Fishbonker
Life Member
As many of you know I share living space with my wife and a cat. She, the cat not my wife, is the family pet and as such gets the royal treatment, well so does my wife, but it is a little different.
Several months ago the cat started hacking, coughing and then sneezing large amounts of snot out of her nose. She would stand on the end table next to my comfy chair, with me in it, and sneeze these huge gobs of goo all over me and my computer screen.
It’s funny, but her cough reminded me of kid with croup. That real barky tracheobrochial cough that we have all heard before.
She kept getting worse and we could tell she was losing weight. It was just before Thanksgiving and the umpteenth time I had to wipe kitty snot off my face and computer screen, when I agreed to take the cat to the vet because all I do is sit around all day anyway.
So I took her in to the vet. I told the doc I thought the cat had laryngotracheobronchopneumitis. He kinda gave me a sideways glance as stuck a thermometer up the cats butt, which caused the cat to chomp down on my finger that had strayed a little too close to her mouth. I think I detected a bit of a smirk on the docs face. She had a bit of a fever and I had a bit of a bleeding bite on my finger.
Then he listened to her lungs. He ruled out the “pneumonitis” and “broncho” parts of laryngotracheobronchopneumitis. Then he looked into her throat. He ruled out the “tracheo” and “laryngo” parts of laryngotracheobronchopneumitis so my layman yet learned diagnosis was blown outta the water in about two minutes.
Net the doc looked in the cat’s ears and went “Hmmmmm”. Then he looked at her nose and said “Hmmmmmm” then the cat sneezed out one of her man sized gobs of goo and he said “Ahhhhhh. She has sinus infection with super imposed ear infections. We can give you some pills to take home to giver her and she will be fine in a few days.” “Well doc, I remember the last time we had to give her pills. It wasn’t pretty. Last time we tried crushing them up and putting it in food but we didn’t finish the course of meds because she was just wouldn’t eat it. Any chance you can just give her a shot of something?” “Well, sure.” So he gave her a shot of Cephalacureitquick or somethin, a shot of antihistamines and a shot for worms. Now don’t get the wrong idea, the wife’s cat is way too high class to have worms, but we did have those four kittens in the house around October 1st. Best to treat it empirically.
So 91 bucks later the cat and I were headed home. I let her out of the kitty carrier and she bolted for one of her secret hiding places. I didn’t see her for the rest of the day. Before we left the vet’s he said it could take up to ten days for the antibiotics to knock out her infections. It was exactly ten days later when she stopped sneezing.
About the first of this month she started sneezing again, this time there wasn’t any coughing but there was some blood in her snot. Yeah, it only took one shot of that crap on me and the computer and it was back to the vet. This time her temp was normal and I was smart enough not to have my finally healed up finger anywhere close to her mouth when the doc inserted the thermometer. Seems the infections had come back or probably were never really quite gone. This time he didn’t want to give her a shot. He said she would get more consistent coverage with a broader spectrum oral antibiotic. He showed me again how to use the “pill popper” which is just a miniature model of the big things you use go give a cow a pill. It is essentially a hollow tube with a plunger and a soft rubber tip that holds the pill. The trick is to get the cats mouth open and use the popper to shoot the pill behind the cats humped up tongue so it can’t spit it out. He made it look easy, but I knew better.
The next day it was pill poppin time. I was gonna hold the cat while my wife popped in the pill. We wrestled with the cat and it took several attempts to get the pill popped. My wife would hit the plunger and the cat would hack it up.
The next day my I was still gonna be the holder and my wife the popper. Still took about six attempts to get it down. I tell ya, that pill gets sticky when it gets some cat spit on it. I think I’d rather try to put a suppository in the cat than try to hold her to pop those pills.
Next day we switched. My wife would hold and I’d get the cat’s mouth open and do the poppin. I got it in on the first try. As it turns out, I guess I didn’t instruct my wife on the “Get the popper behind the tongue so the cat can’t spit it out” part. She was just trying to shoot it in.
We are currently on day #9 of 14. We try to give the cat her pill about the same time every night. She isn’t a dummy. She has been disappearing to one of her secret hiding spots about 2130 because we give her the pill at 2200. At first we coaxed her out by shaking the cat treat jar. That didn’t work last night so we faked like we were going to bed and she came out. I have one of her secret spots narrowed down to one room.
I’m not sure how we are going to do it tonight. I’m about ready to try the crushed up pill thing again. But this time I think I’m gonna crush the pill up and pack it into the hollow point of a 180gr. .40 cal and shoot it in. My only problem is how many hollow points will it take for one pill?
Maybe I better not have my wife hold the cat tonight when I shoot in her meds, the cats, not my wife’s.
The ‘Bonker
Several months ago the cat started hacking, coughing and then sneezing large amounts of snot out of her nose. She would stand on the end table next to my comfy chair, with me in it, and sneeze these huge gobs of goo all over me and my computer screen.
It’s funny, but her cough reminded me of kid with croup. That real barky tracheobrochial cough that we have all heard before.
She kept getting worse and we could tell she was losing weight. It was just before Thanksgiving and the umpteenth time I had to wipe kitty snot off my face and computer screen, when I agreed to take the cat to the vet because all I do is sit around all day anyway.
So I took her in to the vet. I told the doc I thought the cat had laryngotracheobronchopneumitis. He kinda gave me a sideways glance as stuck a thermometer up the cats butt, which caused the cat to chomp down on my finger that had strayed a little too close to her mouth. I think I detected a bit of a smirk on the docs face. She had a bit of a fever and I had a bit of a bleeding bite on my finger.
Then he listened to her lungs. He ruled out the “pneumonitis” and “broncho” parts of laryngotracheobronchopneumitis. Then he looked into her throat. He ruled out the “tracheo” and “laryngo” parts of laryngotracheobronchopneumitis so my layman yet learned diagnosis was blown outta the water in about two minutes.
Net the doc looked in the cat’s ears and went “Hmmmmm”. Then he looked at her nose and said “Hmmmmmm” then the cat sneezed out one of her man sized gobs of goo and he said “Ahhhhhh. She has sinus infection with super imposed ear infections. We can give you some pills to take home to giver her and she will be fine in a few days.” “Well doc, I remember the last time we had to give her pills. It wasn’t pretty. Last time we tried crushing them up and putting it in food but we didn’t finish the course of meds because she was just wouldn’t eat it. Any chance you can just give her a shot of something?” “Well, sure.” So he gave her a shot of Cephalacureitquick or somethin, a shot of antihistamines and a shot for worms. Now don’t get the wrong idea, the wife’s cat is way too high class to have worms, but we did have those four kittens in the house around October 1st. Best to treat it empirically.
So 91 bucks later the cat and I were headed home. I let her out of the kitty carrier and she bolted for one of her secret hiding places. I didn’t see her for the rest of the day. Before we left the vet’s he said it could take up to ten days for the antibiotics to knock out her infections. It was exactly ten days later when she stopped sneezing.
About the first of this month she started sneezing again, this time there wasn’t any coughing but there was some blood in her snot. Yeah, it only took one shot of that crap on me and the computer and it was back to the vet. This time her temp was normal and I was smart enough not to have my finally healed up finger anywhere close to her mouth when the doc inserted the thermometer. Seems the infections had come back or probably were never really quite gone. This time he didn’t want to give her a shot. He said she would get more consistent coverage with a broader spectrum oral antibiotic. He showed me again how to use the “pill popper” which is just a miniature model of the big things you use go give a cow a pill. It is essentially a hollow tube with a plunger and a soft rubber tip that holds the pill. The trick is to get the cats mouth open and use the popper to shoot the pill behind the cats humped up tongue so it can’t spit it out. He made it look easy, but I knew better.
The next day it was pill poppin time. I was gonna hold the cat while my wife popped in the pill. We wrestled with the cat and it took several attempts to get the pill popped. My wife would hit the plunger and the cat would hack it up.
The next day my I was still gonna be the holder and my wife the popper. Still took about six attempts to get it down. I tell ya, that pill gets sticky when it gets some cat spit on it. I think I’d rather try to put a suppository in the cat than try to hold her to pop those pills.
Next day we switched. My wife would hold and I’d get the cat’s mouth open and do the poppin. I got it in on the first try. As it turns out, I guess I didn’t instruct my wife on the “Get the popper behind the tongue so the cat can’t spit it out” part. She was just trying to shoot it in.
We are currently on day #9 of 14. We try to give the cat her pill about the same time every night. She isn’t a dummy. She has been disappearing to one of her secret hiding spots about 2130 because we give her the pill at 2200. At first we coaxed her out by shaking the cat treat jar. That didn’t work last night so we faked like we were going to bed and she came out. I have one of her secret spots narrowed down to one room.
I’m not sure how we are going to do it tonight. I’m about ready to try the crushed up pill thing again. But this time I think I’m gonna crush the pill up and pack it into the hollow point of a 180gr. .40 cal and shoot it in. My only problem is how many hollow points will it take for one pill?
Maybe I better not have my wife hold the cat tonight when I shoot in her meds, the cats, not my wife’s.
The ‘Bonker
