filkferengi

Our cat had had health problems off and on for the last couple of months. We thought she had a urinary tract infection and had to give her antibiotics for well over a week. She wouldn't take pills any which how, and even getting the liquid form down her was rather traumatic for all concerned [mai skarz, i sho u dem]. Ultrasound found stones in her bladder. Post-surgery we needed to give her antibiotics & pain meds and didn't want to undo the stitches. So we turned to

curiousmay9, our go-to gal. She wrote it out for us, since she's all thorough like that, and urged us to share it. Since I'm a "whither thou" kind of gal [yea, even unto Spring Training for 10 days starting next week, after which whole wardrobes will be bankrupt], and to share the love, here it is.

my notes: Full body armor, or at least heavy jeans, is recommended [especially if you're male]. It's not specified which way to point the cat, but with the cat's head towards your torso is what worked for us. A suitable song for stalking the cat is Tom Smith's "Rocket Ride," the first line of which is "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide." [weg--filkferengi]

Cat Burrito

Here's a description of how I pill a cat. I have succeeded even with large, wily, or ornery cats.

I do this in 2 stages. First, burrito the cat and clip their claws. This reduces future injuries when pilling the cat. Then pill the slightly-disarmed cat. But take it in whichever order works for you.

Here's a written description:
Put on a long-sleeve shirt. Find your nail clippers, the $2 kind you squeeze shut to clip.
Locate a standard size towel. A beach towel is too big, and a hand towel doesn't cover the hind legs. Have pills within arm's reach. Make sure the pill is out and in the lid, or a
saucer, so flailing arms won't knock it down. You'll want to pick it up easily at the time.

Now lay out your work area:
Clippers in arm's reach and towel on your lap. Center the towel on your lap, with the long direction going side to side. The top of the towel should not quite cover your knees; that way the cat's head will stick out after wrapping.

For this part you may want to practice on a stuffed animal a couple of times. It helps build up your speed.

If there are two of you, have your partner bring you the cat, ahem, stuffed animal. Roll the cat over so that it is lying on your lap with its feet in the air. Keep a hand on the cat, so that you are pressing it down a bit. You are aiming to put the cat on your lap so that its head is slightly off the towel. Once the cat is on your lap and upside down, use your free hand to tuck the towel firmly around its neck.

Since I'm right handed- here is the blow by blow.
Take cat, flip upside down, keeping right hand on chest and neck. Grab the towel with left hand, and tuck it close to the neck. The cat will try to fend you off with the front paws. Use the right hand to smooth front paws down against [cat’s] chest.

While tucking, pull towel over the right hand holding down cat's front paws. Transfer the squish pressure from right to left hand, so that now you are holding pressure using the left hand, and slide the right hand out from under the towel.

Now that your right hand is free, push the overlapping bit of the towel down against the right side of the cat, kind of tucking it under the cat. Do this quickly, without being too neat, as it helps but is not essential.

The cat will kick at you with its back legs at this point. The towel should protect you from the strike, and you can just keep your arms out of the way and keep going.

Use your right hand to grab the other side of the towel, and tuck it under the cat's chin going the other direction. Again, cover the left hand with the towel and transfer the squish pressure to the top hand as you slide the other hand out from under the towel.

Now keep top hand on the cat with the same, steady squish pressure, so that the
cat doesn't pull up its front paws. Use left hand to wrap the overlap towel fabric around and under the cat, much like swaddling a baby.

Typically kitty will kick you a few more times at this point with back legs and insult your ancestry. Once you have the top half of the cat firmly wrapped, you can fold up the bottom of the towel, pushing the cat's legs against its body and firmly tucking up the rest of the fabric.

Cat's head may not be fully visible; if so, just roll back the towel fabric.

Maintain the tight wrap, as the cat will try and sneak a front paw up towards its chest during the pilling process. I generally tell them no, and push the paw back under the towel.

Pilling instructions:
For right handers: Slide the cat towards you with its head on the left, in the "I'm holding a baby" position. Pin the lower half of the cat under your right arm a bit (football carry), to prevent escapes by kitty scootching down inside the towel. Ideally you'll position the cat so that you can drop a pill straight down its throat once you get the mouth open. Don't worry, I explain further.

Put your left hand under the cat's head, to hold it still while you open its mouth. Notice that behind the big front fangs is a little gap where you can pry its mouth open. Use thumb and forefingers behind the fangs area to pry open the mouth. Once you get it open, look for the drop path for the pill, and let the cat close its mouth. You want it to drop straight down, and not drop too much on the tongue.

Get the pill, and tuck it in the little fingers of your right hand. Now pry the cat's mouth open again, and drop in the pill. (If you have a second person, have them drop it in.) Immediately let the cat close its mouth, and clamp it shut with your fingers (left hand). Also clamp down on the towel in general with your right arm (football carry), as the cat
will begin squirming madly.

Now stroke the cat's throat GENTLY with the fingers of your right hand. You are trying to induce a swallow reflex. Do it 3 or 4 times, and see if the cat swallows. Even if you think they swallowed the pill, pry their mouth open again and check. Once the mouth is open, they'll spit out the pill if they didn't swallow it.

Retrieve the damp pill, and repeat the drop process. If you can't get it in after 4 tries, take a break. The adrenaline will make your hands shake, and both you and the cat need to calm down.

For liquid medicine, just put the medicine dropper over the drop path.

You should seriously congratulate yourself once you've pilled a cat.

Here's the section on clipping their claws:

Burrito the cat.

Pull out one leg, probably the one they were sneaking out of the burrito anyway.
Rotate the cat so that you are holding it firmly against you with the left arm (football carry again), and hold the leg still with your left hand. Pick up the clippers, and make sure you have a good angle to clip and enough light. With left hand, change your grip from the leg to the paw, and use your fingers to extend one claw on the paw, maintaining the squish pressure on the football carry with your left arm and body.

Look for the white section of claw, beyond the pink fleshy bit. Clip off the end of the claw, leaving a safety margin so that you don't clip the pink section. That hurts them, and they bleed. Even skilled clippers will occasionally miss, so it is better to clip too little than too much.

Switch to the next claw, extend it and clip it. Front paws have 5 claws, and back paws have 4, except for Hemingway cats. Tuck the leg back in, ignore the cat's glare, and scritch its head a bit. Then pull out the leg on the same side and clip those claws.

I can usually get the claws on one side of the cat from the starting position. To do the other side I tighten the wrappings a bit and switch it to face in the other direction. Now pull out one leg on the new side and clip its claws. Then tuck it back in and do the final leg.

If you are not in a hurry, you can get a cat accustomed to claw-clipping by holding it (wrapped or not) in your lap. Take a paw and extend one of the claws. Instead of clipping it, grasp the claw in your other hand, and wiggle it gently. Repeat for all legs and claws. This gets the cat used to having you mess with its feet, and the claw wiggle feels much
like a clipping. It takes 5 or 6 repeats over a series of evenings, before they get bored and stop panicking. By the time I've had a cat for 6 months, I can do without the towel.

At the end of the process, speak softly to the cat and scritch its ears and pet it for a minute or two. You want to make the end of the process a gentle memory, so that they are less afraid in the future.

I have found that having two people is not always better; it depends on how well they work together in such a tight space. It takes some coordination to pry open the jaws and drop the pill with the same hand, so that is a good place for a second person to help. As for escape attempts, if the cat gets free of the towel enough to latch on to your head or shoulders, let go and let it run away. You'll need to come back later and try again, but you will reduce injury.

filkferengi,

If you find this helpful, feel free to pass it on to others. And add any insights you have from trying it out.

curiousmay9