Pet Pictures 2014 (Plus Bonus Ghlaghghee Update)
Posted on December 30, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 39 Comments
Here’s Ghlaghghee resting in a papasan chair in the basement, which has, post congestive heart failure, become her favorite place to hang out. I’m fine with this because it’s only a few steps from the litter box, and given that the medicine we feed to her twice daily is a diuretic, this means that the incidence of Randomly Appearing Cat Pee is greatly lessened. Plus, she’s all comfy and cosy, and I like that. Sick kitty needs to be happy.
The good news is she’s still with us, which I would not have counted on a couple of weeks ago. The less good news is that for the rest of her life I’ll be shoving medicine down her throat twice a day, which means that two times daily she is very intensely pissed off at me for several seconds. Which is sad for both of us, but not as sad as, you know, her not being here. And so it goes.
With that said, it was a fine year for pet pictures here at the Scalzi Compound. Here are some of my favorites, including a couple of pets who aren’t ours but who happened to find their way into my camera’s sights this year. Enjoy.
Wow, they’re really nice!
Did you really catch that rainbow at the right angle, or was it photoshopped in?
Rick:
Photoshopping it in would have been too much effort.
All nice pictures, John. Thanks for sharing your animal family with us. I’m glad Ghlaghghee is still finding some comfort. She reminds me a bit of our old cat, Corbin. I miss him.
That Lop sure is a handsome guy. Hoping Ghlaghghee feels better.
The festive fuzzball second from the bottom reminds me of our neighbor’s dog, although hopefully better behaved. Yesterday said beast escaped from the neighbor’s yard and led the household on a merry chase down the street. Fortunately he was recaptured before he ran out into the main arterial at the end of the block.
All your pets (and neighbors’ pets) seem better than average. Our cat just drools.
Reblogged this on Charlotte's Cross and other tales.
My cat Shu Lien was diagnosed with the same ailment back in 2012, and became surprisingly tolerant of me shoving three pills down her throat twice a day. Though my vet cautioned me that I would be lucky to get more than six months of “quality time” before the meds stopped working, she lasted 17 months before we decided it was time to say goodbye to her earlier this year.
Here’s hoping Ghlaghghee beats Shu Lien’s record, and that we see many more pics of her!
I have to give our beloved cat three pills a day (including a full-sized capsule). Neither of us like it and it’s always a struggle, but we’re both resigned to it. My advice: always chase a pill with a favorite treat. Now the cat comes and *finds* me if I forget to pill him on schedule.
I second the chaser! I only have to pill Puck once a day, but it’s right before foods tiem, so he forgets about the pills pretty much instantly.
One of my cats needs eye drops for a chronic condition. He swears at me while I’m doing it and hides under the coffee table afterwards. Five minutes later he’s begging for a cuddle. They don’t hold grudges. ;-)
For those needing to give pills to their cats (I’m another one!) I have to share a new discovery. BCP pharmacy makes treat medications that my cat, Bob, loves. It has done a lot for our relationship that I have to torture him less. Your veterinarian would have to call in the prescription for you, but I am so happy that my fluffy guys looks forward to pill time now. This sounds a little sales-y, so I will add I have no affiliation with them other than as a customer.
Greenies Pill Pockets make the experience of giving a cat pills a whole lot more pleasant for everybody involved.
I give Charlie an injection twice daily. He hates it. The weird thing is, the cat-door is open, but he never tries to run away; he hangs out in the kitchen and waits for the shot. Sometimes he acts like he’s going to bite me, but he never does.
So, there’s not a pot of gold at rainbow’s end; there’s a big dog. I never knew that.
Nicholas: Pill pockets didn’t work for my cat. Well, they worked once, but after that they just made it HARDER to get the pill down the cat. He saw through it, he didn’t want it, and now the pill was larger…
Those animals are a very handsome group. No doubt. Glad your Ghlaghghee is still hanging in there. It’s nice to see her face. And I can’t blame her, I like pappasan chairs myself.
If there appears random cat pee around the litter box, try some of those large blue pee pads. They worked well when one of ours was quite old and could make it to the litter box but then she would miss every. single. time. Much happier than scrubbing out carpets.
When we had to medicate our feline, we had the most success with using a mortar and pestle to grind up the pill and mixing the pill dust in SUPER AWESOME AND TASTY FOOD THAT WE NEVER FEED HIM BECAUSE WE HATE HIM. (The last part of that is according to the cat, never mind the fact that we actually take great care to not shut the door on his head, which we totally would NOT do if we hated him)
A compounding pharmacy can make liquid fish-flavored formulations of most medicines. This worked well for a while during my cat Holly’s final days. The constraints seem to be that the cat has to have an appetite and the underlying medicine can’t have too strong a taste.
My experience with Pill Pockets is that they’ve worked well for cats with a very healthy appetite, but their size can be an issue for cats that are less enthusiastic about gobbling down treats.
We also use a compounding pharmacy for two lifelong medications. Previously, we’d find the pills we were sure had gone down his throat in random spots throughout the house. Now, the cat waits patiently for his daily chicken flavor liquid rx and we no longer sport claw marks. Everybody’s happy.
Pill pockets are too large for my kitties; they bite into them and pleh. A pill popper has worked well for our semi-regularly medicated guy, and then there’s always fudz tiem after.
The full hatred of The Radiant She must be thermonuclear.
I’ve become more appreciative of the charms of Lopsided Cat this year. He’s quite the handsome guy.
I have about an 85% success rate with Pill Pockets and my grumpy hyperthyroid tortiseshell, who is one twice a day pills. The rest of the time she eats the pocket and spits out the pill, resulting in the “throw the pill down her throat” game, which seems to work better for us than the pill popper.
Thirding the love for compounding pharmacies: I’m drugging two geriatric cats twice daily (one for hyperthyroid, one for arthritis) and the liquid is much less stressful for all of us.
I’m glad to see your cat is still having quality of life and lots of love. Nice photos!
Are the tiger stripes on the dog in the picture with the rainbow anything close to its natural coloration? The picture’s obviously been fiddled with a bit; how much of that look is actually on the dog? It’s fascinating.
The things I suggest to clients (and we do usually have to try more than one because cats are…cats.):
1.) pill pockets can work, or can be used as a training aid (one client had his cat trained to come to the ring of a bell, get a pill pocket, get the pill in a pill pocket, then get another pill pocket
2.) Wedgewood pharmacies flavor-tabs (Gourmeds) in the chicken or fish flavors work for a LOT of cats and can be compounded into either a pill or a liquid and shipped to your house; if there isn’t a pharmacy close to you that does this stuff it’s a great option
3.) If flavored liquids or pills are just not going to be up her alley, I have a compounding pharmacy make transdermal formulations of several meds for cats. Not all meds are possible this way but many are. You put a gel on the ear once or twice daily depending on the medication.
My cat was given six months to live due to kidney failure, and I ended up shoving those pills down her throat for seven-and-half-years. The pilling never got easier but it was worth it. Best wishes to Ghlaghghee!
I love the picture of Ghlaghghee sitting sort of upright. It screams “I’ll get you for this, Scalzi!” Hope her remaining days of plotting revenge are lengthy and comfortable.
If the internet was only animal pictures, think about what a relative boost that would be compared to the world as it is now. No, we are not discussing brand new ways to save humanity, but hey we are not calling someone worse than Hitler for liking the Venture Brothers more than Archer either. I’d like to believe that there is a place like that somewhere, maybe Utah.
Sorry for double posting, but I did not want to forget to send all my best wishes to Ghlaghghee, hope she keeps keeping on.
Feline and canine Scalzis appear to outnumber the human variants. Happy New year to all!
Most of the cats seem to have fairly heavy fur – are they all long-haired, or is is just their plains winter coats?
Will
Ghlaghghee and Lopsided Cat are longhairs; Zeus is just pretty damn fuzzy.
I do a flavorless med, because my cat HATED the fish flavored, and I follow it up with Catsip. Normally she’ll walk past me at meds time and then run away from me in slow-mo, which is hysterical. Today, though, she startle-jumped when I was going for her, It did not end well. I think apology treats need to happen as soon as I get home.
It might get better on the pills. One of our three has to get pills twice a day. As others mentioned, after a while, most of them just get used to it. For our prozac girl, we get the pill in her mouth, squirt in a little water with a liquid med dropper so that she has to lick and swallow, and then give her a careful pat and a treat. She’s not even trying to hide anymore after a couple of weeks of this.
I hope Ghlaghghee has good times ahead of her still!
John – sometimes you just have to do it. I ended up with a grumpy Himalayan (Butterfingers: shortened to BF (corrupted to BUFU) who glared at us while enduring kidney failure and saline injections daily) anyway, he jumped down and promptly stropped our ankles. The fuzzy mamma jammas do love us.
If there’s something she really likes to eat, it might work as a bribe. I had a kitty that was fairly opinionated and would fang me for displeasing her highness. She had to start taking pills. I quickly figured out that Pepperidge Farm cheesy goldfish were her heroin. After the first two days, she’d come when it was time to take her pill, grab my ankle and go NOW!
Glad your patient is feeling okay. Holding her own is the best you can do when the start getting older.
YAY for Ghlaghghee still being with you, and still being happy (pill-popping aside) You just never know how things will go. We had one cat at the farm, Pierre, who was given only a few months to live, and yet he happily trundled on for two years. In his case it was kidney failure (he was operating on literally about 3% at the time) which meant giving him subcutaneous fluids first once a day, then eventually twice a day. Some people wouldn’t have done it, but it took all of ten minutes, didn’t bother him at all, and it kept that 3% of his kidneys in good shape, which gave all of us more time together. Sometimes, just loving them and taking care of them, making them happy and comfortable, is all it takes.
Here’s to Ghlaghghee making it into the new year and beyond! Love to the whole family and all the fur-people during her twilight time.
We’ve done the “grind it to fine powder” thing between two spoons, then mix it with a smidge of meat (usually turkey) baby food. On the up side, it’s super easy to get them to take the meds; on the down side, it creates a monster that squawks for delicious meaty goodness every time a human enters the kitchen.
Sorry your cat isnt doing well. We had a cat that had diabetes and had to give it insulin shots. It wasnt happy about the shots much either. But you’re doing something for its benefit even if it hates you for it, and, some people wouldnt bother, so it shows your priority isnt just about you.
LIttle late to this but I want to second Jana (DVM)’s method (3). I’ve been applying a transdermal stomach acid reducer to my cat’s ears for several months now with good results. It’s much more pleasant than prying her mouth open and jamming a pill down it, for everyone involved. The downside is expense.
For people who are suggesting mixing meds with food, just be careful that you don’t make the food so distasteful that the cat stops eating adequately. In many chronic condition simple weight maintenance is critical. I got into trouble mixing supplemental potassium into my cat’s food. She came to dislike the potassium so much that she wasn’t eating enough. (Potassium is not strictly speaking a medication, but that doesn’t change the point.)