Medication questions

When I brought Banksy in and was diagnosed with diabetes the vet also gave me Metronidazole in syringes for his vomiting and clavamox in pill form for his UTI. He absolutely hates getting this medication. Is this truly necessary? With switching to dry food should I keep force feeding this? I even tried to “hide” in his food. Well he knew as soon as he started eating it something was off so he stayed a way from it and took awhile to eat it.

 

metronidazole is an antibiotic, so if your vet gave it he probably suspects Banksy has an infection. Does he have pancreatitis by any chance? I would definitely not skip the antibiotics. Here we have a "sandwich paste" with a bit of liver in it that cats usually adore, so it's a good thing to slip small pills in. Metronidazole tastes nasty though, hence the syringes, rather than pills, maybe? You might want to check with your vet if there is an alternative. Does your vet know you have trouble giving him his medication?

Also, have you tried pilling him? There are a bunch of videos on youtube that show various techniques. The main advice I give for pilling a cat is to "distract before, distract after". Make the pilling "proper" part of a wider and largely pleasant routine. Example: scratch under chin, pet on head, basically "pet" his head into the right position (chin up) and then quickly hold, open jaw, slip pill into throat (that takes about half a second), and then continue the scratching and petting (reward).

You need to practice this in stages and try to stop before getting "resistance" from the cat. First you just scratch and pet and then "grab" his head for half a sec, and let go, and continue petting. It's clearly not ideal to start doing this when you actually have pills to give him, but you can still do it: if your time allows, do this a dozen times a day when you're not giving meds. Like that the cat will not associate this "routine" to systematically having a finger and nasty pill shoved down his throat. It'll be "hmmm, nice petting, hrm, sometimes they do something that's not so pleasant but the petting continues, I can put up with that..." See the logic?

 

He doesnt do to bad with the pill. It’s the syringe he hates. She didnt say anything about pancreatitis. Honestly I should find another vet she was forceful I had to feed him Glycobalance and if I didn’t he would die within months. But then she said come back in a month after giving him the Glycobalance. Needless to say after finding this forum I stopped the Glycobalance.

 

you can get metronidazole in pill form

 

Metronidazol tastes really, really nasty; it's very bitter. It causes my cats to drool, and they fight tooth and nail to keep from having it administered. I usually end up getting more on the outside of the cat than on the inside, and I always come away with some significant scratches from struggling kitties!

 

I would definitely finish the course of both antibiotics.

Monster HATES to be pilled and forget trying to sneak anything into his food! Clavamox gives him horrid diarrhea. I always opt for injectable medicines (or liquids if there is no injectable option), even though they may cost a bit more.

 

Have you tried squirting the liquid directly in his mouth? What volume is it? He won't like it, but it keeps the discomfort short and doesn't interfere with food.

 

It’s .5 mL syringe. I found a better tecnique that worked well this morning. So after giving him his wet food for the last 3 days he is crazy energetic and wants to play a lot so I’m counting this a big win.

 

When Saoirse needed metronidazole he prescribed Stomorgyl 2 for her: it contains metronidazole plus A. N. Other antibiotic whose name escapes me right now. Apparently the Stomorgyl 2 preparation doesn't taste as bad as the Flagyl preparation. Managed to get her to take it successfully.


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