Cat wrestling

It was worming pill time last night.

The vet said to me, as I left the surgery… “If it all goes pear shaped and you can’t get the pill to go down… when it’s got to the frothy stage and the cat just keeps spitting it out… leave it 2 hours for her to forget then try again.”

S-puss is usually quite good. I didn’t think I’d need her advice. But this time was different. Actually, the first pill went down OK. The next one, she knew what was coming. As hubby assumed the cat-brace position again, the struggle was already underway.

I wrenched open the cat jaws by applpying pressure just infront of the jaw hinge and the jaws opened. My pill-inserting device (a syringe with a split rubber tube on the end to hold the pill) was kind of slippery by now so the pill fell out onto the cat’s tongue before it reached the back of the throat and was summarily spat out.

I applied butter next time – this rendered the pill-inserting device useless so I inserted the pill by hand. It was tricky getting the jaws open then getting the fingers in and out without personal injury or trapping the cats tongue (by now wreathing around to dispose of the distasteful item) in the process of holding the jaws shut. The cat chomped, the cat whinged, the cat retched, the cat breathed through its nose, the cat swallowed.

Yes!

I let go.

The cat spat the pill out.

It was a pretend swallow.

The cat fizzed at the mouth – now I know what the vet was talking about.

One more try. Again I held the cats jaws closed and the growling, chomping, whingeing, retching, struggling and nose-venting continued. Then the paws got free and paddled my hands with spikey claws. By the time one claw latched under my fingernail and tore the delicate skin under there, I had had enough. The cat was released to fester in the basement.

After the prescribed 2 hours the cat returned. Unbelievable. The vet was right. After 120 minutes, the cat had forgotten all the mean things. The pill-inserting device was dry, the pill was dry and this time, I took charge of the claws and squatted on the cat on the rug. Actually, she was between my knees as I knealt down. There was but one way to go – forwards and into the cat pill. It went down a treat.

Next time I will wear gloves – Kevlar ones