My cat Artemis was about a month old when we first saw her. I tried to adopt her mother, her mother rolled over and showed her engorged teats, and I thought "dammit, I've just adopted more than one cat." It took about three months before we could touch any of the kittens (although they settled into the apartment in less than a day). Artemis's sister Athena became quite friendly very quickly, but Artemis has been much more standoffish. I am the only person that she lets pet her. Artemis is now about 3.5 yrs old, and she's positively become a lap cat (still just with me). She's canny and suspicious, though. Not only does she always jump off of my lap if I sneeze, she's good at preventing me from doing anything with her that she didn't initiate.
She also has a chronic coughing problem. I actually didn't know it was coughing (it sounds so much like retching), but I knew it was starting to get worse so January 2nd I took her to the vet. The vet took an X-ray, and suggested that it was respiratory. We first tried laxatone (thick flavored grease that coats the gut), however, just to make sure that her problem wasn't hair balls. After a week of treatment with laxatone, there was no improvement, so the vet wanted to start corticosteroids in case it is an inflammatory lung problem. I bought prednisolone pills and tried to dose her. I failed. I called the vet, and he ordered a prednisone transdermal gel for me to put on her ears. This is easier, but it's still quite a bit of work.
I'm now restricting her feeding to twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. (Artemis was getting fat, but, since I didn't know what the coughing was, and because we humans are good at putting together patterns were none exist, I thought she made the awful noise more often when she didn't have free and constant access to food.) When I tried dosing her with pills, she was too good at getting out if we were just in the living room, but I could actually hold her in the bathroom, where she didn't see an escape route. I've kept their food in the bathroom since we moved to this apartment, so it seems like a really good system.
What I've tried to do is feed her in the morning, put the food up, and, when I get home, put the food in the bathroom, close the door when she enters, dose her, and let her eat.
I sat on the bathroom floor behind the door for over an hour last night. She cautiously slinked in, keeping her rear legs & tail on the outside side of the door, scooted backwards a few times, stepped forward again, and pulled the food and the food bowl closer to the door. I moved it more than one Artemis length from the door. When I sat on the toilet, about 20 minutes later, she quickly trotted in, came up in a very friendly manner and got some enthusiastic petting (the first time I'd been able to touch her in the 2 hrs I'd been home), grabbed some food, and got out before I got off the toilet. I was only able to grab her by sitting in the kitchen (food hidden in the fridge), when she finally jumped on my lap and I carried her into the bathroom, stuck gel in her ear, tossed treats on the floor, and put the food back out. I made sure that she only ate while I was very near the food (I put her food right next to me as I did dishes in the kitchen).
Any ideas on how to grab a super-canny suspicious cat quickly and easily?
I have an additional question: has anyone here used aerosol drug delivery for their cat? I've seen the Aerokat website. If the corticosteriods work, I really don't like the idea of dosing her for the rest of her life, and I know that direct delivery of drugs has reduced systemic side effects, and would prefer to dose her that way, if it's the kind of thing that she wouldn't mind too much. Any ideas how much aerosol drug delivery bothers cats?
She also has a chronic coughing problem. I actually didn't know it was coughing (it sounds so much like retching), but I knew it was starting to get worse so January 2nd I took her to the vet. The vet took an X-ray, and suggested that it was respiratory. We first tried laxatone (thick flavored grease that coats the gut), however, just to make sure that her problem wasn't hair balls. After a week of treatment with laxatone, there was no improvement, so the vet wanted to start corticosteroids in case it is an inflammatory lung problem. I bought prednisolone pills and tried to dose her. I failed. I called the vet, and he ordered a prednisone transdermal gel for me to put on her ears. This is easier, but it's still quite a bit of work.
I'm now restricting her feeding to twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. (Artemis was getting fat, but, since I didn't know what the coughing was, and because we humans are good at putting together patterns were none exist, I thought she made the awful noise more often when she didn't have free and constant access to food.) When I tried dosing her with pills, she was too good at getting out if we were just in the living room, but I could actually hold her in the bathroom, where she didn't see an escape route. I've kept their food in the bathroom since we moved to this apartment, so it seems like a really good system.
What I've tried to do is feed her in the morning, put the food up, and, when I get home, put the food in the bathroom, close the door when she enters, dose her, and let her eat.
I sat on the bathroom floor behind the door for over an hour last night. She cautiously slinked in, keeping her rear legs & tail on the outside side of the door, scooted backwards a few times, stepped forward again, and pulled the food and the food bowl closer to the door. I moved it more than one Artemis length from the door. When I sat on the toilet, about 20 minutes later, she quickly trotted in, came up in a very friendly manner and got some enthusiastic petting (the first time I'd been able to touch her in the 2 hrs I'd been home), grabbed some food, and got out before I got off the toilet. I was only able to grab her by sitting in the kitchen (food hidden in the fridge), when she finally jumped on my lap and I carried her into the bathroom, stuck gel in her ear, tossed treats on the floor, and put the food back out. I made sure that she only ate while I was very near the food (I put her food right next to me as I did dishes in the kitchen).
Any ideas on how to grab a super-canny suspicious cat quickly and easily?
I have an additional question: has anyone here used aerosol drug delivery for their cat? I've seen the Aerokat website. If the corticosteriods work, I really don't like the idea of dosing her for the rest of her life, and I know that direct delivery of drugs has reduced systemic side effects, and would prefer to dose her that way, if it's the kind of thing that she wouldn't mind too much. Any ideas how much aerosol drug delivery bothers cats?
