# My Rudy is sick again.. Or still.. Help?



## RachelMC (Jun 30, 2011)

I've posted about Rudy before, back when he was only 7 weeks old. 
He's been a sick kitten nearly all of his life. He's 4-5 months old now (it's written on my calendar but I can't recall exactly at the moment). 
He's always had sneezing and a runny nose and sometimes watery eyes but not always. Sometimes its worse than others. All the vet will say for sure is that it's a type of virus. They tested for feline leukemia and aids but it was negative. Vet said herpesvirus is a possibility but then again his symptoms don't all match up.
So he's been on and off medicine for most of his life. 
So the other day he felt feverish and wasn't playing as much and he just wanted to be with me. He was still eating and playing a little though. He's just usually running around all crazy and attacking anything that moves. But not that day. 
The next day his nose/face was slightly swollen on one side. It was so small that I almost didn't notice it until I was laying with him up close to me. 
Well the next day, it had gotten much bigger and it was spreading over his face. I made an appointment with my vet. She gave him a steroid shot, antibiotic, antihistamine, pain reliever/something for the inflammation and something else. So I'm administering 3 different medications. 2 being pills and 1 a liquid. He hates them all. It's so hard to give them to him. He growls and scratches violently. He hasn't bitten us YET. But I'm actually afraid that he will. He gets SO unbelievably mad at us. He even scratched the vet when she was giving him his medicine.
He's not eating right so I had to force feed him earlier. The scruff hold doesn't work on him at all. 
My husband and I actually ended up in an argument while trying to give him all of this medicine. He gets frustrated very easily when he's tired - my husband, not Rudy.  So anyway, that wasn't helping. 
I just need some assistance with this. I'm at a loss. ANY advice would be awesome.
When he does take the liquid (SMZ-TMP) he salivates for like half an hour, leaving puddles, and I'm not exaggerating.  
I posted about him in the "How to medicate a cat" thread but I just wanted to make sure someone saw and replied to my post.


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## LakotaWolf (Aug 10, 2012)

I get some unsalted butter and coat my cat's pills pretty liberally. I then cut off a tiny piece of butter and allow her to eat/lick it from my fingers, so she would then be "looking forward" to more butter. Then, I'd pill her - although I still had to use the regular "grip skull, open mouth, throw pill into back of mouth" method, it went SO much smoother with the butter (literally). She was more willing to swallow the pill rather than fight like mad and then hork it back out.

Of course, that doesn't really help the traumatic experience of having to grab the cat and hurl the pill in there in the first place :/ But the butter seems to help the pill slide down the throat easier. Try unsalted butter! :} I've been using it on my cat for months now and she's had no ill effects. She's not a lactose intolerant kitty, though, but - just use a very small amount and it shouldn't be enough to bother Rudy's stomach.

As for the liquids - can't be much help there :/ My cat's on a liquid now too, and even though it's supposed to be "fish flavor", she hates it. I haven't come up with a good way of giving it to her yet. I've heard some people dip the syringe in delicious food/tuna juice/etc, but I haven't tried that myself. Maybe you can actually do something like... draw up the necessary dose of medication, i.e., 1ml, then draw up another 1 or 2 ml of something tasty like tuna juice or melted butter. Maybe then Rudy will be willing to hold still for dosing :/ (I imagine that, since the liquid meds will be mixing with whatever is in the cat's stomach at that point anyway, it isn't a terrible thing to mix it while in the syringe).

You can usually find Greenies Pill Pockets at pet stores, (sometimes) grocery stores, and a lot of times, vets will sell them themselves in their offices. Worse comes to worst, buy them on Amazon or other online store.

http://www.greenies.com/cats.aspx#/products/cat-pill-pockets

Maybe you can check with your vet to see if any of Rudy's meds come in transdermal gel form (rub onto the ears) or injectable form (cats get used to regular injections surprisingly well).

Also consider removing the dry food entirely from Rudy's diet - kibble/dry food is terrible for cats overall, and if he's already feeling sickly, eating canned/wet food will be easier on his mouth and teeth.

Also, try giving him something other than Science Diet. Science Diet is full of crap grains... three of the first four ingredients are grain/corn! Cats don't eat grains :/ And Science Diet's protein sources are "by-products", not real meat. Rudy might actually have a grain allergy of some sort, as well (a lot of cats have grain allergies - mine is allergic to corn in any form). 

Good luck!


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

I wish we could 'like' posts! You got it Elizabeth!


It sounds like herpes to me too, and I DID have a kitten with it.

Muffin has had feline herpes since the day I got him. I took him to the vet after 3 days of constant sneezing and general unhappiness and the vet prescribed antibiotics with helped a bit.

Long story short he had a bunch of flare ups his first year, and not a ton of problems since. The issue is that he's growing, which takes a lot of energy. That means his body has to work harder to fight off the virus.

I second the suggestion of l-Lysine, and I'd start with 500mg/day and work your way up to 1000mg/day. You can buy it in capsule form at most grocery stores so it's easy to just pull it apart and either mix it into his food or into a 'special treat' like chicken baby food or cheese whiz.

...If he hates the meds that much you need to find a better way. Luckily for you I am a master at pilling cats who can not be pilled. At his age the more unpleasant handling is the more he's going to hate it as he grows. I do think that practicing to restrain him is a good idea, but right now I'd be willing to bet he's giving you suspicious looks all day. That's not the sort of thing that's good for him, or your relationship, long term.

Instead of doing the crazy cat wrestle the vet suggests it's time to get creative. Lakota was heading in the right direction with the butter, but there are still better ways.

My personal go-to for a normally sweet/nice kitty who has just had it up to HERE with pilling is to use their instincts against them. If you have liquid great, if you have capsules, great. If not you need to start by getting your meds into one of those forms. If it's hard pills use the back of a spoon to crush it onto a plate or a dish.

Next get some sort of semi-mushy/sticky substance. Keep in mind you only need a very small amount, and the more pleasant it is by itself the easier this will be. I like to use a small amount of cheese whiz, margarine, peanut butter, or pancake syrup. (Disclaimer: yes, these things in any large quantities are bad for cats...however I think there's a point where giving them med is more important than a small amount of something bad for them.) Mix the liquid or crushed pill into the sticky stuff, then use your finger to transfer the mixed meds/sticky stuff onto the cats front leg in a big wipe.

If you have more than one animals you'll need to put the kitty with the med on it's paws into a room by itself. They won't be super pleased about this, btw. Since cats hate being dirty he'll then lick it off, glaring at you the whole time. Ta da! Medicated.

You can also use the 'treat' method. Pick something you know he'll go nuts for (canned tuna, chicken baby food, ect) then mix the meds into it and pretend like it's a treat. I usually mix up a little bowl for each cat, making sure I know which one has the actual meds in it. I give a bowl to all the other cats (It's usually Jitzu I'm trying to trick) and then when she's good and mad that everyone but her has a goody I give her the bowl of medicated treat. SHe'll then wolf it right down. Done. Medicated. 

I do have a few other tricks, but for a kitten these should do. The liquid might be tricky since the drooling suggests it's a really awful taste, but even if you can get him to take the pills this way you're only having to scruff and force once instead of three times. Still an improvement. I'd also suggest that if you have to do it this way have a treat ready for as soon as the liquid is down his throat. Give him something yummy to get the gross taste out of his mouth!


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