{"id":2219,"date":"2016-07-15T14:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T18:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/?p=2219"},"modified":"2021-04-11T10:49:46","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T14:49:46","slug":"drugging-my-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timeoff.org\/rick\/2016\/07\/15\/drugging-my-cat\/","title":{"rendered":"Drugging My Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Wiley<\/a>
Wiley lounging on my Dyna.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Imperial Star Wiley Raz-Ma-Taz, our flame-point Siamese, was born April 21, 2007. I think he’s had a pretty good life so far but, poor guy, he’s been having some trouble coping lately. Maybe he’s been watching the news too much… Whatever, we set out to help him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won’t bore you with the details. But over the course of a month or so working with a local veterinarian we settled on a successful drug regimen. The miracle drug? Fluoxetine, better known as Prozac. Yeah, this is an off-label use of the drug. I’ve since learned that it’s more common than one might think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiley’s always been an easy cat to pill. Maybe it’s a trust thing. Sometimes he appears to look forward to his next dose, perhaps he somehow knows that it brings comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately his dosage requires that the 10 milligram tablet be quartered. That breaches the coating and that<\/em> means it tastes awful! It’s bitter (self-tested) as all get-out. Mixed with saliva from an angry cat it foams and dribbles and… well, you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never<\/span> underestimate the fury of an unhappy feline – especially<\/em> when you’re working near its mouth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medication time quickly turned into a nightmare to which none of us looked forward. Even though the drugs helped Wiley this was putting a serious hurt on our relationship!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam found a place in China to buy unfilled gel-caps online and ordered some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Size-5<\/a>
A thousand size-5 gel-caps, sourced from China. They were cheap, too. The estimated ship estimate spanned the better part of a month, which was a little scary, but they actually showed up in a week or so. You can click this or any other image in this article for a larger view which will appear in a new window or tab.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The quartered tablet fragments fit pretty well into the gel-caps. Life started to improve. Still, the quartering process troubled me. No matter how careful, no matter how sharp the razor blade, the size of the quarters varied and sometimes even became damaged beyond being useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imprecise dosage and waste: there were still two problems to solve!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Amazon… And in a couple of days I had what I needed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n