Product rec & funny

[thistlechaser]

I have no idea who this is, I found it on one of the random LJ image sites. Whoever you are, I love you!



*snickersnerks*

Okay, and on to the rec part of this post!



Pill Pockets are the best things ever. My cat has to get two pills a day (for her entire life). In the beginning it was easy enough, I even have her trained to come up on my desk and sit so I can give it to her. It's been a year though, and she's starting to refuse. Who can blame her? She's a tiny little cat with a little mouth, and I keep sticking my big ol' finger down her throat.

I had been avoiding the Pill Pockets because I figured she'd eat the treat part and spit the pill out, but nope! She bites it once or twice and swallows it whole! Though we just started using them today, so it's possible she might discover the trick of them in the future. I don't think that's too likely. She LOVES these. I mean goes wild for them! (I got the salmon flavored ones instead of the pictured chicken.) I can't see her not gobbling them down.

So if you need to pill your pet, these are totally worth getting. They come in dog sized, too! They're a bit expensive ($7 for 45 of them), but if they make things easier on my cat, I can cope.

Comments

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of that! Oh irony, you are a cruel cruel mistress XD

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes! Dis irony, so delicious!

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tweet image, that was awesome.

And, I totally love pill pockets too. Our old man kitty would probably have died a year ago if it were not for these. I actually recommended them to someone else recently... which I will reprint here, in case you ever have problems with her not taking them, though it sounds like she loves them, which is totally cool.

I highly recommend pill pockets. In our case, our old man kitty will not eat them directly out of hand but will eat them if we cut them down and stick them to the side of another treat he likes.

My typical pill ritual is to cut one pill pocket into quarters, and then squash each bit to a flat round disc, then use it to wrap around a smallish pill (or a half or quarter of a largish pill). I have to be really careful not to touch the treat with the fingers that have touched the pill... I cut them all up and actually use tweezers to grab the pill and place it in the little disc I'm holding in my other hand. Sometimes if he won't take it or bites through the protective coating and spits it out, I can often get him to take the same pill by just wrapping it again, but if I have handled the pill I make sure to wash hands really well before making the second one. If he still won't take it, sometimes waiting an hour and offering again will work.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked the Twitter screenshot!

Wow, you really have to do a lot to make it work. I hope mine continues to love them endlessly. She gets dinner (or breakfast) right after her pill, and as soon as she finished eating, she came over to beg for another of the pockets!

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

I use the pill pockets with my cat too. She's got feline hyperthyroidism, so that means daily medication. She doesn't *hate* her meds, she's just not interested in them, so *I* have no difficulty making her swallow them, but she is a bit uncomfortable. Had to import a large shipment of pill pockets before my trip to the US because it would make things so much easier both for the cat and cat-sitter in my absence. There would be blood if anyone else than me forced her to take a pill.

No idea why we can't buy pill pockets in Norway...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

She's got feline hyperthyroidism, so that means daily medication

Ah, that's what mine has, too! My vet said basically all older cats get it.

Interesting that you can't get them there. I'd assume there are just as many pet owners there as anywhere else? Strange!

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

About the same density of pet owners, I would assume. Norway's population is a mere 4.5 million or thereabout, last I heard.

I've also heard it is very common in older cats.
After talking to the local vet here (he is SO cool - caring enough to listen to me talk about my cat back in Norway at the end of my boyfriend's kitties' appointment), I'm considering splurging for surgery or radiation therapy for her so I won't have to medicate her. I hate having to follow schedules. I just got off my antidepressants after four years this summer, and a couple of months later it's back to keeping track of pills again - only for the cat this time.
Didn't take long before I missed the freedom of just sleeping in. I'd get up, medicate the cat, go back to bed. :P
And she's a free-roaming cat, so she might be outdoors during medicine time - before the pill pockets, she'd pick up on what times I'd give her meds and avoid being home at those times. Even if I'd always give her treats as a reward after her pill.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, huh! I didn't know surgery or radiation therapy were options! My vet probably didn't tell me since it was pointless -- my cat is too old to be put under, so medications are about all we can do for her now.

I know what you mean about the pills! I bought one of those days of the week, AM/PM pill cases just for my cat!

Luckily mine is an indoor cat, so it's never too hard to find her. :P

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

I had wondered why my co-workers were talking about Palin in regards to that shooting, was a couple days later that I understood. I, being me, pay little attention and didn't even know there was a shooting until they talked about it.

And I wish you had posted these last week! I had to give Naja some pills for pain, and while he took the lunchmeat I had been giving it in for the first couple days, he started refusing after a bit and I couldn't manage to shove it into his mouth. It was a pain pill so while I felt bad, the pain would get better in a few days (He only had 3 pill quarters left.). I gotta remember these for next time.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Sorry! I used them for the first time yesterday. I'll work on my time travel skills! ;)

Next time, a good way to pill a cat is to sit on the floor on your heels, so your knees are spread ahead of you. Pull the cat to you, so his back is against your crotch (so he can't back up!) and then lean forward and put the pill into his mouth (sort of curling over him). No escaping the pills that way! Assuming your knees will hold up to this sort of thing. (Mine are questionable!)

The awful Palin just released a video this morning basically saying I DIDN'T DO IT DON'T LOOK AT ME I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. Horrible woman needs to go away.

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

My back is so bad so I can't quite get on the floor. =( But I was actually holding him while I was standing, his underside facing away from me, trying to cram this tiny little pill and bit of meat into his mouth.

Palin is a lot like Snooki. No matter how much we don't want it, it won't go away.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Getting on the floor is no fun for me anymore, either. Maybe it'd work sitting on a bed or a sofa? Put your back to the head of the bed/arm of the sofa and put your legs out straight on it? You'd still get the V to control the cat in.

Palin is a lot like Snooki. No matter how much we don't want it, it won't go away.

Ha! About as smart, too... (Sorry, Snooki!)

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

My cat did get kind of stupid about his liquid medicine though. He kept hiding from me and I'd come back like an hour later to try again. Over the weekend though, he'd come in my room and lay on top of me. Made it easy to grab once I let him settle in!