Lose-lose
Mitzi and I are undergoing a cold war of sorts. Yes, destruction is mutually assured, but despite this, whatever the outcome, I seem to be the loser.
Mitzi's been sick this week. She's getting to be an old cat (according to the chart at the vet, she's ~75 in human years), so her baseline level of puking is definitely noticeable, but this week she's thrown up every day. This seemed to be enough of a cause for concern, so I took her to the vet on Thursday. The vet didn't find any other troubling symptoms in Mitzi, but is doing bloodwork just to check that everything is ok. (A good idea even for healthy geriatric cats, apparently.) She also gave me some medicine I could give Mitzi to settle her stomach.
Now, something you need to know is that Mitzi and medicine do not mix. Mitzi may be a very small cat, but she's squirmy and does everything in her power to resist things that she doesn't want to happen. She's much harder to control than the other (much larger) cats in my house. (Even the vet's assistant, who is surely used to belligerent animals, had a hard time drawing Mitzi's blood for the tests.) Mitzi is very much opposed to taking medicine. It took Jenny and I an extremely long time to give her a pill a few years ago, and it definitely required both of us holding onto her. Fortunately, this tummy medicine is a liquid, which is much easier for me to administer than a pill would be.
So since Mitzi is unable to avoid taking her medicine, she's decided to protest in the only other way she knows how: by peeing on my bed. I had to wash my bedding twice last night! I know when to accept defeat, so I didn't give her the medicine this morning. Naturally, this resulted in her throwing up on my bed. There's just no winning for me! My current strategy is to sneak the meds into her wet food treat. So far she hasn't noticed. She gobbled down her drug-laced Cod, Shrimp, & Sole feast just now. But let's see how long it takes her to discover my subterfuge... I just hope that the defacement of my bed is really an act of defiance rather than a side effect of the medicine! (I cursorily searched online, and didn't find incontinence as a side effect of metoclopramide at least. And Mitzi definitely has a history of peeing on my bed when she's upset about something.) But supposing I do have to make a choice, I wonder which is worse: cat puke or cat pee. Which would you choose? In general, I'd definitely opt for the puke. It's much better smelling. But it's not good for Mitzi to be throwing up every day, so her health has to be weighed into the decision.
Keep your fingers crossed for my room being a puke-free AND a pee-free zone, and cross your toes for the results of her bloodwork!
Mitzi's been sick this week. She's getting to be an old cat (according to the chart at the vet, she's ~75 in human years), so her baseline level of puking is definitely noticeable, but this week she's thrown up every day. This seemed to be enough of a cause for concern, so I took her to the vet on Thursday. The vet didn't find any other troubling symptoms in Mitzi, but is doing bloodwork just to check that everything is ok. (A good idea even for healthy geriatric cats, apparently.) She also gave me some medicine I could give Mitzi to settle her stomach.
Now, something you need to know is that Mitzi and medicine do not mix. Mitzi may be a very small cat, but she's squirmy and does everything in her power to resist things that she doesn't want to happen. She's much harder to control than the other (much larger) cats in my house. (Even the vet's assistant, who is surely used to belligerent animals, had a hard time drawing Mitzi's blood for the tests.) Mitzi is very much opposed to taking medicine. It took Jenny and I an extremely long time to give her a pill a few years ago, and it definitely required both of us holding onto her. Fortunately, this tummy medicine is a liquid, which is much easier for me to administer than a pill would be.
So since Mitzi is unable to avoid taking her medicine, she's decided to protest in the only other way she knows how: by peeing on my bed. I had to wash my bedding twice last night! I know when to accept defeat, so I didn't give her the medicine this morning. Naturally, this resulted in her throwing up on my bed. There's just no winning for me! My current strategy is to sneak the meds into her wet food treat. So far she hasn't noticed. She gobbled down her drug-laced Cod, Shrimp, & Sole feast just now. But let's see how long it takes her to discover my subterfuge... I just hope that the defacement of my bed is really an act of defiance rather than a side effect of the medicine! (I cursorily searched online, and didn't find incontinence as a side effect of metoclopramide at least. And Mitzi definitely has a history of peeing on my bed when she's upset about something.) But supposing I do have to make a choice, I wonder which is worse: cat puke or cat pee. Which would you choose? In general, I'd definitely opt for the puke. It's much better smelling. But it's not good for Mitzi to be throwing up every day, so her health has to be weighed into the decision.
Keep your fingers crossed for my room being a puke-free AND a pee-free zone, and cross your toes for the results of her bloodwork!
posted by Meg at
3:41 PM
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