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Administering Eye drops

post #1 of 12
7/9/08 at 6:35pm
Thread Starter 
I need to give Carly eye drops twice a day and we can't seem to hold her still enough to get the drops even near her eyes.

Does anyone have any ideas of how we can get these drops in her eyes? She can really whip her head around.
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post #2 of 12
7/9/08 at 6:58pm
I feel your pain! I had to give one of my fosters Maddie eyes drops for conjectivitis.....and for a 8 lb. cat she put up a heckuva fight! The best thing I can tell you is hold hold the cat in your lap with their back to you when you administer the drops. good luck!
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post #3 of 12
7/10/08 at 8:46am
When Pepper had conjunctivitis I was given Cipro drops for her. It took both me and DH to hold her still and then she just shook the drops out anyway. They didn't work very well and I ended up asking the vet for some ointment!

I don't know what the drops are for but , if you can't get ointment, you may try scruffing her and holding her still until the drops have a chance to be absorbed into her eye.

Good luck!
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post #4 of 12
7/10/08 at 8:48am
Do you scruff her Jana? I give them to Sev a lot and I scruff him, and he just lets me do it, but that's Sev Good luck
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post #5 of 12
7/10/08 at 10:52am
my Coco is currently on 3-4 times a day eyedrops for an eye ulcer she got from being attacked by my little guyX_X

the way i do it is I sit on top of her (like kneel ontop of her shoulders sort of) and cross my legs in the back (so she can't back out and away) and she pretty much won't be able move
and i just lean down and tip her head up a bit and open her eye and drop the meds real quick then she'll usually panic for a second but thats when i need to just gently hold her and then she will be lik e"oh thats not so bad" then i just pat her on the head and give her a kiss and voila! 3 -4 times a day :>

usually i wipe her eyes clean w/ opticlear and cotton balls first just to get out any loose debris/dirt around her eyes before dropping in meds

hope this helps :B
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post #6 of 12
7/10/08 at 11:06am
Jack had eye drops/gel for an eye infection when we got him. He was only 12 weeks old so was easy to handle. Hubby was able to hold his head still and apply. At 6 months we had to do the eye stuff again and we had to scruff him.

Leslie
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post #7 of 12
7/10/08 at 11:57am
It depends on the cat in my experience- i have some who will cooperate without putting up a fight and others who want blood if you even attempt to administer eye drops.

The best way i've found to give them is scruffing the cat by the nape of the neck with one hand- in doing so stretch the arm you're using to scruff with across the cats back to put a little pressure on them and hold them down. With the other hand (be sure you already have the top off of the drops so you can do it as quickly as possible) use one finger to pull the eyelid up a bit and then the rest of your hand to instill the drops. I normally at that point will put my hand over the eye and keep it closed for a few moments so that the eye drop stays in the eye and doesn't roll out.

If you get a really fiesty one though what you can do is scruff them (away from you so your head and their head is facing straight ahead) and gently lay part of your upper body on top of them (gently- but so they can't wiggle away) and then instill the eye drops with the other hand.

Good luck!
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post #8 of 12
7/10/08 at 12:51pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks everyone. The drops I'm giving her are Interferon for a herpes outbreak.

I'll give all of these a try. I swear that Carly separates her head from her body somehow. And it is always at the very last possible moment.
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post #9 of 12
7/10/08 at 4:06pm
This is how we did it when we had to give Swanie eye drops. DH & I sat on the sofa with Swanie between us (very close). DH held Swanie as still as possible and I put the drops in. The first time he growled and fought and had a general fit. After a few days, he still didn't like it, but he settled down and it got easier.

Good luck!
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post #10 of 12
7/12/08 at 7:00pm
when i had to put gel in patchy's eye, i got to where i could anticipate which way she was going to jerk her head and i would start to squeeze the gel out in that area and it would land in her eye as she turned her head that way LOL!

but i did have to hold her down. i burrito wrapped her with my arms. i was used to doing this when i had to clean out her ears from them being nasty due to food allergies so it was no biggie to patchy and me.
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post #11 of 12
7/12/08 at 7:45pm
I have to give drops to both Chestnut and Gizmo.

I find it best if I put them on a table or counter, or other surface that is about waist high, I scruff them with my left hand (I'm a righty) and then I lean over them a little bit so that they are in my armpit, then I do some miricle with my one "free" hand and open their lids while squeezing in the meds... I don't know if that helped, but thats how its done here. They have gotten much better because they have learned that MANY treats follow!
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post #12 of 12
7/13/08 at 7:02am
I found a stray 3 1/2 week old kitten who had terrible eye issues...man was she fiesty...I put her in my lap and held her by the nap of her neck...seemed to work
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