The Chronicles of Pete

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Pete can open all the doors except the bathroom door, but my fridge is on a shelf above the washing machine, slightly beyond his current abilities. If he had a cardboard box of dry food, he'd just tear it open (and in fact has done!)

[ian]

Bad Cat can open any door. Even locked ones (well, if it's a catflap, she somehow manages to get a claw behind it and with a little persistence pops the catch). She's stymied by the fridge on the grounds she can't reach it. Uncharacteristically she doesn't really steal food (though I wouldn't leave her unsupervised with a can of tuna).

Little Monster Cat can't do doors though which means she gets stuck in the bathroom a lot. She can only push, hasn't figured out how to pull.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I have hard floors throughout so there's a bit of a gap under every door (except the bathroom) so Pete hooks his paw underneath and pulls them open. For the push doors, he just barges in.

[ian]

Yes, she'll get her claw then paw behind anything and pull. It's how she slides open the wardrobe doors, the little shit.

Little Monster Cat never figured that out. We prop most of the doors open* with the exception of the bathroom which is why she tends to get stuck in there. She tries to push which merely closes it and seals her in. She does wait very patiently for liberation.

*because once upon a time when they were kittens we had the bright idea of keeping some doors closed, like my office. In new house with spanking new and very expensive carpets. One Saturday we were out all day and came back to find that Bad Cat had spent the entire day trying to dig under all the closed doors. The carpets, alas. The little shit.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Pete has spent all of today asleep and snoring, until I started using the steam cleaner on the kitchen floor, whereupon he decided he wanted to help.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Pete just came face-to-face with Rico in the stair (neighbour's cat). No fighting!

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Pete is a very naughty cat who has pulled the shift key off my keyboard with his claws, and was caught up on the worktop inspecting the top of the microwave.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Pete and I are off to the vet later as he is producing huge amounts of soft, foul-smelling poo, then trying to cover it up with litter but standing in it and getting it all up his back legs. Silly boy. I would have left it a few more days if the vet was going to be open Monday and Tuesday, but having discussed it on the phone, we agreed I should bring him in.

[TimO]

Poor Pete, not a good way to celebrate Christmas.  Hopefully it's something relatively easily solvable.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

They gave him antibiotics last Friday, the taking of which he has not cooperated with. His liquidy poo has continued, and he has very little appetite so I took him back in today. She gave him an injection of something which is supposed to relieve pain and stimulate appetite, and said it would take about an hour to work but that was four hours ago and he still isn't hungry. He hasn't eaten since yesterday morning. I'm going to ring them in a little while - I think they'll want to admit him tonight or tomorrow morning. Poor boy, he's not at all happy; he's just hiding away by himself.

[SoreTween]

How is he?
One of ours is a tad fluid at the mo but not like poor Pete.  Every morning reminds me to ask.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

We went back to the vet on Wednesday evening and she injected him with an antibiotic and a long-acting painkiller, and took bloods. We discussed admitting him but she felt as he was well hydrated (and she gave him 150ml saline while we were there) there wasn't really much else they could do and felt he'd be comfier at home. The bloods they could analyse on-site were clear and the rest had to be sent away. We discussed how difficult it is for me to get pills into him - he is much more cooperative for the vets than he is for me - so she suggested they teach me how to inject him. We agreed that if he was still as poorly I would take him first thing next morning without an appointment, but if he was doing better, I'd take him in in the evening, and I brought him home. Oh, and they weighed him, and despite having eaten very little for 4 days and nothing at all for 2, he'd gained 40 grams.

He was so poorly on Wednesday evening, not eating, leaking tiny amounts of liquid poo from his bum, crouching on the floor in the hall all night, and I really wondered if I should have asked them to admit him. I didn't sleep very well and got up to check on him at midnight when he was obviously much better and asking for some food. He's gone right off poached chicken; I assume he associates it with feeling ill, so I gave him some wet food which he gobbled and some more at 4am and breakfast time. I went to work but couldn't really settle and they let me work from home in the afternoon so I could keep an eye on him.

We went back to the vet Thursday and they taught me how to inject him, confirmed all his bloods had come back as normal, and they gave me 4 syringes drawn up with his antibiotics. He ate normally on Friday and his injection went fine. Yesterday he slept all day and didn't even ask for his tea. I made a hash of his injection, squirted antibiotic all over his fur instead of his insides so had to use tonight's dose, so he'll be a dose short. (Rang the emergency vet to see if they would give/sell me one but they'd have to see him first and having paid £350 in vet fees in the last week, that's not an option). He has a blocked nose now, poor thing, and is very sleepy and snuffly. He keeps huffing through his nose and looking confused. I put him in his carrier earlier with a bowl of boiling water next to him and a towel over it all to give him some steam inhalation. He hated it, but it did seem to help.

So that's where we're at. If he's still as snuffly tomorrow I might have to think about the emergency vet but fingers crossed it'll settle.

[Jaded]

Fingers crossed indeed. It’s really no fun, situations like this.

As for injecting a cat - seeing the fine jet of liquid go all over the surface because you’ve gone right through two layers of skin and out the other side... beenthere.

C’mon Pete 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

He tolerates it really well, although I shifted the odds in my favour by giving him some food. He barely noticed the needle!

[TimO]

When I had to give Talisker a pill every day, because of hyperthyroidism, I gave it to him before breakfast, with the hope that he would associate it with his food.

Luckily, he liked being held upside down like a baby, so was in the perfect position for feeding a pill to !  Zev hates being held like that, so I generally have to resort to wrapping her in a towel for pills.

It's worth remembering that cats can't spit, so if you can flick the pill to the back of the tongue, and smooth their throat until they swallow, most of the time they will be unable to avoid ingesting it.  Talisker would occasionally manage to work the pill around his mouth until he could let it drop it, but that happened less than once a month (and I'd grab the pill and shove it back in, since they cost over £1 each!)

It sounds like Pete is getting slowly better, which seems to be par for the course with cats.  They don't seem to have dramatically sudden recoveries.  Fingers crossed for further improvements.

[Mrs Pingu]

My memory of giving geriatric kittehs pills is very much different to giving to the youth now!
You get lulled into a false sense of security....

[Jaded]

Alfie would happily accept pills from me.

Anyone else - blood, tears, guts, disaster.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I know the theory of how to do it, but Pete doesn't want to learn, and he's such a big strong cat I worry that overpowering his resistance will hurt him.

The poor boy has snot bubbling out of his nose today and he keeps trying to huff it out. I gave him more steam inhalation which he still hates, but it did help.

[SteveC]

Getting tablets into our late Ginge was a nightmare using any of the 'standard' techniques.
As he was on thyroid tablets for the last two and a half years of his life, and then Phenobarbital twice a day for the last nine months or so, we needed to come up with a different solution.
'Shippam's' fish pastes (or meat) to the rescue. A small, maybe about 8mm ball with the tablet in the middle. That worked almost all the time. On the rare occasions it didn't, crushing the tablet into a small amount of butter and either feeding it to him, or smearing it round his chops so that we would wash if off later, seemed to do the trick. Even the vets had problems injecting him.

[TimO]

I know the theory of how to do it, but Pete doesn't want to learn, and he's such a big strong cat I worry that overpowering his resistance will hurt him. ...

Drop a towel over him, and wrap him in it, fairly tightly.  Largely this stops them struggling, and it can catch sharp claws too!  I think it's fairly benign, but you do need to keep it tight enough around their necks, that they can't get a paw out.

For some odd reason, Zev has yet to make the association between a towel and being wrapped in it, which is lucky, since I've had to give her pills and eye drops, and wrapping her is the only practical and safe way to do it.


If looks could kill, etc ...

[ian]

Even vets have struggled to give Little Monster Cat pills and have had to take a 'time out' while she calms down, the only real method is surprise, once she knows, she starts to do the eleven-dimensional twist and claw. We'd have no chance. Taking her to the vets or cattery is however quite easy since she's not yet figured out that the best place to hide isn't the cat carrier... We leave it open on the bed and start to corral her with closed doors and every time she'll end up in her carrier. Door closed, job done.

Bad Cat will make a noise that I suspect would beckon the any RSPCA van within a 10 mile radius, but mostly you can make her take a pill or suffer the indignity of eye drops. After initial struggles she most opts to play dead.

Our ex-cat was on on thyroid meds, we used to grind them up and sprinkle over her food which she always wolfed down.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I had no problem getting eyedrops into Pete at all.

He's currently fast asleep, with all his claws out. 

[andrewc]

Hope the poor chap is on the mend soon.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

He's doing better today. He's been awake for longer, has tried a few different sleeping places, looked out of the window, sat on the top of his tower, and sat on my knee. He also did some scampering earlier on. He's not as snuffly as he was, and is generally much brighter. I gave him another steaming session earlier which improved his breathing, and I haven't seen any snot bubbling at his nostrils. He has been rubbing his face on me though, so I could be covered in it.

[Kim]

You know what's worse than affectionately-rubbed cat snot?  Sudden death explosive cat snot.   

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