Daunting tasks (AKA: Ellie is going to HATE me)

[thistlechaser]

Ellie New Cat has a dirty mouth. She has two different viruses in it, one of which has no cure. As a result of this, at the ripe old age of two, she's lost five teeth already.

One of the two viruses has a cure, and the vet says when you cure one the other sometimes gets better, so we're going to try that. Unfortunately the first med we tried made her very sick. (Not-so-funny story: Cat has diarrhea from meds, gets a big puddle of it on her foot by mistake, goes racing around the apartment from one hiding place to another, because suddenly human is being all scary and trying to grab her...)

So today I went to the vet to pick up a different medicine for her to try. This time it's in liquid form. On no. D: I could hide pills in Pill Pockets and she gobbled them down without a care in the world. But liquid? When she doesn't want to be caught and rarely even wants to be held? Let alone doesn't want my hands near her face...

More than the challenge of doing it, I'm worried about breaking her trust in me. :/ Poor little Ellie.

(Side note: I always want to write "virii", not "viruses", but merriam-webster.com lists only "viruses" as the plural, so I'm going to stick with that.)

And in other sick-thing news, I still am. We're going on two weeks here, lungs and chest and throat! Get better, I'm sick of coughing! Sleeping the night through would be a lovely change, too.

Comments

[peppygrowlithe.livejournal.com]

Poor kitty. And poor Thistle! I hope she takes it better than we expect she will.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping as well, though I don't expect it. I'm going to do it in the bathroom, so there won't be far she can run or hide.

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Argh, good luck on medicating the kitty. That is always such a hard task.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! If only it came in pill form...

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

We pay the few bits extra to have the vet give the cats a shot if they need antibiotics. Do you have one of those syringe things that they feed kittens with?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I used. The first dose went surprisingly well! Part of it was an accident (they said shoot it in slowly, but I wasn't sure how much force I needed, so it all went in at once). She just made an unhappy face at me and swallowed it up (as far as I can tell, it all got swallowed). Whew! Hopefully the next days will go well, too!

[loup_noir]

My version of the cold took almost three weeks to leave, only to be replaced by allergies. *headdesk*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heh! My cold replaced my allergies, and I fully expect them to be back in force after it. I'd happily take them over this endless coughing though.

[senticous-lj.livejournal.com]

D: Aww...Here is hoping that both you and the kitty get better soon! Many hugs! <3

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ellie and I thank you! :)

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

aww poor kitty, poor thistle

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. *gives her lots of pats*

I thought of another small cruise-bit of info for you: You're going with someone? If both you and he drink coffee, start out with one coffee card (if you get one at all). My mother and I shared one card, but we still had 5 drinks on it at the end of the cruise. It was something like $50 for 15 special coffees (anything other than the drip stuff) or hot chocolates. I only had a few of the drinks, but she had one nearly every day. I hated leaving the ship with drinks not used.

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

thanks re coffee. Yeah, they used to let you carry the cards over indefinitely for brewed coffee, just cutthat back in 2012

[aberdeen.livejournal.com]

TK doesn't do well with pills, but the medicine I have to give him, daily is in liquid form. TK takes that well, because it tastes good. One refill was from a different pharmacy, and he /hated/ it. If Ellie doesn't like the new med, you might ask the vet if there's a different form.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Will do, thanks! I suspect she might not hate it, last night she didn't try to spit it out, she just sat there, backed into a corner, looking surprised.

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

It's funny. I can't ever find the energy to write in my own LG, or respond to comments half the time, but I feel the need to comment on your journal. My mind works in interesting ways.

Anyway, when I petsat for some neighbors with show animals, they used to mix liquid meds into tuna. The kind in oil, actually. It was sort of gross, but they'd drain most of the oil off, mash the tuna up really well, mix in the meds, then put a little more (plain) tuna on top to hide the smell. They'd give it before they fed their cats their normal food, so usually they'd just gobble it down without really thinking. Not sure if that would work for you or not... some cats are really picky about the whole smell thing, so it may or may not be successful. I think they used the tuna with oil, though, so it helped cover the smell better (plus, they spoiled the everliving crap out of these animals since they were for showing, so giving them oil supplements/eggs for their coats wasn't uncommon).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea. I had thought about mixing it with canned food if she wouldn't take it, but tuna is better.

I'm glad you comment! :) But feel better soon, you! Don't make me find some random healer to come and shoot Light at you. ;)

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

"Virii" would be the plural of "virius".

Viruses refers to multiple species of virus.
Virus is used as a collective plural to refer to a population of the the little guys (you don't often deal with one virion).
Virions is your guy if you need to refer to two or three individual virus particles for some reason.

Octopodes and octopuses are also acceptable.

[aberdeen.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! Thanks!