Cats, like humans, can suffer from anxiety or depression, but often these feelings manifest themselves in behaviors such as compulsive licking, aggression or litterbox neglect. If you find that your feline has exhibited such behaviors and physical causes such as parasites and allergies have been ruled out, it may be time to consider psychological causes. The ASPCA's Pet Behavior Database reveals that compulsive licking and other behaviors can be a result of changes in the cat's life: addition or subtraction of another pet or family member, moving, and home remodeling, to name a few. Pamela Perry, DVM, of the Cornell University Feline Health Center, notes that if your cat is seriously stressed, a form of temporary anti-anxiety drug therapy prescribed by your veterinarian may be in order. Veterinarians have taken to prescribing human-grade Fluoxetine (Prozac™) to felines as an off-label use to treating these symptoms. While this makes for an easily-obtainable and inexpensive treatment, due to its availability in generic form, there is one significant drawback to the pill, and that is its bitter flavor.
Hiding the flavor is extremely difficult. Compounding the medicine into a chicken- or tuna-flavored liquid to mix into food may not be enough to fool most cats. Hiding the pill inside a treat or pill putty can be effective if the treat is small enough and the cat swallows it whole. If the cat bites the treat, rest assured, it will most likely spit it out. Transdermal preparations are possible, but they are also expensive and research is inconclusive regarding absorption into the body. Furthermore, applying a transdermal preparation to the ear, even if ears are alternated from day to day, can still potentially cause irritation to the skin. The only practical solution may be to pill a cat or give him or her the compounded liquid directly. This article is not to instruct the techniques for pilling or dosing a cat; there are plenty of instructions available through doing searches. Rather, this is a discussion of a few additional hints to make easier, whatever method you may choose.
Hiding the flavor is extremely difficult. Compounding the medicine into a chicken- or tuna-flavored liquid to mix into food may not be enough to fool most cats. Hiding the pill inside a treat or pill putty can be effective if the treat is small enough and the cat swallows it whole. If the cat bites the treat, rest assured, it will most likely spit it out. Transdermal preparations are possible, but they are also expensive and research is inconclusive regarding absorption into the body. Furthermore, applying a transdermal preparation to the ear, even if ears are alternated from day to day, can still potentially cause irritation to the skin. The only practical solution may be to pill a cat or give him or her the compounded liquid directly. This article is not to instruct the techniques for pilling or dosing a cat; there are plenty of instructions available through doing searches. Rather, this is a discussion of a few additional hints to make easier, whatever method you may choose.
First, do not administer the pill or preparation during meal times. Kitty may start to lose trust in you if you are repeatedly fouling dinnertime with “poison.” Wait until the cat is settled into another activity, in perhaps an hour or more, before your attempt. Fluoxetine is known to cause poor appetite; making mealtimes unappealing and uncomfortable will only exacerbate the issue.
Second, do not administer the medicine in kitchen or wherever your cat’s bowls are placed. Again, the idea is to separate this activity from normal feeding sessions such that the cat will not associate something traumatic with an essential daily activity.
Third, do not dispense the medicine via any food or treat that he or she is already taking. If the cat refuses the tainted food or treat, it may not return to eating it when the food is not dosed. The distaste may remain a cat’s memory for some time. This is especially important if the cat is already being administered other medications via these routes or if the cat is on a special diet where switching food types may not be possible.
Treating your kitty's illness may be a challenge, and you may feel helpless when your pet is unwilling to cooperate in daily dosing. There are many options for administering your cat’s medication, and it may take much trial and error before finding out what works for the both of you. That said, the aforementioned suggestions can help smooth out the process, keep it from getting more complicated, and prevent resentment on the part of your cat.
ETA: My most recent attempt/experience has been with pilling. Giving my cat a taste of cat “milk” (lactose-free) in a dish, then pilling her and immediately giving her the rest of the milk solves two problems. One, she looks forward to the remainder of the milk and has become less irritable when it comes time for the actual pilling. Two, the milk assures that the pill makes it to her stomach. One problem with dry pilling is the potential for “burn” or irritation to the esophagus.
ReplyDeleteCan you elaborate on “cat milk” please? I am unfamiliar with such a thing, but assume it is different from regular milk?
ReplyDeleteIt’s a little different and you can buy it at many pet stores and grocery stores (I get mine at Petco; it should be with the treats). There are two kinds I’ve seen: Catsip, which is lactose-free milk made especially for pets, and Whiskas Catmilk, which is milk with all sorts of stuff added to it. I’d argue that you could just use human lactose-free milk from the dairy section (hella cheaper per ounce), except that it is enriched with vitamin A, and I know cats can get vitamin A toxicity. No idea if an ounce of human-grade lactose-free milk a day is going to induce that. It’s something I’d like to investigate.
ReplyDeleteNew bit of advice here. If your kitty does stop eating as a side effect of the meds, I’ve found that keeping her food dishes right where she sleeps is enough to tempt her to nibble here and there. It’s particularly important that your cat eat if he or she is elderly, as mine is. She rarely ventures around the house except for one afternoon sunbeam and to snuggle with us. Otherwise, she’s upstairs sleeping on her perch/bed. She doesn’t take notice of the food downstairs, so I’ve been bringing it up to her the past couple of days. Now I just have to worry about spoiling her!
ReplyDeleteAnother tip that I should mention: rub the medicine with some butter. It will go down easier and, well, cats like butter.
ReplyDeleteI slip half a Fluoxitine pill into the short end of a gel cap, and plug the open end with a bit of pill pocket. Wrap the tiny gel cap in a bit of pill pocket. Even if the cat bites into it, he doesn't taste medicine. Works wonders with the distrust of food issue.
ReplyDelete