How To Give A Cat A Pill

[Joseph E. Smith]

The thing to remember with most cats, when it comes to restaining them, is that less is more. Meaning, the harder you hold onto them, the harder they'll likely try to get away... and they're masters at getting out of your hands.

The quicker the pilling, the better it is for all concerned.

[Flyingcursor]

I will try to make this quick, the memory is very painful.

I did them a favor, watched over and fed, the horses, dogs and cats (7 cats). One had cystitis,"please give the cat his pills", they requested. "No problem", I replied. Seven days, seven days of horror and terror;fights and scratches , howling and screaming...and the cat cried too.

The 8th day, TUJ, they are back!
"How did it go?"
"Not bad, except for that feline basmati", pointing to the perp.
"Why?"
"Wouldn't take the damn pills!"
"That's not the cat with cystitis..."

So now we scrambled, frantically looking for the urinary accumulating Felis domesticus. OMG she is as big as a footstool and sloshes when you pick her up. She hasn't been able to pee for several days. She doesn't meow as much as she burbles

My awe and disgust knew NO bounds when the vet shoved his finger up ...well honestly i was too chicken to look closely...and the most vile, stinking exudate shot across the room as the poor pussy screamed in release.

I like cats...really i do. But I have taken no chances, dogs for the last 30 years. Word gets around y'know.

Holy Impaction Batman!! That's quite a tale. I'm glad the poor kitty finally got to go.

[dubhlinn]

One of my sisters brought home a puppy way back in the day and as I sat in the vets waiting room, getting the mutt inocculated, a very attractive well dressed Blonde came out with a very expensive looking pure bred Persian.
She was absolutely covered in "vile, stinking exudate". I really tried hard not to laugh but..well..you know me.

The Persian was spotless.

Slan,
D.

[Darwin]

Having gone through 19 cats, nothing in the first post was new to me.

The best thing I ever found was a so-called "sake bag" that we picked up in Japan, designed to hold a couple of large bottles of sake. It was a heavy canvas bag, large enough to hold a cat, with a heavy drawstring.

We'd put the cat into the bag with just its head sticking out, tighten the drawstring, and thread the end of it through the cat's collar. None of our cats ever managed to get out of that thing. The best thing was that the canvas was too heavy for their claws to go through it. There wasn't much wiggle room, either.

Then it was heavy work gloves for me to open the cat's mouth, and my wife with a pair of chopsticks to carefully put the pill wa-a-ay down the cat's throat. They still managed to spit up the occasional pill, but we had a pretty good success rate.

Unfortunately, the sake bag eventually disintegrated, and we went back to wrapping cats in a towel, which is about a hundred times less effective.

The sake bag was also great for taking the cats to the vet--especially the little calico who was always trying to attack German Shepherds and Great Danes in the waiting room.

[SteveShaw]

I had to take a oiled but still very vigorous cormorant to the vet once. I got talked into it because I was the only local on the beach and therefore the only person who knew where the vet was, and I'm a soft touch where wildlife is concerned. I had to walk one and a half miles with the bloody thing's head and neck sticking out of an old towel that I'd wrapped it up in. It was so energetic that it was as much as I could do to stop it getting even more free and therefore even more deadly. It isn't until you see one at point blank range that you realise just how vicious that downturned hook on its beak is. I was taking my life in my hands I can tell you. Heaven knows how I've still got two eyes. I can only imagine that it was as terrifying as carrying a cobra with a foot of its front end lashing around. Eventually I arrived at the beach cafe and persuaded the owner to let me have a cardboard box to shove the thing into. This was pointless, indeed counter-productive, as no box made of cardboard is anywhere near sufficiently strong to restrain a stroppy cormorant for more than ten seconds. Learn that lesson from me now if you have any sense. How I ever got to the vet I'll never know, but once there I was assured that the RSPCA would clean the bird up and set it free. Job done!

Steve

[cowtime]

This post reminds me of the different raptors we'd see brought in where I use to work. We were licensed by the state to keep and treat wildlife. You had to be VERY carefull when handling those guys. Between the beak and the talons they could do significant damage quickly and easily.