Tuna 'juice' for meds

FeebysOwner

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I am currently giving Feeby gabapentin that I crush up and mix with a bit of Lil Gravies, then oral syringe feed the concoction to her. We had canned tuna in water the other day, so I saved the 'juice' to use instead of the Lil Gravies. I found she tends to take it better with the tuna juice and doesn't let it 'leak' out of her mouth.

I could buy tuna flavored treats - even the Lil Gravies has a tuna version, but the pouches are large enough that I either throw out most of it or freeze it. However, they don't freeze well and tend to turn into gel when I get a container out to thaw. I am not even sure that there isn't something about the 'texture/consistency' of tuna juice that makes it more appealing than the treats. She doesn't really like tuna meat anymore, nor does she eat any form of canned tuna food for cats, so it isn't necessarily having to do with just the tuna flavor. She doesn't take the meds well in any form of lickable treat, which generally have a thicker consistency.

Short of buying canned tuna and throwing out the meat to save the juice for her, is there such a thing as tuna juice that you can buy? Any ideas?
 
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FeebysOwner

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I will probably just buy cans of tuna in water, drain the juice off and toss the tuna. No one in our house is going to eat tuna 2-3 times a week!

As a test with one can, I might take out some of tuna juice to use it 'straight' with her meds. And, then take the remainder of the tuna and water, mix it with some water and let it soak for a while, then strain the liquid off the tuna. I saw some 'recipes' on the internet that said to do this to increase the available 'juice'.
 
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FeebysOwner

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Don't toss it, work the left over tuna into your yard mulch. A lot of fertilizer has a fish base to it.
Maybe give it to the squirrels, or the rabbits - LOL! Either way, seems to me, it would draw ants and other bugs, though.
Can this be pureed and used for her that way?
You mean the tuna pureed for her to eat? I can try that, but she is not into tuna broken up into little pieces when we have it, and by no means will she eat cat food tuna. Don't ask me why the tuna juice is 'better'.
 

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I used to use Pure Bites tuna in water because it was literally just those two ingredients. I mixed the tuna water with NutriCal to get a fishy paste to disguise supplements Krista didn’t like. If Feeby also likes salmon or salmon water, you can buy the Pure Bites box at PetSmart. Krista liked the NutriCal a lot. Until she didn’t. But before she got sick of it, I used to make these medicine trays that started with tuna water, then the supplements were mixed into the NutriCal, with some tuna meat backing it all.
 

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Clam juice is sold in bottles as a separate product from clams. I don't know if that would work, if it is advisable, or quality of.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019YHT456/?tag=thecatsite
You beat me to it.

Does clam juice taste anything like tuna?
Clam juice tastes a little different, but I suspect a cat who like one would likely go for the other.

If not, pour the clam juice in a glass, add tomato juice, season with lime and hot sauce of choice, and fortify with vodka. After of couple of those....🤪 🥳 🤩

Alternatively, you could sub out the vodka for beer. Mexicans call that a Michelada.

I might eat the leftover tuna fish myself.

Bill
 
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FeebysOwner

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I used to use Pure Bites tuna in water because it was literally just those two ingredients. I mixed the tuna water with NutriCal to get a fishy paste to disguise supplements Krista didn’t like. If Feeby also likes salmon or salmon water, you can buy the Pure Bites box at PetSmart. Krista liked the NutriCal a lot. Until she didn’t. But before she got sick of it, I used to make these medicine trays that started with tuna water, then the supplements were mixed into the NutriCal, with some tuna meat backing it all.
I will check out Pure Bites. Feeby does not like NutriCal, and she only will eat a bite or two of human salmon - will not touch cat food with salmon.

This is all because of the gabapentin. I am now on my 4th or 5th version of it, and all of them so far seem to have to contain some sort of sweetener or vanilla, and I think that is the problem. I need to call Wedgewood again and ask what is in their 'unflavored' gabapentin tablets. If they have vanilla or a sweetener, I think the result will be the same. The sad part is that every time I request a change to the medium, I have to go back to the vet and get them to 'authorize' the change, even though the dosage nor the frequency changes.

The closest I came to getting anything that would work was through a local compounding pharmacy who made fast-dissolving tabs that might have been laced with chicken liver - I can't even remember at this point. But the problem with those is the last 12 or so tabs were dust and cannot be used that way, according to the pharmacy, because the additives vs. the meds cannot be determined when they turn to dust. They did send me free replacements.
 

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I will check out Pure Bites. Feeby does not like NutriCal, and she only will eat a bite or two of human salmon - will not touch cat food with salmon.

This is all because of the gabapentin. I am now on my 4th or 5th version of it, and all of them so far seem to have to contain some sort of sweetener or vanilla, and I think that is the problem. I need to call Wedgewood again and ask what is in their 'unflavored' gabapentin tablets. If they have vanilla or a sweetener, I think the result will be the same. The sad part is that every time I request a change to the medium, I have to go back to the vet and get them to 'authorize' the change, even though the dosage nor the frequency changes.

The closest I came to getting anything that would work was through a local compounding pharmacy who made fast-dissolving tabs that might have been laced with chicken liver - I can't even remember at this point. But the problem with those is the last 12 or so tabs were dust and cannot be used that way, according to the pharmacy, because the additives vs. the meds cannot be determined when they turn to dust. They did send me free replacements.
No thoughts on tuna juice, but I use the online pharmacy on my vet’s website and they make chicken flavored tablets which are easy to give by mouth. They are fairly soft so they fill the pill bottle with cotton so they don’t disintegrate in shipment. Have you tried mixing the gaba in the Temptations purée treats? Twyla finds them irresistible. They come in tuna, salmon and chicken flavors.
 
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FeebysOwner

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No thoughts on tuna juice, but I use the online pharmacy on my vet’s website and they make chicken flavored tablets which are easy to give by mouth. They are fairly soft so they fill the pill bottle with cotton so they don’t disintegrate in shipment. Have you tried mixing the gaba in the Temptations purée treats? Twyla finds them irresistible. They come in tuna, salmon and chicken flavors.
Both the fast-dissolve tabs I had before (that still turned to dust) from a local pharmacy and the current medi-melt tabs from Wedgewood are packed in cotton balls. The latter reeks of vanilla.

I do use Temptations puree treats - along with numerous other lickable treats - for Feeby's H-T meds. So, I am afraid to 'taint' any of those by crushing the gabapentin in them for fear that would make her hesitant to take her H-T meds. I could try it once and hope it doesn't mess up her H-T med regimen.
 

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Just another idea, but could you put the canned tuna and juice and add some water in a blender and grind the whole thing down to a watery consistency and freeze in portions?
 
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Just another idea, but could you put the canned tuna and juice and add some water in a blender and grind the whole thing down to a watery consistency and freeze in portions?
Going to try that and a few other similar renditions that were mentioned above.
 
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