ok, right now i could use some advice/ support.

some of you know i just got a new cat, chaucer. he's about 5yrs old, give or take and i got him from the shelter just over a week ago.

someone had poured bleach on him and so he has some bald spots on his side.

anyway, those were becoming dry, plus he seems to have a URI. the shelter lady said that it is quite common for cats to develop URIs upon moving in to a new environment (probably b/c the stress of moving allows for activation of the latent virus in their system). anyway, she is coming tomorrow to check on his congestion and see if he needs some antibiotic.

in the meantime i've been giving him lysine, 500mg a day to suppress the virus. the 500mg pill i have is too big for him to take at once, so i have to give it to him in two shots.

plus the bald spots on him are becoming dry so yesterday i started giving him flax oil (1/4 tsp via syringe) and vit e.

the pills are hard enough, he only will let me give him one at a time and then i have to wait a couple of hours before the next one. the flax oil just about killed the two of us--he really hated that (esp having the syringe near/ in his mouth). and now if i have to start giving the antibiotic twice a day...

i just feel like the entirety of my time spent with him is spent shoving pills down his throat. i've never had a cat before, and i feel so ill equipped to be doing this! :wall:

anyway, i just needed to let it all out and hopefully get some helpful comments from people who know more than me.

Sick cats are difficult! Don't worry though, it gets better!
Would it be possible to put some oil over his food? He might like it better than having a syringe in his mouth. Also, experiment with other kinds of oil, like olive oil, or wild salmon oil (unless you're morally opposed to it). See about changing his food to something like Royal Canin hair and skin formula, which has a lot of fat, but does wonders for skin.
Could you trick him into taking a pill, like mash it into something really especially tasty?
After you give him a pill, immediately put down a tasty treat of some sort, he may be more willing to take pills if he knows that he's going to get rewarded for it afterwards.
You may also want to see if you can rub some sort of oil on his bald patches directly to help with the dry skin. Poor little thing.
That's all I've got. Good luck!

i've tried mixing the oil with his wet food, but he wouldn't eat it. of course, he wouldn't eat his wet food at that point at all, so i may try that again. he finally ate some wet food yesterday. he has been eating the dry all along, and the wet the first few days before he became more congested. yeah, i should try the salmon oil, if i can find it. i know the flax oil tastes bad to him.

and i've tried giving him a treat after the pill--but he won't take it. i think it is also part of the smell thing, altho last night he took a pinch of catnip afterward (he hasn't even been interested in catnip the last few days).

i also did rub some flax oil on this bald patches. i think that is helping, and it also puts a little more oil in his system too, when he licks it off!

i've been feeding him Innova Evo dry food, which he really enjoys and switch between fancy feast wet and wellness wet. he prefers the fancy feast, altho he just doesn't seem to be so into the wet food. he only ever eats half of it, if he eats it at all. but he does drink lots of water.

i've thought of putting the oil on his paws, which i think he would lick off. i might try that, since it is not something that needs to be too specifically dosed.

thanks!

http://www.calvetsupply.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=803

i also saw this: is oral gel just as affective? i think that would be easier to do. do i just rub it on his gums?

Aww, I'm sorry to hear about your kitty. It'll all be worth it when he's feeling like himself.

How important is it to give him the flax oil and vitamin e right now? I have no idea, and only ask because if they aren't essential it might be better to hold on giving him those things until he's over the cold and more adjusted to the new home. Coming into a new home is pretty stressful, and then having to deal with lots of medication can be pretty upsetting. I know it's all in the cat's best interest though, so he'll probably just have to get over it. The good news is, the more you give pills the easier it gets, and especially when they're in a syringe you can just pinch their mouth open at the corners without them suspecting anything and shoot it in in a second flat and be gone before they knew what hit them. Just make sure to shoot it down the throat so they don't spit it back up everywhere. I hated hated giving pills when I was working n the cat infirmary at the shelter, but after working there a few months (1 day/week) I started getting really good at it. Some cats take pills better than others though.

Anyways, good luck catswym, and congrats on getting a new kitty friend. Kudos on adopting, especially one that's older with special needs, that's very awesome.

First-
I feel for you. Sometimes I have become so frustrated giving these medicines and feeling like my cat is afraid of me that I just started crying, or became angry when my cat didn't cooperate. Make sure to allow yourself a lot of time to give the medicine so you don't have the additional time crunch factor adding stress.

But it gets better with practice and as the cat gets used to it. Personally I try to be matter of fact with the cat instead of sneaking up and ambushing them. I think they get used to it and not so scared that you could attack at any minute if they know you will let them know when it's coming. But some cats will just run and hide if they see it coming. So it's up to you to surprise or not.

You could see if the vet can order you a compound, like the oral gel, or a flavored liquid for the food and they even have ear gel now. Also ask the vet to teach you to use a pill gun. They can make things easier for pills.

Does the vet approve of flax oil? I've been afraid to give my animals any because the omega-3s are a blood thinner and I fear too much could cause bleeding. I also don't know how they react with a cats physiology.

Good luck!

How I give my cats pills is wrap them in a towel or blanket. That way the feet are restrained and its easy to give. Lotsa loving too. Good luck - I feel for ya - been there many times, it's very frustrating

thanks everyone.

thalia, i did indeed start crying last night. just getting frustrated with myself and feeling like i was torturing poor chaucer. he is such a good kitty. i do the sit him between my legs method. i don't worry about legs and such because he doesn't claw-- it's just trying to get that darn mouth open and then the pill in the center. sigh.

yeah, i'm going to wait at least a day or two to give him more flax or vit e. esp if i have to start the antibiotic i'll just wait. i'll continue the flax on the skin, because that's easy enough to do and i think that alone will help the skin. plus, like i said, a little bit will get in him from licking it off. i don't specifically have a vet for him. but the woman who runs the shelter gave him flax while he was there, approved by their vet. and what i've read thus far says under a 1/4tsp a day is okay for cats, and he's a big guy too (19lbs).

yeah, i'm not a sneaker upper either. i go over, pet him/ love on him, show him the pill so he knows. set him up and give it to him. then pet/ love on him some more and offer a treat or a pinch of catnip and play with him.

thanks again.

Here's the way that my vet instructed me to pill one of our more difficult cats with minimal amounts of fuss, although I'm not sure I can describe it without pictures...
Once you've got the cat situated (between your knees, wrapped in a towel, whatever)
Place your thumb and forefinger *just* in front of your cats ears, and keep a firm grip. You should be able to control his head pretty well just by doing that. Tilt his head back until his mouth starts to open (not really very far), and with your other hand gently open his mouth and pop the pill in (if possible do this in one movement). Then lots of praise/treats/whatever.

i completely understand what you mean about giving cats pills, since mini got run over, he's had to have tablets three times a day. i've found that crushing the tablets into a fine powder, then rolling it in a slice of ham works quite well - they don't seem to notice, as for the flax oil, couldn't you mix it in with his food? it might be less stressful for both of you that way :)

also for the dry skin, you can try some aloe.. brilliant for all animals..:)

I thought the lysine dose for cats was 250mg/day.. but whatever it is try crushing it and just put it in his water. he'll get some at least and since its a suuplement there isnt an 'optimal' dose.

if he doesnt like wet food, just feed him dry.

i'd take him to the vet though. shelter folk are nice but they're not vets

We had a cat that wouldn't take pill so folded up a piece of cheese and hid the pill inside. It helps to squish the cheese around the pill like a little cheese pocket. This worked really well for us.

thanks everyone.

things are going much better.

i do the 250mg lysine three times a day. i'll probably cut that down to two if he goes on the antibiotic. things i've read say 250-500mg/ day for virus fighting in 'avg' size cat--chaucer is nearly 20lbs, 500-1000mg/ day i think is not too much (plus this is what the vet prescribed about 7months ago for him when he was picked up and had a 'cold' shortly thereafter).

he's doing much better--less tired, follows me around everywhere again, and is meowing a lot (which he did at first), and his meowing is less gurgly. i may take him to the vet saturday--i've just been working crazy lately and i don't have a car, so it requires a little planning to do things such as that.
and, from what i've seen, this shelter is a bit different than most, and the woman who runs it practically is a vet so i'm trusting her, for the most part.

also, he won't take the flax with food--if i add it, he won't eat the food. so, i gave up on that battle. i rub the flax on his bald spots. he gets a little that way, and they are looking a lot better after a few days of that. plus he gets a little of the flax in him from grooming after i've applied it.

thanks for the tips, and support!

eta: and he's getting used to taking the pills and realizing it isn't that hard to do--before he would clench his jaw but now i lift his head, he opens his mouth, i stick it in, stroke his throat, get off and hand him his catnip sock. then he goes crazy. :D

I'm glad the pilling is getting easier. I agree with the earlier post about the pill gun, though---that thing has saved me so much time and my kitties so much annoyance. You just pop the end of the pill into the end of the "gun" (more like a stick/sling-shot), put the end of the pill gun into the kitties mouth, and pop the pill into their throat. It doesn't hurt the cat, but it encourages them to swallow the pill right away, rather than swishing it around in the their mouth and finally spitting it out. Super fast. Best way to give needed meds, IMO.

If you do take the kitty into the vet, you might want to get him checked for ringworm, too. Or was he cultured at the shelter and it ended up negative? Any dry furless round/oval spots on an animal makes me immed think about ringworm. And if he has that, he wouldn't need oral meds--just topical.

well, they weren't dry when he came...i think they were giving him flax (i don't know how) and also, not being virus "activated" allowed his body to take care of other things. and they aren't round/ oval really, and they are definitely from the bleach poured over him--you can follow the outline of baldness and see how it poured down him and pooled in certain areas.

i think i found a vet that looks good so i'll probably call them tomorrow and see about getting him in. better safe than sorry, and i'd rather him not get an oppurtunistic bacterial infection from the suppressed immune system.

i'll let you all know.

Poor sweetheart. :(

I hope he feels much better soon, thanks to your devoted, tender loving care. :)

I wanted to add that although this article http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Villa/9757/Documents/Meds_and_Subqs.html
is mainly about giving fluids, the "philosophy" part in the beginning helped me when I was getting really frustrated giving my cat antibiotics everyday. It was getting so she was afraid of me and that made me feel bad. :( It also helped me tremendously with giving my cats fluids (which hopefully you won't ever need to do) It turned into something that was a huge battle with two humans vs. one 4 lbs. cat to something I can do by myself with realitive ease if I am patient.

so. i ended up taking chaucer to the vet yesterday.

so, weirdly this is apparently the same vet that saw chaucer originally (8 or so months ago) when the woman found him.

anyway, the vet said: oh yeah, i remember he tested positive for FIV and i think his skin baldness is some sort of skin disease but we tested for parasites and worms and used steroids and allergy stuff and none of it helped so you need to do a biopsy and he is very itchy.

so, i said: what?! his medical papers CLEARLY say he is FIV negative, that two different vets at two different places concurred that his injuries were consistent with a burn from a caustic substance being poured on him, and how do you know he is itchy (since he never scratches that area and only licks it when he is doing his head to toe cleaning, or shortly after we put the flax oil on there).

and she said: well he licks it more than normal. and i was like, huh?

but, re: his cold--she didn't prescribe antibiotics--she listened to his lungs and took his temp and his temp was normal, and no abnormal lung sounds, i guess. she recommended just continuing the lysine, 500mg a day.

so then i called the woman from the shelter and she had previously told me to never go to a certain vet place in my area, and weirdly, the vet that i saw was from that other place. the woman from the shelter was like: if you want to get him retested for FIV or have a biopsy we could do that thru our vet, and cover the cost of that (altho they have apparently done two different FIV tests which were both negative, and a biopsy already). and she thinks that this doctor just basically wants to order tests (which is apparently why the woman who originally brought him there stopped taking him there), tests, tests.

and the shelter woman, alice, said, of course if you want to give him back you can.

and i said: i do not want to give my kitty back, of course. i just want to make sure he will be okay.

so, big sigh. i'm going to do the lysine another week, and see if he is better, plus continue the flax oil on his skin, vit e a few times a week, and maybe an antihistamine spray for the skin.

it's like this big kitty cat drama. who knew.

and it is hard to know who to trust, of course. on the one hand, i know how much the shelter woman has done and how much she cares about cats (it's really not just a shelter, but a huge rescue operation with many different cat care programs) but she is also pretty anti vet (in terms of thinking they do a lot of unnecessary things and sometimes dangerous things b/c that is what they are taught in vet school--which is not unlike how a lot of people feel about doctors). and then there is this vet, who we are taught to trust but really made me feel uncomfortable.

anyway, that's the story. i'll keep you all updated about chaucer!