jldnvjld
Member
Back on the 11th I'd posted that Junga's now getting glucosamine and Tramadol for newly-diagnosed arthritis, and that I was having trouble with pilling him.
Well, after several episodes of foaming mouth (tramadol tastes TERRIBLE), a number of pilling failures (pill ends up soggy on the carpet) and one upset-tummy day, here's what I've worked out:
1. at least for Junga, Tramadol apparently can cause stomach upset/nausea. It's better if he gets the pill after he's eaten nearly a tablespoon of food. Since he's not a terribly enthusiastic eater these days, that's a bit tough, but that's what I'm trying for. No food, no pill.
2. pill pockets aren't great for really vile-tasting medicine. Once he accidently bit a pill in its pocket, the pill pocket gambit was over, completely. Yes, I was using 1/4 a pill pocket per dose.
3 a. With much googling, I've discovered two ways to get the pill into him without the bad-taste trauma. Method one is to put the pill in a ball of peanut butter and stuff the ball into the back of his throat. I can't use the pill gun because the peanut butter sticks to the gun. Refrigerating the peanut butter helps it stick to my fingers a little less. The peanut butter is effective enough that even those times where I think he's bit the pill he doesn't appear to taste the bitterness.
3 b. I'm currently using this method for the Tramadol: half of a (I believe 50 mg pill) just barely fits in a size-4 gelatin capsule. That's the second-smallest size made; the bigger the number, the smaller the size: 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I got the capsules from a local compounding pharmacy: .88 for 20 of them. I think that price is probably fairly high, but I can live with it. I cram the half-pill in the capsule, being careful not to get pill powder on my hands, rub the capsule in butter, stick it in the pill gun, and away we go. So far Junga shows no signs of tasting anything bad. After I've pilled him, I do my darndest to get him to eat something.
So, for now, it's capsules. I just thought I'd share in case anybody else is struggling with cat pilling. Here are some of the more helpful information links I found.
http://www.felinecrf.org/medicating_your_cat.htm
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/pet/f ... or_capsule
http://www.vasg.org/long_term_cat_meds_ ... ration.htm
I can't really tell how much the tramadol helps; he's still limping, but I *think* he walks faster. I think I have to assume the arthritis hurts and that the tramadol helps.
J.
Well, after several episodes of foaming mouth (tramadol tastes TERRIBLE), a number of pilling failures (pill ends up soggy on the carpet) and one upset-tummy day, here's what I've worked out:
1. at least for Junga, Tramadol apparently can cause stomach upset/nausea. It's better if he gets the pill after he's eaten nearly a tablespoon of food. Since he's not a terribly enthusiastic eater these days, that's a bit tough, but that's what I'm trying for. No food, no pill.
2. pill pockets aren't great for really vile-tasting medicine. Once he accidently bit a pill in its pocket, the pill pocket gambit was over, completely. Yes, I was using 1/4 a pill pocket per dose.
3 a. With much googling, I've discovered two ways to get the pill into him without the bad-taste trauma. Method one is to put the pill in a ball of peanut butter and stuff the ball into the back of his throat. I can't use the pill gun because the peanut butter sticks to the gun. Refrigerating the peanut butter helps it stick to my fingers a little less. The peanut butter is effective enough that even those times where I think he's bit the pill he doesn't appear to taste the bitterness.
3 b. I'm currently using this method for the Tramadol: half of a (I believe 50 mg pill) just barely fits in a size-4 gelatin capsule. That's the second-smallest size made; the bigger the number, the smaller the size: 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I got the capsules from a local compounding pharmacy: .88 for 20 of them. I think that price is probably fairly high, but I can live with it. I cram the half-pill in the capsule, being careful not to get pill powder on my hands, rub the capsule in butter, stick it in the pill gun, and away we go. So far Junga shows no signs of tasting anything bad. After I've pilled him, I do my darndest to get him to eat something.
So, for now, it's capsules. I just thought I'd share in case anybody else is struggling with cat pilling. Here are some of the more helpful information links I found.
http://www.felinecrf.org/medicating_your_cat.htm
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/pet/f ... or_capsule
http://www.vasg.org/long_term_cat_meds_ ... ration.htm
I can't really tell how much the tramadol helps; he's still limping, but I *think* he walks faster. I think I have to assume the arthritis hurts and that the tramadol helps.
J.
