| Jun. 5th, 2007 @ 09:04 pm Just Say No! Or Meow, whichever works for you. |
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So we're moving on Saturday. This means a 5-7 hour drive across the state of Pennsylvania with two very angry cats.
It's 5-7 hours because we'll have to stop every hour and a half, doctors orders, so that I get out and stretch my legs. Not to mention I'll probably have to pee anyway.
Well, last time we moved across the state of PA, we only had Eddie. And our vet gave us some wonderful knock-out drops for him. Unfortunately, Eddie came to in the middle of the last tunnel, with an hour car ride yet to go. It freaked him out a little bit.
So I asked our vet out here if we could have something similar (if not the same) for our cats for our ride back. She suggested that we try Benedryl first, as it usually makes cats really drowsy. 25mg for Eddie, 3/4 of a 25 mg pill for Baxter, since he's a lightweight.
Yeah...so I gave them each their medicine about a week ago. It had NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER. None. Nada. Zip. Other than seriously pissing off the cats. It turns out also that while Eddie is freakishly easy to give medicine to, Baxter is equally difficult. He scratched the crap out of Sean while he was holding him.
So we went back to the doctor and told her, "It didn't seem to have any effect." She says, "Oh, that's strange, because usually if it doesn't make them sleepy, it makes them hyper. In either case, it usually helps them with the motion sickness, which is why they complain. Try again, but do a test run around in your car about an hour after giving your cats the medicine."
So we tried that today. Eddie, freakishly easy to give a pill to, just sort of looked at me when I was done and shook his head as if to say, "I didn't really need that."
Baxter, however, was another case altogether.
The first trick is finding him. We lured him out with a fresh basked of laundry, nice and warm from the dryer. I went to give Eddie his pill, and came back to find Bax drowsy, sleeping on my socks. So I hurried up, grabbed his 3/4 pill, and tried to give it to him. For those of you that are not familiar with giving drugs to cats, it's usually pretty simple. You grab the scruff of their neck or otherwise restrain them, pry open their mouth, and put the pill back far in their throat. They swallow it (usually) pretty automatically. No, you can't usually hide it in food or treats, as they just eat around it. I've tried. I've even tried flavoring them with "tuna gravy" from the can. Doesn't work.
Yeah, someone needs to tell Baxter that. I tried, he spit it out. So I tried again, and in the process of spitting it out again, he managed to lodge his tooth in my right index finger. Nice and deep too. Of course, this was the finger I had just recently pricked for glucose testing, so it was PARTICULARLY pleasant. So now I'm bleeding, and there is 3/4 of a half digested Benedryl tablet on my nice clean socks. I grabbed a dishtowel and cleaned up the mess while Baxter hid under the bed.
I needed reinforcements. So I got Sean a nice old towel, sturdy and big, but not too big. You know, the hotel towel type (since that's exactly what it was.) I shook the treat can, and Baxter came out to the kitchen. I gave him a few treats while Sean crept up on him. Finally, Sean pounced, wrapping the cat in a pretty graceful motion. Quickly, I put down the treat can and grabbed the pill. SOMEHOW on the third try, I got it down Baxter's throat, but not before he bit my finger, in the same place, again. I swear, this cat is going to start craving human blood.
We waited 45 minutes, and then decided it was time to corral them and put them in their carriers to take for a little "Sunday Drive." We needed tape for the boxes anyway, so we figured the 20 minute trip would be a great judge of how the medicine worked.
We are lazy pet owners, by the way. For a long time, we carried both cats in the same cat carrier. It's a big roomy one, meant more for a dog the size of a Jack Russel terrier, so they weren't cramped. It's just really heavy to carry the 14lb cat and the 10lb cat in the same one. So for the sake of this trip (and since I thought, well, maybe they won't be themselves when they wake up and start fighting) I bought a new black soft-sided carrier for Baxter. Eddie looks too big for it, like he'd be cramped. Anyway, up until today, they've always been in the carrier together.
So we found Baxter, who was snoozing under the bed. Usually, when given the option of exploring something box-like, he can't wait. So we put it down, open, in front of him to see if he'd get in. Not so lucky. He sniffed it, but then went back to sleep. Undaunted, I figured he could wait since I knew where he was.
We couldn't find Eddie. We checked all the places he usually hides, but couldn't find him anywhere. I tried running the printer. Usually, he comes and watches in fascination as the printer spits out paper, but no. He couldn't be bothered. I called him. Nothing. We opened the door to the back porch - usually another big cat-magnet - but nothing. I finally had to resort to opening a can of food LOUDLY and putting the tiniest bit in his dish. He started to come out of the bedroom (from where, I do not know) but then he seemed to realize something was up. They don't get fed until 9pm with canned food (they have crunchies available most of the day) and he started to dart back into the bedroom. So I called him while Sean got close to the bedroom door. Eventually, greed won out and Eddie came out to see what Baxter was snacking on.
We let them finish their teaspoon of canned turkey, and then I swept Eddie into his carrier. He HATES the carrier, but somehow I got him in pretty easily. The door is nice and wide. Got it shut in record time too.
While Eddie was howling pitifully, I tried to grab Baxter. Although he is a smaller cat, he seems much stronger when he wants to be. Try as I might, I could NOT get him in the front door of the carrier. Thankfully, it has a zip-top as well, so while I held a squirming clawing ball of orange fur (I figured he'd already bit me once today, why not go for a second time?) Sean closed the front and opened the top. Much easier, it turns out. We zipped him in and got ready to go. It was about an hour and ten minutes since I'd drugged them, so by this point, they should have been really under the influence.
Yeah, not so much. The SECOND we picked up the carriers (Sean was chivalrous and took Eddie, the heavier cat and carrier combo) they started howling. And it didn't stop, not while we were driving, not while I was waiting in the parking lot while Sean went into the store to get the tape, not until we got home and put the cats back in the living room and opened the cages. At one point, Eddie was like a madcat, trying to claw under the door to open it somehow. We tried rubbing their chins (well, Sean did, I was driving) and tried talking to them, even tried opening the windows (which only made them meow louder). So...
Benedryl does not work on our cats. I get to call the vet tomorrow and tell her that unfortunately, no, we need the strong stuff for EVERYONE'S sanity. And a pill-shooter for Baxter. (Sean will be wearing the heavy work gloves.)
Wish us luck! |
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