Hurray for emergency vets! do get insurance though!!

[hlb296]

having decided that Angel was definately out of sorts, sooo lethargic, though still eating and drinking... no use of tail and whinced when we touched it - a cat without tail use is a sorry sight!
we popped along to the local vets who have an emergency service - great to have people who'll do that on Saturday night in a bank holiday weekend!
ouch to the price £169 for consultation and medicines!!! thankfully I went for insurance!
anyway he's back to himself, tail action restored!

any good tips for getting tablets down cats - we're on pilchards at the moment!

cheers Helen

[Elaine]

http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/pet/fhc/pill_or_capsule

http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/pet/fhc/liquid_medications

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/clientED/cat_meds.aspx

http://files.hsus.org/web-files/HSI/E_Library_PDFs/eng_ht_pill_cat.pdf

http://www.essortment.com/all/howtogiveyour_rsom.htm

Poor Angel xxx
In order to pill Eva, I pretty much have to sit on her:lol: Winston was always easy to pill and would also take pills in cheese, ham etc. Primula cheese was a favourite of many who had/have CRF cats, so may well do the trick for Angel too.

[yola]

Did they tell you what was the matter with Angel's tail??

Glad all's well now though. I had to do an emergency vet dash a couple of years ago with my Fifi when she ate, and started choking on, some dried flowers :roll: and yes, it is pricey isn't it!!

[farthing]

I am so gratefully our vets do an out of hours service, we are always calling them out. I think a lot of vets have somebody else do the emergency cover, but ours do it themselves as they are quite a big practice. It is so good when you are in a panic to talk to somebody who knows you and often the animal, even though I must be a pain for them at 2am on a sunday morning.:lol:

[hlb296]

the vet reckoned Angel had had his tail bitten - ouch:(

still seems fine now so that's good news!

thanks for advice - I'll try any levels of bribery and corruption to get his tablets down him :-P

[dandysmom]

I am so gratefully our vets do an out of hours service, we are always calling them out. I think a lot of vets have somebody else do the emergency cover, but ours do it themselves as they are quite a big practice. It is so good when you are in a panic to talk to somebody who knows you and often the animal, even though I must be a pain for them at 2am on a sunday morning.:lol:


So do mine. It is better when they know the animal and have all the records there; I've only had to use the emergency service once on a Sunday, and was so grateful they were available.

Good luck with the pilling!

[kado]

I regular have too get pills down simon and guinness. Sometimes they will take it straight out of my hand. I usual try to do it when they are asleep just sneek a little gap push it in and rub neck. Doesnt always work though but its worth a try.

[yola]

My vets (not sure if they're the same one as Helen's as we live in the same town) have a 'contracted out' out of hours service. So whereas it's run by a different group the overall adminstration is handled by the primary practice. The out of hours people have access to all animal records for those registered at the practice plus it's open to all-comers too.

There aren't that many in the town that do emergency cover so people tend to come from quite a wide area - thankfully it's literally around the corner for me so I can walk there if I have to.

In terms of pilling Ferdy was my most difficult one. I really had to almost sit on him and gently force his mouth open with one hand whilst feedng the tablet to the back of his throat. Then I'd hold his mouth shut and rub his throat . . . sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't :roll:

[dandysmom]

Pilling (in theory)

1. Wrap cat securely in heavy towel and wedge firmly between your body and arm of chair.
2. Force mouth open and insert pill as far down the throat as you can
3. Put hand over muzzle and stroke throat till cat "swallows"
4. Release cat who leaps away angrily and spits out pill

That's the way it goes in my house.... :roll:

[farthing]

You could try a pill giver, it saves you fingers if they are particularly quick to bite.
http://www.petvetcare.co.uk/acatalog/General_Care.html

Its about the 28th item down!

Having so many cats to tablet, we've become pretty quick at popping the pills down, the only problem is some of the more experienced cats have become pretty quick at bringing them back up again.

[pookyandjo]

i know this will sound stupid... but dont discount it unless yu have tried it because if it works it is so easy and stress free that you will wonder why you didn't try it earlier..
crush the tablet to powder and sprinkle it on the food..
of course some tablets you aren't able to do this because of the special coating on them so check with the vet first..
But i feed tablets to Harri this way... just give her a small portion(maybe a tablespoon) of wet food in her bowl.. with the tablet powder on top... the powder "disappears" into the wet food.. the only thing to add is that sometimes i give her a smelly /fishy food so if the pill is a little bitter the strong taste of the food masks it

[yola]

It depends on the medication I suppose doesn't it Jo, and what it tastes like! I know on the couple of occasions I tried this method I had to discard both food and medication as it was a no-go.

But certainly worth trying once to see if it works . . .

[pookyandjo]

the other thing i just remembered... and im not sure if it's available where you take your pets....my vet will (if asked) grind up suitable medication, make into a liquid and flavour with fish/chicken/beef or any other of about 15 different flavours.. then it can be dispensed either into food.. or squirted into the mouth with a syringe..
I had this for Tinky Winky earlier this year.. but because of his protein allergy the vet just sweetened the liquid because a lot of the flavours had protein in them.. much easier to shoot a small amount of liquid in the mouth than a pill!

[dandysmom]

I agree that liquid is easier t administer. Leia is impossible to pill, but when she had cystitis I was able to get the liquid antiinflammatory in her!

[pinklizzy]

I love pillgivers! Save my poor fingers ;) Another trick which I sometimes use, depending on the medication of course, is to crush the tablet, pop the powder into a small (2ml) syringe and add a bit of warm water then syringe into the mouth-not quite as easy to spit back out. :D