Tom Cat Update

we started very slowly and blessedly she only gets on 5 m pill a day, also
now there is a cat friendlyversion with a coating so not as hard on their
belly, as long as she doesn't eat a large amount of food right after she is
fine, soft
"Gandalf" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:22:35 -0500, "Storrmmee"
wrote:

OEJ knows her pill benifits her, in the morning, she will wake furree up
if
he is late getting up to give her her pill, there is no treat or anything
special iwith the pill, most of the time when he gets it out, she will
jump
onto the arm of the couch and sit and wait for her pill, I am sure she has
connected the pill with feeling better, soft

Wow, she is a very smart kitteh!

Kenzie's Tapazole made her very, very sick, twice, early on, so I doubt
that she thought they were 'good' for her.

"Gandalf" wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:42:41 -0700, Booker wrote:



On 8/16/2011 8:25 PM, Gandalf wrote:

Poor Kenzie was on Tapazole for hyperthyroidism, for about a year and
a
half. That was 2x a day dosing, every day. When she got sick, there
were
more, off and on. Lots of meds, unfortunately.


Tapazole is the MOST awful tasting medicine on earth. I know, I take it.
Just yuck, yuck, yuck. It's a good day when I can swallow it without it
touching my tongue or mouth.

Good for Kenzie if she didn't immediately run under the bed after
experiencing Tapazole.

Anti Julie


I worked out a system for giving Kenzie her Tapazole.

I used a wooden coffee stir stick, and I would get a little ball of
refrigerated soft margarine on the end of it, by dragging it through the
margarine.

Then I would place the 1/2 Tapazole tablet on the margarine, and bury it
into the margarine.

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever in
her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I thought of using a small stick, to get it onto the back of her tongue.

It is very good to have friends, to ask for advice, when you are in dire
need

Then I would get Kenzie to open her mouth, (which she was not happy
about, but always did, with a tiny bit of fuss) and I would place the
stick with the margarine facing down, and I would quickly 'wipe' it on
the back of her tongue, as quickly as possible, and as far back as
possible.

If I did everything right, she would reflexively swallow very quickly,
and not taste the horrible, bitter taste of the Tapezole.

Sometimes, she would spit it out, if I didn't get it far enough back on
her tongue; once or twice, it took me 3 times, to get her to swallow it.

But she stayed right by my feet as I worked on the kitchen counter, and
would patiently wait for me to get everything ready, and try again.

I can't believe that she did it for the little bite of sardine that she
got as her reward. A small tin of sardines split 14 ways, is very small
indeed.

I used the same method for other medications, 'fitting' as much as I
could into the little bit of margarine, and repeating it, when I had too
much medication to give her all at once.

She used to watch me prepare her Tapazole, almost every day, too.

Cats are very smart: they know what you are doing, when you are getting
their medication, even if you just take it out of a bottle. It's is
nearly impossible to fool a cat..especially twice a day, every day, for
a very long time.

Kenzie only ever hid from me when she was very, very sick. This happened
several times. It is instinct for a cat to hide, when they are so sick:
in the wild, they would be easy prey, for another, bigger predator.

But never, ever, just when I was going to give her her medication.

When I was all done, I gave Kenzie a little bit of sardine, which she
wolfed down. I used to take a tin of sardines, put it into a clean glass
jar, and mix it up and break up the pieces up with a fork.

A tin of sardines used to last about a week, giving Kenzie a little bit,
twice a day.

Then, I would give her her regular food, because the medication had to
be given with food.

Tapazole itself causes nausea, and twice I had to take her off of it,
completely, for a week, and then start it at a very low dose, and
increase it gradually, over a period of 5 or 6 weeks, so she wouldn't
get sick from it.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny pieces,
with a razor blade!

She was a very smart cat., but she couldn't have known that the very
bitter Tapezole was good for her.

I finally had to conclude that she was so good about taking her
medication, only because I wanted her to do it. What else would account
for her behavior, when I gave her her pills, even when she was sick, and
cranky?

She was a very special cat, as I said.

I was a frequent visitor to the vet clinic, later in Kenzie's life, and
all of the technicians loved Kenzie, because she was so easy to draw
blood from, or do anything else that needed to be done. Kenzie didn't
like it, but she only put of the smallest token of resistance.

And, she was so very pretty, too

My vet, Katie, was visibly upset, when we had to send Kenzie to the
Bridge.

She talked with me for awhile, afterwards, and then she gave me a big
hug

And, she asked if I would come back to the clinic, if and when I got
another cat.

As if I would even consider going anywhere else.

She didn't charge me for Kenzie's euthanasia, or for many hundreds of
dollars of care she had previously received.

I asked about it, and I was refused. I would have paid every penny, of
course.

Kenzie is buried in my back yard, near my other two RB kitties, under
the lilac bushes I planted, when I bought my little house, in 1979.

I have stones marking the places where Lucky (June 9, 1999), Blizzard
(April 10, 2001), and Kenzie (Oct 23, 2010) were laid to rest.

They were all very, very special cats. Lucky was the friendliest,
greeting strangers at the door. She loved everyone. She always wanted to
be on top of me, or playing with me.

When Lucky saw me take my laser pointer off the little hook where it
hung, she would get REALLY excited, every time. She knew that I was
responsible for the red greebling.but she just loved to chase it. She
was a VERY smart cat, too.

There is a tribute page to her he

http://www.flippyscatpage.com/tribute-lucky.html

Blizzard was not a real bright cat, and she ran when the doorbell rang,
but she loved to sleep in my lap, and just went absolutely crazy for
fresh catnip. She was pure white, except for a tiny speck of black, on
her nose.

Her fur was incredibly soft, and longer than a 'typical' DSH: she was a
'medium hair' cat. I had white fur on every piece of clothing I owned.

I used to buy lint pick-up rollers 6 at a time. I haven't had to buy
any, since before Blizzard went to the Bridge, despite Kenzie having a
fair amount of white fur.

There is a tribute page to blizzard he

http://www.flippyscatpage.com/tribute-blizzard.html

Kenzie was just a very sweet cat. She wasn't a lap cat. She really
didn't like to play, like most cats do. She was just a very, very
special cat. She seemed to want to please me, like a new puppy would.
But, she did it throughout her entire life with me... within limits, of
course.

I only had her for 11 ½ years; I adopted her when she was about 3 years
old

I know that she loved me, as much as I loved her. She was always happy,
always; except when she got sick, which happened a lot, in her last year
and a half, unfortunately.

And now I have Lorelei. She reminds me so much of Kenzie, because she's
similar in temperament, and some of her habits, as well. She's very
sweet, and good natured. She asks for very little from me, just like
Kenzie.

I have fresh catnip for her, that I grow for her. She likes it, but she
doesn't go crazy on it, like my Blizzard did.

She sleeps with me, and she knows to try not to wake me up, once I turn
the lights out. Most nights, I hardly know she's there, unless I move,
and touch her, where she sleeps on a pillow near me.

When she gets cold, because I turn the heat completely off at night in
the winter, I will hear a soft meow, and sometimes, a soft tap on my
face with her paw.

This is to tell me she wants to get under the covers with me, because it
has gotten so cold in my bedroom.

I lift up my 7 blankets, and a comforter, (it gets COLD, with no heat,
all night long, in the winter, in this part of America!), so she can
quickly scoot underneath. She makes a U-turn, and then she presses
herself tightly up against me, and she likes to put her head and front
paws on my left arm, and sleeps in that position, until I move, if I do.

Lorelei's body temperature is warmer than mine, but we both benefit from
being so close to each other: we both sleep warmer.

If I wake up, or turn over, I often scritch Lorelei ears. She loves ear
scritches, more than most anything else. She never seems to mind, if I
wake her up. Yet, she knows I don't like to be woken up by her. She is
smart, and she has better manners than I do, I think.

I still call her Kenzie by mistake, some times.

Lorelei pretends not to notice.

I think she likes me

but not with the tapazol, its so bitter humans who take it say they often
gag on it if it touches any part of a taste bud, soft
"cshenk" wrote in message
...
Gandalf wrote in rec.pets.cats.community:

(snips, on pilling a cat)

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever in
her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny pieces,
with a razor blade!

For others and your use later if you need to get a pill into a cat, is
a simple method we use. Take a ziplock baggie (freezer type is better,
you want it thick) and add the pill. Use a rolling pin to crush it.

I was able to get Daisy-chan to take her meds this way by adding it to
a 1/2 amount of her normal food (so she'd eat it all). You can of
course mix with butter.



--

What a beautiful story. Thank you very much for posting it.



On 8/17/2011 9:34 PM, Gandalf wrote:

I worked out a system for giving Kenzie her Tapazole.


[gently shredded]


I think she likes me

I hope you people who talk about crushing pills for your animals ask your
vets first. I had to give O T an antibiotic once and the vet said NO DO NOT
CRUSH IT. Would hit his system too fast and could cause him trouble. Same
with human meds some people crush them for older people and tear up a
stomach lining.

"cshenk" wrote in message
...

Gandalf wrote in rec.pets.cats.community:

(snips, on pilling a cat)

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever in
her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny pieces,
with a razor blade!

For others and your use later if you need to get a pill into a cat, is
a simple method we use. Take a ziplock baggie (freezer type is better,
you want it thick) and add the pill. Use a rolling pin to crush it.

I was able to get Daisy-chan to take her meds this way by adding it to
a 1/2 amount of her normal food (so she'd eat it all). You can of
course mix with butter.



--

On Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:59:18 -0500, "Gramby"
wrote:

I hope you people who talk about crushing pills for your animals ask your
vets first. I had to give O T an antibiotic once and the vet said NO DO NOT
CRUSH IT. Would hit his system too fast and could cause him trouble. Same
with human meds some people crush them for older people and tear up a
stomach lining.


This is a good point. I have a medication I have to take for high
lipids, and it has a warning not to crush it, or cut it in half, ever.

It's VERY strongly worded, too.

Most medication it doesn't matter, but some, like once a day dosing meds
have a 'time release' formulation, so it's absorbed more slowly.

Many cat medications are simply small doses of human meds, cut in half
or even quarters. I cut Pepcid in quarters for Kenzie. That made it
quite inexpensive.

I would hope that vets would know which ones can be cut....but I would
ask a pharmacist, as well, if there is any question at all.

They have access to databases provided by the manufacturers of
pharmaceuticals, and can look it up quickly an easily.





"cshenk" wrote in message
m...

Gandalf wrote in rec.pets.cats.community:

(snips, on pilling a cat)

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever in
her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny pieces,
with a razor blade!

For others and your use later if you need to get a pill into a cat, is
a simple method we use. Take a ziplock baggie (freezer type is better,
you want it thick) and add the pill. Use a rolling pin to crush it.

I was able to get Daisy-chan to take her meds this way by adding it to
a 1/2 amount of her normal food (so she'd eat it all). You can of
course mix with butter.



--

Gramby wrote in rec.pets.cats.community:

I hope you people who talk about crushing pills for your animals ask
your vets first. I had to give O T an antibiotic once and the vet
said NO DO NOT CRUSH IT. Would hit his system too fast and could
cause him trouble. Same with human meds some people crush them for
older people and tear up a stomach lining.

Of course it depends on the item Gramby. That's always true. In this
case, Daisy-chan got one that was crushable deliberately at vet's
suggestion because even they tried to pill her with no success. It was
an allergy med if that matters. The one time she needed an antibiotic,
it came pre-crushed with a tiny spoon to be added to food. I assume a
formula made for that type of distribution.

Tramadol can also be crushed as Sammy (dog, rb last year at age 18) was
on that for years with his first owner. When his first owner died, he
came to live his last 9 months with us (along with about 3 months worth
of powedered tramadol). I tucked a small part of his daily dose inside
a raw fingerling fish which he loved. When the powder ran out, the vet
said it was fine to use some of mine as long as I kept to the dosage
per day (50mg).


"cshenk" wrote in message
...

Gandalf wrote in rec.pets.cats.community:

(snips, on pilling a cat)

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever
in her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny
pieces, with a razor blade!

For others and your use later if you need to get a pill into a cat, is
a simple method we use. Take a ziplock baggie (freezer type is
better, you want it thick) and add the pill. Use a rolling pin to
crush it.

I was able to get Daisy-chan to take her meds this way by adding it to
a 1/2 amount of her normal food (so she'd eat it all). You can of
course mix with butter.



--

Gandalf, thank you so much for the nice mention about me and the margarine
for Kenzie and the Tapezole .
I too have a hyperactive thyroid and I have to take something called
propropolythouricacil (sp) I call it PTU and I take once a day and it has
no taste at all. Can you get your med switched?
I remember how much trouble you had with poor Kenzie, and I loved the pix of
you other 2 RB kitties too.
I know how much you miss them all.
I'm also happy you and Lorelei are doing better and hope you both have a
long an happy life together,
I will e-mail you soon.
You are a good friend as well.
Kyla

On 8/16/2011 8:25 PM, Gandalf wrote:

Poor Kenzie was on Tapazole for hyperthyroidism, for about a year and a
half. That was 2x a day dosing, every day. When she got sick, there
were
more, off and on. Lots of meds, unfortunately.


Tapazole is the MOST awful tasting medicine on earth. I know, I take it.
Just yuck, yuck, yuck. It's a good day when I can swallow it without it
touching my tongue or mouth.

Good for Kenzie if she didn't immediately run under the bed after
experiencing Tapazole.

Anti Julie


I worked out a system for giving Kenzie her Tapazole.

I used a wooden coffee stir stick, and I would get a little ball of
refrigerated soft margarine on the end of it, by dragging it through the
margarine.

Then I would place the 1/2 Tapazole tablet on the margarine, and bury it
into the margarine.

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever in
her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I thought of using a small stick, to get it onto the back of her tongue.

It is very good to have friends, to ask for advice, when you are in dire
need

Then I would get Kenzie to open her mouth, (which she was not happy
about, but always did, with a tiny bit of fuss) and I would place the
stick with the margarine facing down, and I would quickly 'wipe' it on
the back of her tongue, as quickly as possible, and as far back as
possible.

If I did everything right, she would reflexively swallow very quickly,
and not taste the horrible, bitter taste of the Tapezole.

Sometimes, she would spit it out, if I didn't get it far enough back on
her tongue; once or twice, it took me 3 times, to get her to swallow it.

But she stayed right by my feet as I worked on the kitchen counter, and
would patiently wait for me to get everything ready, and try again.

I can't believe that she did it for the little bite of sardine that she
got as her reward. A small tin of sardines split 14 ways, is very small
indeed.

I used the same method for other medications, 'fitting' as much as I
could into the little bit of margarine, and repeating it, when I had too
much medication to give her all at once.

She used to watch me prepare her Tapazole, almost every day, too.

Cats are very smart: they know what you are doing, when you are getting
their medication, even if you just take it out of a bottle. It's is
nearly impossible to fool a cat..especially twice a day, every day, for
a very long time.

Kenzie only ever hid from me when she was very, very sick. This happened
several times. It is instinct for a cat to hide, when they are so sick:
in the wild, they would be easy prey, for another, bigger predator.

But never, ever, just when I was going to give her her medication.

When I was all done, I gave Kenzie a little bit of sardine, which she
wolfed down. I used to take a tin of sardines, put it into a clean glass
jar, and mix it up and break up the pieces up with a fork.

A tin of sardines used to last about a week, giving Kenzie a little bit,
twice a day.

Then, I would give her her regular food, because the medication had to
be given with food.

Tapazole itself causes nausea, and twice I had to take her off of it,
completely, for a week, and then start it at a very low dose, and
increase it gradually, over a period of 5 or 6 weeks, so she wouldn't
get sick from it.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny pieces,
with a razor blade!

She was a very smart cat., but she couldn't have known that the very
bitter Tapezole was good for her.

I finally had to conclude that she was so good about taking her
medication, only because I wanted her to do it. What else would account
for her behavior, when I gave her her pills, even when she was sick, and
cranky?

She was a very special cat, as I said.

I was a frequent visitor to the vet clinic, later in Kenzie's life, and
all of the technicians loved Kenzie, because she was so easy to draw
blood from, or do anything else that needed to be done. Kenzie didn't
like it, but she only put of the smallest token of resistance.

And, she was so very pretty, too

My vet, Katie, was visibly upset, when we had to send Kenzie to the
Bridge.

She talked with me for awhile, afterwards, and then she gave me a big
hug

And, she asked if I would come back to the clinic, if and when I got
another cat.

As if I would even consider going anywhere else.

She didn't charge me for Kenzie's euthanasia, or for many hundreds of
dollars of care she had previously received.

I asked about it, and I was refused. I would have paid every penny, of
course.

Kenzie is buried in my back yard, near my other two RB kitties, under
the lilac bushes I planted, when I bought my little house, in 1979.

I have stones marking the places where Lucky (June 9, 1999), Blizzard
(April 10, 2001), and Kenzie (Oct 23, 2010) were laid to rest.

They were all very, very special cats. Lucky was the friendliest,
greeting strangers at the door. She loved everyone. She always wanted to
be on top of me, or playing with me.

When Lucky saw me take my laser pointer off the little hook where it
hung, she would get REALLY excited, every time. She knew that I was
responsible for the red greebling.but she just loved to chase it. She
was a VERY smart cat, too.

There is a tribute page to her he

http://www.flippyscatpage.com/tribute-lucky.html

Blizzard was not a real bright cat, and she ran when the doorbell rang,
but she loved to sleep in my lap, and just went absolutely crazy for
fresh catnip. She was pure white, except for a tiny speck of black, on
her nose.

Her fur was incredibly soft, and longer than a 'typical' DSH: she was a
'medium hair' cat. I had white fur on every piece of clothing I owned.

I used to buy lint pick-up rollers 6 at a time. I haven't had to buy
any, since before Blizzard went to the Bridge, despite Kenzie having a
fair amount of white fur.

There is a tribute page to blizzard he

http://www.flippyscatpage.com/tribute-blizzard.html

Kenzie was just a very sweet cat. She wasn't a lap cat. She really
didn't like to play, like most cats do. She was just a very, very
special cat. She seemed to want to please me, like a new puppy would.
But, she did it throughout her entire life with me... within limits, of
course.

I only had her for 11 ½ years; I adopted her when she was about 3 years
old

I know that she loved me, as much as I loved her. She was always happy,
always; except when she got sick, which happened a lot, in her last year
and a half, unfortunately.

And now I have Lorelei. She reminds me so much of Kenzie, because she's
similar in temperament, and some of her habits, as well. She's very
sweet, and good natured. She asks for very little from me, just like
Kenzie.

I have fresh catnip for her, that I grow for her. She likes it, but she
doesn't go crazy on it, like my Blizzard did.

She sleeps with me, and she knows to try not to wake me up, once I turn
the lights out. Most nights, I hardly know she's there, unless I move,
and touch her, where she sleeps on a pillow near me.

When she gets cold, because I turn the heat completely off at night in
the winter, I will hear a soft meow, and sometimes, a soft tap on my
face with her paw.

This is to tell me she wants to get under the covers with me, because it
has gotten so cold in my bedroom.

I lift up my 7 blankets, and a comforter, (it gets COLD, with no heat,
all night long, in the winter, in this part of America!), so she can
quickly scoot underneath. She makes a U-turn, and then she presses
herself tightly up against me, and she likes to put her head and front
paws on my left arm, and sleeps in that position, until I move, if I do.

Lorelei's body temperature is warmer than mine, but we both benefit from
being so close to each other: we both sleep warmer.

If I wake up, or turn over, I often scritch Lorelei ears. She loves ear
scritches, more than most anything else. She never seems to mind, if I
wake her up. Yet, she knows I don't like to be woken up by her. She is
smart, and she has better manners than I do, I think.

I still call her Kenzie by mistake, some times.

Lorelei pretends not to notice.

I think she likes me

The long extended relief/long acting pills , CANNOT and must NOT be
crushed, or the pet or human could suffer an overdose and die.

My Dr wanted me to take a long acting pain pill for my arthritis and it said
'do not crush' and I declined the pill and am taking another one, same pill,
different dose. Besides, the cost was so horrid, and I can remember to take
this 'same' pill every 4 hours. It was just a matter of convenience is all.

Like it has been suggested, ask the Dr or the Vet' before' crushing 'any'
pill.

When Mosey got sick, the vet gave him liquid antibiotics and pain meds, and
were 'very' careful about the dosage.
Mosey is fine now.
Kyla

"cshenk"

Gandalf wrote in rec.pets.cats.community:

(snips, on pilling a cat)

The margarine was Aunti Kyla's idea, Mosey's Meowmie. I am forever in
her debt, for her wonderful suggestion.

I got REALLY good at cutting those tiny pills into REALLY tiny pieces,
with a razor blade!

For others and your use later if you need to get a pill into a cat, is
a simple method we use. Take a ziplock baggie (freezer type is better,
you want it thick) and add the pill. Use a rolling pin to crush it.

I was able to get Daisy-chan to take her meds this way by adding it to
a 1/2 amount of her normal food (so she'd eat it all). You can of
course mix with butter.



--