In the September Petit Pet Care blog post we delved into The Special Care of Special Needs Pets. This month we're going deeper into the topic, specifically as it pertains to the medications and senior pet needs of some of our own clients.
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Our client, Stevie, is fed a special high fiber cat food for issues with hairballs and constipation. His liquid medication, administered every other day, is given to him by mouth with a syringe.
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Sometimes managing the care of a special needs pet is easy, such as just making sure they get what they need at a scheduled time, and sometimes it can be challenging such as when a pet resists being given their medication.
Most medication comes in pill form. With dogs you can generally put their pill in some food and they will happily gobble it up. Cats are another story and may require a more creative approach such as hiding their medicine in a pill pocket or crushing their pill into a powder.
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Our client, Noelle, a senior kitty, has Intestinal Cancer and requires a steroid pill which she gets in a pill pocket, and chemotherapy that has been compounded into a chew. She also has probiotics mixed into her wet food.
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Our client, Jackson, (featured on the blog in August) requires medication for seizures and heart problems. He lives with two other dogs, so medication time becomes treat time for everyone. He gets his pills in a blob of cream cheese, and the other two dogs also get blobs so they don't try to eat his.
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Our client, Tillie has hyperthyroidism*, and because cats have such a fast metabolism requires her medication twice a day. Like many cats, she fights being given a pill and even figured out how to eat the pill pocket and spit out her medicine. As a result her medication has been compounded into a transdermal cream that now gets rubbed into the inside of her ear twice a day.
*Our client, Ramona, pictured in the September blog post, also has hypothyroidism and gets her pill in a blob of cat food.
If you've followed the Petit Pet Care blog for a while, you probably remember our client, Winnie, who gradually lost control over her back legs and bladder. She had to wear special diapers with a hole for her tail indoors and her person got her a set of wheels so she could maintain some mobility.
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Having trouble getting your fur kid to take a pill? For dogs Christy recommends hiding it in either peanut butter, cheese, cream cheese, or wet food, especially cat food. For a cat who can be coaxed into letting you open its mouth, try and drop the pill as far back of the mouth as possible, then close the cat's mouth and stroke it's throat to encourage it to swallow.
If your cat is still uncooperative you can try a pill gun like the one in this You Tube video:
Looking for resources on special needs pets? Check out these links
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