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- May 22, 2019
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Our 13-14 year old cat is now on kidney diet because she has early stage kidney disease. She's been taking Cisapride for over a decade, and still is.
Prior to the switch, she wasn’t eating a lot, and was losing weight so we were prescribed Mirtazapine. We started with pills… That did NOT work. Broke the small pills into even smaller pieces and tried to get her to take them.
In food, no. In treats, ONE time. In other treats, ONE time. We tried a piller, we tried blowing it in, we tried manually giving them. NOTHING. I could almost guarantee if we got it in at all, 15 minutes later I’d find a tiny, pink piece of pill sitting in her cat bad or somewhere. She would not take the pills.
We switched to the liquid. She hates the stuff with a PASSION. We’ve tried EVERY flavor – beef, chicken, salmon (if I recall) and most recently tuna – she HATES them all.
The normal dose is supposed to be .37ml. Giving her ANYTHING more than .1 – we tried .15 - and she vomits it up within a minute. Like clockwork – hold cat, give her liquid, hold cat, 60 seconds, vomits – always vomits twice. Usually clear or milk liquid. Usually no food in it, usually no fur ball, though very occasionally a small one.
We always take up her food for at least 30 minutes, sometimes 60, BEFORE we give her the Mirtazapine.
SO, we gave her .1 ml every other day. She ate BETTER but not great. Still lost weight. Vet had us switch to .1 daily.
Now we’ve switched to the kidney diet and she WAS eating it pretty well. She recently had a bout of pancreatitis, but that SEEMS to be better – but she’s been to the vet multiple times over the last month to the tune of $500 and $700 because there are ALWAYS x-rays and tests and blood work and whatever. And we're NOT in the middle of a major metropolitan area, so there aren't a dozen vets to try... So vet shopping isn't going to be a big success.
Even on the .1 ml, she’s always vomited it up about 1 time in 5, but this week it’s been EVERY DAY. I changed to .05 ml, and for the last 2 days she’s thrown THAT up.
BUT, if I give her a dose and she throws it up, I can then go get ANOTHER dose and give it to her and she DOESN’T throw it up…
Needless to say, NOBODY, cat included, is enjoying having her mouth pried open and given something she hates, followed by vomiting.
We can take her back to the vet AGAIN, but so far they haven’t had any answers.
So, HOW do I get this stuff in her, in a large enough quantity to make her appetite significantly improve? Oh, and there’s a NEW bottle of the stuff on it’s way ‘cause we’re about at the time limit on keeping the stuff – our doses are so small we don’t use it all up. But if she won’t take a piece of a pill about the size of the head of a pin, I DON’T see being successful with a gelcap or whatever…
Ideas? 'Cause I'm out of 'em and I need a fix...
Prior to the switch, she wasn’t eating a lot, and was losing weight so we were prescribed Mirtazapine. We started with pills… That did NOT work. Broke the small pills into even smaller pieces and tried to get her to take them.
In food, no. In treats, ONE time. In other treats, ONE time. We tried a piller, we tried blowing it in, we tried manually giving them. NOTHING. I could almost guarantee if we got it in at all, 15 minutes later I’d find a tiny, pink piece of pill sitting in her cat bad or somewhere. She would not take the pills.
We switched to the liquid. She hates the stuff with a PASSION. We’ve tried EVERY flavor – beef, chicken, salmon (if I recall) and most recently tuna – she HATES them all.
The normal dose is supposed to be .37ml. Giving her ANYTHING more than .1 – we tried .15 - and she vomits it up within a minute. Like clockwork – hold cat, give her liquid, hold cat, 60 seconds, vomits – always vomits twice. Usually clear or milk liquid. Usually no food in it, usually no fur ball, though very occasionally a small one.
We always take up her food for at least 30 minutes, sometimes 60, BEFORE we give her the Mirtazapine.
SO, we gave her .1 ml every other day. She ate BETTER but not great. Still lost weight. Vet had us switch to .1 daily.
Now we’ve switched to the kidney diet and she WAS eating it pretty well. She recently had a bout of pancreatitis, but that SEEMS to be better – but she’s been to the vet multiple times over the last month to the tune of $500 and $700 because there are ALWAYS x-rays and tests and blood work and whatever. And we're NOT in the middle of a major metropolitan area, so there aren't a dozen vets to try... So vet shopping isn't going to be a big success.
Even on the .1 ml, she’s always vomited it up about 1 time in 5, but this week it’s been EVERY DAY. I changed to .05 ml, and for the last 2 days she’s thrown THAT up.
BUT, if I give her a dose and she throws it up, I can then go get ANOTHER dose and give it to her and she DOESN’T throw it up…
Needless to say, NOBODY, cat included, is enjoying having her mouth pried open and given something she hates, followed by vomiting.
We can take her back to the vet AGAIN, but so far they haven’t had any answers.
So, HOW do I get this stuff in her, in a large enough quantity to make her appetite significantly improve? Oh, and there’s a NEW bottle of the stuff on it’s way ‘cause we’re about at the time limit on keeping the stuff – our doses are so small we don’t use it all up. But if she won’t take a piece of a pill about the size of the head of a pin, I DON’T see being successful with a gelcap or whatever…
Ideas? 'Cause I'm out of 'em and I need a fix...