Not horsey - cat going senile - bit long sorry

[Gleeful Imp]

My 14 year old ginger pusscat has been diagnosed with the onset of senility. I just wondered if anyone had any experience of this? We have tablets to give him, they're meant to go in food but the crafty little ginger just turns his nose up, and believe me we have tried everything. Only option is down the throat, but he is getting very distressed (and so are we) as they are very large.

Normally have no problems him taking tablets as he's a good boy.

I don't know if we should just persevere with the tablets but I don't want to upset him anymore (little pud is upset enough and we've been together 14 years so this is horribly hard).

Great big mug of hot choccy if you got this far with marshmallows and jaffa cakes for dunking!

 

[*hic*]

Does he like offal?

It gets a bit messy but I've found that liver disappears down my cats' throats without even touching the sides and a tablet tucked inside the second or third bit just isn't noticed, especially if there's another cat around. The trick with it is to not just take the liver out of the fridge and feed it cold, it has to be at blood temperature. I've cut up pieces of liver and frozen them individually before now and just taken a few pieces out each day to warm up and feed.

 

[Mrs_Wishkabibble]

I have to put my cats worming tablets in cheese, I sort of mould the cheese round them, works nearly every time!
Worth a try

 

[pixie]

I crush my cat's tablets up and mix them with a bit of plain yoghurt. I usually do this just before meal times so he's ravenous (he's a fatty!)

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

What tablets are they hun? Some they make deliberately palatable and my elderly moggie would eat them off the floor quite happily. But in the end he had to have 3 different sorts (none of them did any good in the end) and it got to be a battle. We got away with it for a few weeks by the cunning ploy of sticking the tablet in a prawn. Fresh, not tinned! But he sussed it in the end. I guess you are in the terrible position of trying to assess your moggie's quality of life when it breaks your heart to keep shoving tablets down his throat when it distresses him so, but you have adored him for 14 years and know it might help him have some extra time with you.

Watch him with your heart as well as your eyes hun. He will let you know when he's had enough. If you don't know if he's had enough, he hasn't. You honestly will know.

 

[Natch]

Box_of_frogs, what is that your horse is wearing in your siggy?

Sorry, off-topic

OP, you say you have tried everything, but I just wanted to check against my checklist to see if there is one you haven't tried:

1. Cheese (as another poster has said it moulds well around it, but in particular those plasticy cheese slices work well)

2. Tuna mayo

Have you tried halving them first? Ok so you've got two to do, but two smaller pieces

Can your vet maybe prescribe you a smaller tablet?

3. Grinding into something sticky like the above

The liver one sounds good... nice and smelly to mask the smell of the tablet

Hugs for you and your puss though. If its any consolation, we think our elderly cat is senile, and has been for a few years. She doesn't have treatment, and OK probably isn't a very severe case, but she's lasted quite a while being a bit senile and still enjoying life. She has suprised us all by being the sickly rescue cat, never in very great condition or health, and still managing to reach a grand old age. She is still going (relatively) strong and is happy.

 

[Theresa_F]

I do know about senile - Lulu the Poo is now 21 and whilst very healthy and only a bit stiff - she has injections twice a year for this, her brain is a bit daft - she was never the brightest to begin with.

She has started piddling in places or whilst asleep (she spends a lot of time doing this and sleeps very deeply) so we have to put her in a pen overnight and during the day when out. When out, she now wears "cat pants" - disposable nappies - which mean we can relax and don't wonder where she is and what she is on.

Our vet was not that impressed with tablets for being senile and said especially at her age, just to let things go and pen her to give us a break from constant washing and wiping.

She is very good to put a tablet into or will eat them in a bit of something tasty.

Tablets - Fuzz Nuts has fits so has to have them twice a day and adores wafer thin Tesco ham so we wrap them in that.

Gobby who lived to 27 and had thyriod problems liked them in a bit of philly cream cheese or tuna.

I think if I had to force them down twice a day and stress the cat out, I probably would leave things and do the right thing when it came to that they could not cope without medication.

I did this with Mog who had kidney problems, she hated the special food and would not eat it and because she was unwell had little appetite and was very difficult to tempt tablets with food. Giving her tablets was not good - she has to be held down and forced and after a week I decided to let her eat whatever she wanted and stopped the pills. She lived another two months before I had her pts but had as good quality a life as possible during this time.

 

[Rueysmum]

We have an 18 year old ginger puss cat who was diagnosed with heart and kidney failure back in January. He has to take two sets of pills per day and at first it was a nightmare with him getting really distressed, throwing himself on the floor and panting

The solution was to crush the tablets in Tesco's value chicken paste (you can find it in the aisle usually near to the jams), put the paste with the pill powder mixed in (only a small amount of paste though) onto a clean feeding blowl and hopefully he should lick it up.

This has worked for our cat and he is looking better than ever. Good luck with your chap - it's really trial and error to see what he will eat with the pills mixed in.

 

[Gleeful Imp]

Thankyou everyone thats really really appreciated - sorry not replied but long long day at work!

The tablets are the type which are meant to come apart and sprinkle on food. They are about 3 times the size of a worming tablet! We've tried ham, pate, butter, tuna (all things he would normally have your arm for) but no joy. I will try chicken paste and offal - thanks!

He's a long way from the final decision but I think if we can't get him to eat them we're not going to force it. Apparently they don't do smaller ones, but I wonder if I could mix them with water and squirt down throat?

Taking me ages to type this as the ginger one is trying to help