantly, how are things between you and your Casper?

 

[Caspers Human]

Yesterday, Casper came to the kitchen while I was making my morning coffee and let me pat him on the head.

He sits on Girl-Human's lap when she's sitting on the sofa but, with me, it's still hit or miss.

Then... I came home from work to find a half-chewed Pill Pocket in his food dish... The little fuzz face figured it out!

If it comes down to having a sick kitty or forcing the cat to take his pills, I will opt for the latter but I won't be happy about it.

 

[kskatt]

My Mr has hyper thyroid and gets half a pill twice a day. The chicken pill pockets only worked for a little while, the salmon have worked for about a year. One time I heard a tiny crunch, he does chew two or three times. I figured that was it, but he still loves the salmon pill pockets. I have no idea if this will help, just thought I'd share. Good luck, he's a handsome boy!