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Getting Sick Cat to take its Meds

St. Phatty

Active member
My super-intelligent medium-athletic male cat has a tooth-ache.

The symptoms that got me started -

* drooling, a little 2 days ago, normal behavior Sunday morning

* way more drooling yesterday

* bad breath

Did a websearch & sounds like a normal cat thing.

In my experience, this kind of pain indicates damage done.

He might get teeth cleaning, to prevent future damage.

I tried to get him to consume kitty sized quantities of antibiotic & painkiller.

So my first act of the new year is going to Walmart's to buy baby nursing bottles (or maybe something similar for pets) so I can get him some meds in liquid form, if he can be convinced to drink out of a bottle. Trying to simulate what he did as a youngster.


Since for the cat IT IS DESPERATE -

he has extreme tooth pain, and his body isn't beating it on its own.

I want to relieve his pain, and get him to take some tooth-targeted antibiotics (which I have a full selection of because of my own tooth problems.)


Relieving his pain is important so here is the Stoned Thinking idea -
have any of you ever put a pet cat in a box and blown cannabis smoke in there ?

It sounds like torture but that depends on how the animal reacts.

Does Cannabis smoke help cats deal with pain ?


I don't like experimenting on the little guy but he is in some distress.

While we humans get things figured out (take him to a vet who does cat dental, maybe get a tooth removed, this next week) I want to relieve his pain as much as is realistic.


Since he won't eat his normal canned cat food with the antibiotic mixed in, I wish there was something I could pour on it that cats LOVE.

The only thing I hear people commonly recommend is Tuna Fish.

So I might buy a few cans so I can feed him Tuna Fish juice in a bottle, with the meds.

And if he would eat some, so much the better.


About the double post - something interesting is going on with the software.

Tried to edit the second duplicate - and it went editing the first post mode.
 

944s2

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Hope ya kitty y gets better St phatty,,
Our little female Burmese had same problem and vet removed 8 of her teeth,,s2
 

Betterhaff

Active member
Veteran
Mix the meds in some oil/grease and rub it on the top of his front paws…hopefully he licks it off. Good luck.
 

Gry

Well-known member
Yes, get the tuna pour about a spoon full of the liquid in a small bowl, mix the antibiotic in.
Works well, because they see only a small amount and they usually are stimulated better with a little bit.

If you give your cats ice cream as a treat once in a while, that can work just as well.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
Hope ya kitty y gets better St phatty,,
Our little female Burmese had same problem and vet removed 8 of her teeth,,s2

How old was she ?

I hope they gave her anaesthetic before removing that many teeth.

I bought a cat baby bottle and poured out 3 fluid ounces of tuna juice (which is mostly soybean oil). The first antibiotic I'm giving him is Cephalexin, which I have in powdered form, 500 mg.

Did the calculation and that is enough for 4 doses, for a 10 pound cat.

Also got some hollow chew treats, which are probably more compatible with medication in tablet form. So I put 20 mg Tramadol in there, 16 mg was the dose for a cat his size.

I cut the chew treat way down in size. Looks like the chew treats are more dog size. But the material is sort of like clay, made to be formed & kneaded into shape.

He just spent the last 24 hours cowering in pain, so I'm sure giving him a pain med is a good idea. Though I am not sure which one. I have no experience with cats & pain meds & not a lot of selection to offer the cat.

He is outdoors now. Him wanting to go outdoors I took as a good sign.
 

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Mix the meds in some oil/grease and rub it on the top of his front paws…hopefully he licks it off. Good luck.
This is good advice for things which can be mixed with oil.

Pills and such, the best advice I can give is to hold the cat firmly, press gently just in front of their jaw hinge, to open their mouth, and push the pill/blob/whatever, down their throat. Get it as deep as you can without hurting them, and do it quickly. Then hold their jaw closed gently and stroke their throat from almost their chin, down to their chest. They should swallow it after a couple strokes.

They'll want water afterward.

Be sure to add probiotics to their diet, after the antibiotic treatments. They'll need their stomach flora to be solid again.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
Thanks very much for all the replies !

I've sat with him about 6 times to try & get some tuna oil & meds in him.

Some of those times ended with no cat baby bottle consumption.

Squirting the juice, a little, in the bottom of his mouth, beneath the tongue if possible, is the best approach I've found to getting the meds. into him.

Then he sits there and sort of smacks his lips. It looks like he got a little.

I hold him sitting up. Trying not to squirt the liquid into his lungs.

He made choking/ coughing sounds after one of the initial sessions. I definitely got the impression that the position I was holding or something didn't work & he inhaled some of his meds.
 
You have to get the animal to the vet to pull the teeth. Don't try to get all amature Vet on him. You just might overdose him on the Tramadol. My 75 lb dog had 50 mg when she was spayed.
 
The usual dose for cats for chronic pain is 1.8 mg/lb of pet's weight given by mouth twice a day. So a 5lb. cat it would be 9mg. 2 times a day. Mix with water and use a syringe down the back of his mouth.
 

thailer

Active member
while you go and look for a cat dentist, maybe taking him to your regular vet for an antibiotic shot will make him feel better. i hate giving cats medications. i hope he feels better!!
 

St. Phatty

Active member
Emailed a cat dentist to try to make an appointment for Friday, since that's when I can afford a $200 or $400 bill for the cat.

Been watching videos about how to give a cat a pill.

He is way better today.

I managed to give him a 1/6 of a 100 mg Tramadol. In a pet chew treat, that had been soaked overnight in tuna oil.

It disintegrated in his mouth & he didn't spit it out.

I gave him more treats, not with meds but just to 'learn the technique'. He spat them all out.


I got better at giving him 3 squirts of antibiotic-tuna oil. I managed to give him a single dose of 125 mg (for a 10 pound cat). 500 mg of Cephalexin in 3 ounces of tuna oil. So 3/4 ounce = 1 dose. Vets seem to recommend 2 such doses a day.

Anyway the main thing is -

he is way better !! :woohoo:


He stopped drooling, his breath no longer smells horrible. He also cleaned up all the hair around his face.

I'll know he's more better when he starts eating again.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
He bounced back in the morning and got himself cleaned up and was looking so happy that it was natural to think, "he's cured" !!!

I think a good part of that was the Tramadol.

He developed this wierd fixation on a wall of the master bedroom/ Greenhouse where there are several bags of 2018 Cannabis laying against the wall.

If it was a person you might say, "dude, did you drop your keys ? lose a contact lens ?".

There's also a few buds on the floor, and some plant bottoms (with popcorn buds) in that same area.

Not sure why he has chosen that new spot.

His drooling came back and he's obviously not comfortable, but not as bad as 2 or 3 days ago.

Will continue with the 16 mg Tramadol today & also with the antibiotics.


I bought some Penicillin yesterday, 100 mils, + 3x 22 gauge x 1 inch needles, from the farm supply store.

The 3 antibiotics I had prescribed for my own quite similar tooth infection problems were Cephalexin, Penicillin, and Amoxicillin (Amox. is in the Penicillin family.)

Will need to read up on possible cat allergies to Penicillin, correct dosing, etc. & might practice injecting myself.

I was surprised what they were selling openly at the farm supply, everything someone would need for injecting recreational drugs - including the rubber tubing / band people tie around their arm to make the veins pop out.


Anyway, will keep contacting vets that "do teeth", i.e. vets that can do X-rays and can offer something more than simple extraction.

I have a feeling the first vet I emailed does NOT take American Express.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
any updates on pussycat?:comfort:

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In better days.


Took him to the vet Friday, returned the pet carrier Saturday.

BROKE the pet carrier washing it in the bathtub (the cat has fleas) so had to glue it before returning it.

Before the appointment, I only knew from experience - cats do NOT like being shoved into small spaces.

So I filled the carrier with everything the cat was laying on -
* 2 gallon bag with 1/4 pound of Grape OG
* unwashed clothes
* old flight jacket

When I came out into the waiting room after the appointment - it was PACKED - like a dog convention.

Everybody started staring at me.

Took me a while to realize that the Grape OG had a real nice Grape Licorice smell.

The vet gave me antibiotics (penicillin) and some mushy cat food.

So the cat got 2 doses of Penicillin Friday and Saturday, after getting 125 mg (full size) doses of Cephalexin Wednesday & Thursday.

I stopped giving the cat Tramadol for a few days. He is in some discomfort, will probably make up some more 16 mg tablet-in-food things for him today.

The cat actually went outdoors yesterday for about 4 hours, that's a good sign.

Since there's another cat in the household, it's hard for me to tell if the sick male cat is eating, other than the mushy tuna fish I'm injecting onto his tongue with this plastic syringe the vet gave me.

So far the female cat is symptom free.
 
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