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Tricks that make pilling pets easier
By Pet Connection Staff
December 15, 2009
It’s a prescription that strikes fear into the hearts of thousands of pet owners — especially those with cats: pills. From Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:
Your veterinarian makes it look so easy: Pill. Pet. And like a magic trick, suddenly the pill is inside the pet, the pet seemingly none the wiser.
If only it were that easy for you.
You go home, and you can’t even find your cat when it’s time for medication. Under the bed? Maybe. Behind the couch? Maybe not. How does the cat know, and how is he able to disappear as if by another talented magician?
Your dog is only marginally easier, maybe. Not quite as fussy as your cat, he’ll eat the pill if it’s hidden in something yummy, or so you think. But later you find the pill on the kitchen floor, and you realize he was somehow able to extricate the yummy stuff from the medicine and hide the pill in his jowls for spitting out later. Outsmarted again!
You figure it’s a victory if you get half the pills in for half the number of days they’re prescribed, and you hope that’s good enough.
Problem is, it’s not. One of the biggest problems veterinarians have in helping your pet get better is … you. If you aren’t able to follow through with medications, your pet will likely be back at the vet.
Fortunately, Dr. Becker and Gina have a few helpful hints… read them here!
From Dr. Becker and Mikkel Becker Shannon, a reminder that the poor economy is taking its toll on pets:
The economic downturn is hurting pets in all developed countries, it seems. In the United Kingdom, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the number of abandoned animals increased by 57 percent in 2008. The number of people who call asking about giving up their pets is also up, by 52 percent. Britain’s best-known animal-rescue center, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, is struggling to help more animals: In 2008, it reported taking in more than 1,000 more homeless pets than it had the previous year.
Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week, or download the PDF file here to see it just as we submit it to our client newspapers!
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and let us not forget this..I remember reading it in spring 2007 while pilling both my melamine kitties (one whose passing was one yr ago today) and even way back then this tidbit that I read at Itchmo (I think) made my family laugh so hard we cried…even in those sad days!
How to give a cat a pill:
1. Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat’s mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.
3. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.
4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right fore-finger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.
5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse in from garden.
6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat’s throat vigorously.
7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.
8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down the straw.
9. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take taste away. Apply band-aid to spouse’s forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.
10. Retrieve cat from neighbor’s shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.
11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus jab. Throw Tee-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.
12. Ring fire brigade to retrieve cat from tree across road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.
13. Tie cat’s front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour two pints of water down throat to wash pill down.
14. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and remove pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.
15. Arrange for RSPCA to collect cat and ring local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.
How to give a dog a pill:
1. Wrap it in bacon.
Comment by Carol V — December 15, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Thanks for the laugh, Carol!!
Comment by David S. Greene — December 15, 2009 @ 11:19 am
So true, so true …
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 15, 2009 @ 11:23 am
My dog was just prescribed phenobarb for ideopathic epilepsy. We will be pilling twice a day. Thank Dog she’s not a cat!
Comment by C.L.H. — December 15, 2009 @ 11:35 am
My dogs are pilled twice a day, and have been for years. Long story; let’s just say it’s pretty much like a doggie nursing home around here. My method for daily, long term dog pilling:
Buy a tub of spreadable cream cheese, and designate it for dog use only. Place pills on countertop. Scoop dollop of cream cheese out of tub with index finger. Pick up pills from countertop by pressing cream cheese-laden finger onto pills. Present finger to drooling dog. Lick lick, nom nom, pills and cream cheese magically disappear.
Obviously this method is not suitable for all dogs, lest one’s finger disappear, too. :)
Comment by Rori — December 15, 2009 @ 11:58 am