Cat has lost her miaow

Fionne

She's at least 8 years old (she was a stray so not sure exactly how old) and is otherwise in good health and spirits. She's eating fine but since Sunday hasn't been able to make sounds, she tries but there's just silence. She doesn't have any other symptoms, no runny eyes or nose, etc. She was very vocal on Saturday, non-stop calling to me for attention so not sure if she's just got a cat equivalent of laryngitis or if it needs vet's attention. Anyone know anything about this?

Fionne

I rang the vet and he says I should bring her in so gonna see if I can catch her tomorrow morning. Really should bring in another one as well as he seems to have hayfever-type symptoms but I've only one cat carrier so may have to do it one at a time. The stress of trying to catch them always gets me, if you don't succeed on first attempt to get them into the carrier it's a non-runner.

Ken.

If you happen to live anywhere near Newbridge/Curragh/Kildare town area I have a cat carrier you could borrow for a day or 2.

Nody

Cat carriers on sale in Lidl from Monday for 10 EUR if you want to pick up a cheap secondary carrier

MrWalsh

Nody wrote: »

Cat carriers on sale in Lidl from Monday for 10 EUR if you want to pick up a cheap secondary carrier

Cheers for the tip.

OP - have you ever tried a cat buritto? Just get the cat on a towel (away from the carrier) then wrap tightly in the towel and only then into the carrier.

We tend to surprise ours, its "hello, oh a big cuddle, and into carrier you go". Takes about 10 seconds and you have a surprised cat peeking out wondering how that happened. One is harder to get in than the other as she doesnt like being handled anytime, but she is actually the more placid of the two so depsite not liking being handled she doesnt fight it either.

Fionne

Thanks for the replies - I'll head to Lidl Monday for that bargain! :-)

Took the 2 cats to the vets last night, my local vet is really great and opened up after hours for me.

The one with the "lost voice" had a very sore throat and a touch of pneumonia so it's a good thing I took her as it's now been nabbed early and she had regained her voice by this morning probably from the anti-inflammatory injection he gave her. The second one has gingivitis (gum infection) which he's had before so both on anti-biotics for a week.

I might try that wrapping in a towel trick to get the antibiotic into them, one of them is super-squirmy and hard to manage with even the liquid medicine in a syringe-type thing.

MrWalsh

FonE wrote: »

I might try that wrapping in a towel trick to get the antibiotic into them, one of them is super-squirmy and hard to manage with even the liquid medicine in a syringe-type thing.

The trick is to make sure all feet are securely IN the towel and when you wrap them up only the head is free.

Heres some instructions:
http://files.dvm360.com/alfresco_images/DVM360/2014/10/11/f0146452-cf03-4d8e-9826-0cb0c4043863/kittyburrito.pdf

Ken.

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 forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5.Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse 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 drinking straw.

9.Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer 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. Open another beer. 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. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of Scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12.Call fire department to retrieve the damn cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil-wrap.

13.Tie the little @!!@#@#$%'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 steak filet. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14.Consume remainder of Scotch. 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 SPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

on_my_oe

Reading this in bed on tablet... Got shoved in my side by spouse who is trying to sleep and woken up by my laughing

God I hope our cat never needs pills

mymo

I have that cat!
Thankfully he's rarely sick, but worming tablets are a nightmare, vet tried to show me the easy way...
Cat tried to bite his face off, scratched him up quite a bit.

He told me I'm on my own..

Toby now sees the other vet.
1st vet asks which cat it is every time I call.

MrWalsh

Im always bemused why they cant make animal tablets tasty for the animal!

A bunny of mine needed to take liquid medicine before and I had to administer it from a little syringe. Well, it must have been like heroin because he would try to pull the entire syringe through the bars and madly suck at the stuff - it was actually difficult to get the empty syringe back from him! I never understand why all animal medicine isnt made to be so tasty!

Nody

MrWalsh wrote: »

Im always bemused why they cant make animal tablets tasty for the animal!

It's not actually so much the taste as the smell but yea; why they can't smell like tuna etc. I don't know...

Anyway; we have a cat who takes four pills a day currently (one in the morning and three in the evening) who stopped after 2 years to eat paste (and rater lick it down by layers and skipping the pill, grrrr). We had to learn the hard way how do to pilling and it's got to the point now that she'll actively seek us out to get her pill when she hears the pill bottle open. The way we managed to do this was to get her to associate being pilled (open her mouth and put down her throat almost) with getting dreamies (she'd have dreamies stuck under her nose with in 5s of the pill) consistently for over a month and she only get dreamies with the pill. 6 months later and the association is still there even if she only gets dreamies every second time or so now (randomly so not to think morning means no treat and evening always mean treat etc.).

MrWalsh

Unfortunately Nody one of mine isnt that interested in food, Dreamies are left aside, I havent found a treat she will eat.

When I pill her I do it first thing when she is hungry and I make little ham parcels and, give the first one with no pill, then when the conveyor belt is going I give the next one no pill, third one is the pill, then fourth one no pill....

But Ive only had to pill her very occasionally, it wouldnt be practical to do ham parcels 4 times a day!

Shenshen

MrWalsh wrote: »

Im always bemused why they cant make animal tablets tasty for the animal!

A bunny of mine needed to take liquid medicine before and I had to administer it from a little syringe. Well, it must have been like heroin because he would try to pull the entire syringe through the bars and madly suck at the stuff - it was actually difficult to get the empty syringe back from him! I never understand why all animal medicine isnt made to be so tasty!

They do a liquid medication - I think it's called Loxicom. It's an anti-inflamatory, I had to give it to 2 of my cats in the past and they absolutely adored it.

Pills, on the other hand...

We had a cat who had to have regular pills for a while. The vet had one of those pill-popper yokes, like this:



So we got one online, and it worked like a treat. The first 3 times we used it. Then the cat copped on and pressed the back of her tongue onto her palate, so no pills could go into her throat. Even the vet was impressed with that, she'd never see a cat do that before.

kathleen37

Getting meds in them is tough. I use a pill crusher and mix the powder in primula which most of them love. For those that don't luckily they love any tins of oily fish, so I mix the powder in that. Make sure to mix the powder in a smallish bit as if you mix in a lot, then it's hard to tell if they've taken it.

For the liquid stuff, which is usually palatable to the cats, I mix in a bit of cat milk. They all love that.

Good luck!!

RhubarbCrumble

Gosh, I must be really lucky with mine. She's only ever had to have an antibiotic once, but it was a weeks supply of pills. I crushed it up in some wet food and she took it no problem. She wasn't eating a whole lot at the time, so I literally had to spoon feed her the food with the tablet hidden in it.
She's actually okay with the treatments as well, I usually use Broadline which goes onto her skin just behind her neck. She doesn't like it, but doesn't freak out or anything. More sort of thinks "Ah here, I suppose I'd better just stand and get it over and done with".