Should metronidazone be stopped with bad drooling?

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Melanie and Smokey

Melanie and Smokey

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Smokey absolutely freaks with the metronidazole - running around with gobs of drool dripping out of her mouth. I know its a commmon side effect, but don't know if its bad enough we should stop with it or since it tends to pass within 10-15 minutes that we just live. We are supposed to give it for 6 weeks twice a day and I don't know how we are going to make it that long with this kind of reaction. Not to mention we have 2 other meds to give her to. I haven't even started the liver med yet since its supposed to be given with food and catching her after this one isn't really been possible.

She doesn't pill well so we had it compounded, which may be making it worse because it spreads out in her mouth. I was thinking of trying pills and trying to put it in a small capsule so she can't taste it and into a pill pocket to see if we can get it into her stomach before it is uncoated, but I know that wouldn't last the whole 6 weeks either. Pocketed pills usually last about 3 days with her. She is a good one for chewing whatever you hide a pill on off and spitting out the pill. When we use the pill gun it takes work and she still manages to hide the pill and spit it out on us sometimes. One of the other meds needs to be done without food so we have to use the pill gun on that, hate to do that fight with her 3 times a day.

Any suggestions?
 
With pills in a gel cap, at least you won't have to combat the bad taste.

There are 'pill-poppers' you can get from your vet. It's a straw-like device that
you load the pill into one end. You put the device into the back of cat's mouth and
push the plunger.

I would have a vet or vet-tech demonstrate its use.
 
The drooling is a common side effect. It is from the taste. I had two kitten fosters several years ago that one would act like your cat and run around drooling and looking like he was rabid. The other kitten handled it just fine.

What I did with the drooler was to to have a second syringe loaded with tuna water and used it as a chaser immediately after the metro-dose. It didn't stop the drooling and antics entirely, but it did minimize the issue. This was easy with kittens as it was simply scruff'em and dose. You may need to do the kitty burrito with a full grown cat or pin him between your knees on the floor.

Also tried to get the syringe to the very back of the mouth seemed to help a bit too.

Pilling is another option, but as you noted even that is going to be of limited success.
 
The pill-popper you have sounds like it might be a bit smaller than the one we are using, I call it a gun, but is more of the style you describe, maybe I will look around for something smaller. She still manages to fight and spit the pill out when we use that. We are chasing the Denamarin pill with water and usually all 3 of us are covered with water before it convinces her to swallow. Last night she managed to spit it out, though we have no idea how. Second time we thought we had it, did the water chaser, husband got up from where he was holding her and there lay the pill. ohmygod_smile

I don't know if I could get a water chaser on the metronidazone as it is compounded right now, she goes pretty crazed and I don't know if it would be safe for her or us to try to keep hold of her and put more in her mouth. She is a 12 pound cat with a very strong opinion :lol:

I think I will talk to the vet about getting pills next week and see if I can find someone that sells the capsules locally. We may need to have both on hand and if she takes the pill, great, if she doesn't we use the compounded liquid and let her drool. Its just getting pretty exhausting when she is so hard to medicate and we have to do it 4 times a day. One of the young kids has 4 meds to take too and one of them is also metronidazone, he just shakes his head once or twice and heads for his food bowl. Most of his meds we are able to get in the ear gel tho - best invention ever.
 
Metronidazole tastes awful, so compounded or not, I'm not surprised your cat is drooling. I give mine in an empty gelcap and use a pill gun to get it down her. No problems with drooling that way. I would not ever give metronidazole "naked" to a cat given its taste. The pill gun I use came from Thriving Pets and is very thin and easy to use.
http://www.thrivingpets.com/index.php/p ... opper.html

I get empty gelcaps in the #3 size from capsuline, but there are other sources too. The ones I buy are chicken flavored. My cat chews the pill pockets and spits out the pills, so I gave up on them. They are expensive anyway, especially with as many medications as she needs to take daily.

Just what works for us...
 
Well-stocked health food stores/ vitamin stores should have #3 gel-caps.

Pharmacies may have some.

Also, ask your vet.

Call around.
 
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