Zyrtec for Cats

nansiludie · Apr 20, 2016

Hello, I had not been on in a bit so I hadn't seen all of your posts. You've been give much good advice but one thing concerns me, I am not sure if these tablets should be crushed. I never have had to. You may want to ask your Vet about it as some tablets are not meant to be crushed. If they are, they can be absorbed too quickly by the cat. I hope it helps your kitty. It surely has helped Mr. Tips. I found that his are seasonal, spring and fall are mainly when he has flare ups. Luckily he's not ever given me any trouble regarding taking his tablet. Do you give her a little water after pilling her? I take a little syringe with a bit of water in it and give it to him after he's taken his pill, much like a person would drink water to chase a tablet so it doesn't get stuck.

valentine319 · Apr 20, 2016

I'm able to crush the zyrtec, add a tiny amount of water and suck it up in a syringe. It's about half a teaspoon I squirt in the side of her mouth for allergies.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

Valentine319 said:
I'm able to crush the zyrtec, add a tiny amount of water and suck it up in a syringe. It's about half a teaspoon I squirt in the side of her mouth for allergies.

Does the taste bother your cat? I know Benadryl sure did for her. She vomited and foamed at the mouth every time. Thanks for the idea!

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

So I received the Zyrtec in the mail and one of the non active ingredients is polyethylene glycol and I'm sure I read somewhere in all of the madness of my research not to ever give that to cats that it would make them very sick. Am I just imagining things? Does anyone see this listed in their Zyrtec that you give your cats? I have to do more research obviously lol but thought I'd ask. I looked and its also in benadryl but not claritin.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

nansiludie said:
Hello, I had not been on in a bit so I hadn't seen all of your posts. You've been give much good advice but one thing concerns me, I am not sure if these tablets should be crushed. I never have had to. You may want to ask your Vet about it as some tablets are not meant to be crushed. If they are, they can be absorbed too quickly by the cat. I hope it helps your kitty. It surely has helped Mr. Tips. I found that his are seasonal, spring and fall are mainly when he has flare ups. Luckily he's not ever given me any trouble regarding taking his tablet. Do you give her a little water after pilling her? I take a little syringe with a bit of water in it and give it to him after he's taken his pill, much like a person would drink water to chase a tablet so it doesn't get stuck.

I think if I remember correctly that is only a concern if you were to give the extended release tablets which I know you never should because of that maybe happening. I do give her a little squirt of water after pilling her and then give her her breaksfast shortly after just to make sure sure it went down ok. Thanks for offering your opinion. Appreciate every reply.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

CrazyCatLady41 said:
So I received the Zyrtec in the mail and one of the non active ingredients is polyethylene glycol and I'm sure I read somewhere in all of the madness of my research not to ever give that to cats that it would make them very sick. Am I just imagining things? Does anyone see this listed in their Zyrtec that you give your cats? I have to do more research obviously lol but thought I'd ask. I looked and its also in benadryl but not claritin.

Ok folks, it's the Polypropylene Glycol that cats need to stay away from...I got mixed up! Sorry about that...

valentine319 · Apr 21, 2016

Mine just doesn't like pills. She has no issues with it in water. No foaming, spitting or fighting me.

valentine319 · Apr 21, 2016

Ok I'm looking at the bottle and at the end propylene glycol is listed. I'm using generic Walmart but wouldn't be surprised if in both. Yes, i want to avoid any use of it in my cat. As far as humans, this is in mio water enhancers and can mimic MS symptoms. I try avoiding it myself.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

Valentine319 said:
Mine just doesn't like pills. She has no issues with it in water. No foaming, spitting or fighting me.

That's great!!

Mine's very good with taking the pills, she doesn't resist or scratch.. I just can't do it by myself and I have to depend on someone else to help me every morning so it's kind of a pain that way. I will have to try this! Thanks so much.

valentine319 · Apr 21, 2016

Crazycatlady41 I squirt it in the side of her mouth but she doesn't fight me. I'm running to the store to see if name brand doesn't have propelene glycol.

Anyone using chlortabs instead generic from Walmart is fine.
Active Ingredient (In Each Tablet), Purpose: Chlorpheniramine Maleate 4 Mg, Antihistamine. Inactive Ingredients: D&C Yellow #10, Lactose, Magnesium Stearate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Pregelatinized Starch. Active Ingredients: (In each tablet), purpose: chlorpheniramine maleate 4 mg, antihistamine.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

Valentine319 said:
Mine just doesn't like pills. She has no issues with it in water. No foaming, spitting or fighting me.

That's great!!

Mine's very good with taking the pills, she doesn't resist or scratch.. I just can't do it by myself and I have to depend on someone else to help me every morning so it's kind of a pain that way. I will have to try this! Thanks so much.

Valentine319 said:
Ok I'm looking at the bottle and at the end propylene glycol is listed. I'm using generic Walmart but wouldn't be surprised if in both. Yes, i want to avoid any use of it in my cat. As far as humans, this is in mio water enhancers and can mimic MS symptoms. I try avoiding it myself.

Scary stuff : / Mine is a generic also but does not list propylene glycol thankfully. These ones I have are tiny and flat 5mg tabs just called Cetirizine Hydrochloride- Original Prescription Strength made by Pack Pharmecuticals.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

Valentine319 said:
Crazycatlady41 I squirt it in the side of her mouth but she doesn't fight me. I'm running to the store to see if name brand doesn't have propelene glycol.

Good idea! Let me know how it goes...

valentine319 · Apr 21, 2016

Crazycatlady41 were did you buy yours? I'm hitting walgreens. No safe one found at Walmart or kmart.

valentine319 · Apr 21, 2016

So the vet said the small inactive propelyne glycol wouldn't hurt her. I still don't want her having it. I've checked Walmart, Walgreen's, kmart, cvs and kroger all have it in them. Except fast dissolve but it has manitol and sucralose. Anyone who knows where to get zyrtec with no propelyne glycol please let us know.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

I bought mine online on ebay:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/161328657398...04&_trkparms=gh1g=I161328657398.N41.S2.R2.TR2

100 tablets were like $11, so cheap, I'm going to start giving them to her once a day in the morning, tomorrow and see how she does. Claritin also does not contain any propelyne glycol that I could see with what I purchased. It was just a generic brand that I bought.

Maybe your vet is right? But if it's something your pet needs to take over a long period of time, as it looks that mine will also until I can figure out the allergen, I think it would be best to be on the safe side of things and just find one that doesn't have it listed as an ingredient, as you are trying to do. If you don't have an ebay account, they also sell that same brand of Zyrtec on Amazon also.

I hope this helps you!

crazycatlady41 · Apr 21, 2016

I posted a link to ebay that were selling the Zyrtec but I guess that's not permitted, I'm a newb, what can I say lol

Just do a search for Pack Pharmaceuticals Cetirizine 5 mg 100 ct (generic zyrtec)

If you don't have an ebay account they also sell the exact same ones on Amazon as well.

I got 100 tablets for about $11 and free shipping so a great price! The claritin I purchased which was just a generic brand also does not contain propelyne glycol. I'm starting my cat on it the Zyrtec tomorrow morning. I hope it works out well. I hear it's one of the best for cats in particular.

Maybe your vet is right? But if you have to use it over a long period of time, as I'm going to until I found out the allergen, I would think just to be on the safe side to find one without this particular ingredient as you are trying to do.

I hope this helps!

mackiemac · Apr 21, 2016

Y'all... what I do for my hard-to-medicate Skye, who is on a round of predNISOLONE is this. She is the MOST difficult thing to pill and I did this for a living. I pilled many difficult cats. She's one of the hardest of all. This is probably easier than trying to trace down a liquid formula for every cat drug.

FIRST: Check with your vet to be sure that any pills that your cat takes are safe to grind up. Time release caps and enteric coated pills probably should not be ground-- but always check.

Get some very tasty liquid. I use a vitamin liquid called Pet-Tinic because she takes it daily anyway and she hates it less than everything else. You can use whatever liquid works.
Get a small oral syringe, with no needle. 1 to 3 cc volume should be just fine.
Grind the pill dose into a VERY FINE powder. It has to be very, very fine or the chunks might get stuck in the syringe tip
Mix the powdered pill(s) with a small amount (1-2 cc) of your chosen liquid... only 1 cc of Pet-Tinic if that's what you're using... to a consistency that flows easily through the syringe tip. You can do this for several meds at once if they're given at the same time
Draw the mix up in the syringe.
Dispense the liquid carefully into the cat's mouth, helping the cat to swallow if she's hesitant.

This is the ONLY way I can get a pill into Skye. She's combative, and she's extremely adept at retching up even a "swallowed" pill that I saw go down the hatch with my own two eyes! But it works for us, and she can't retch it out. It's also a good technique for giving doxycycline which can cause esophageal ulcers if it gets stuck on the way down.

Hope this helps ease dome battles!

~MackieMac

crazycatlady41 · Apr 22, 2016

MackieMac said:
Y'all... what I do for my hard-to-medicate Skye, who is on a round of predNISOLONE is this. She is the MOST difficult thing to pill and I did this for a living. I pilled many difficult cats. She's one of the hardest of all. This is probably easier than trying to trace down a liquid formula for every cat drug.

FIRST: Check with your vet to be sure that any pills that your cat takes are safe to grind up. Time release caps and enteric coated pills probably should not be ground-- but always check.

Get some very tasty liquid. I use a vitamin liquid called Pet-Tinic because she takes it daily anyway and she hates it less than everything else. You can use whatever liquid works.

Get a small oral syringe, with no needle. 1 to 3 cc volume should be just fine.

Grind the pill dose into a VERY FINE powder. It has to be very, very fine or the chunks might get stuck in the syringe tip

Mix the powdered pill(s) with a small amount (1-2 cc) of your chosen liquid... only 1 cc of Pet-Tinic if that's what you're using... to a consistency that flows easily through the syringe tip. You can do this for several meds at once if they're given at the same time

Draw the mix up in the syringe.

Dispense the liquid carefully into the cat's mouth, helping the cat to swallow if she's hesitant.

This is the ONLY way I can get a pill into Skye. She's combative, and she's extremely adept at retching up even a "swallowed" pill that I saw go down the hatch with my own two eyes! But it works for us, and she can't retch it out. It's also a good technique for giving doxycycline which can cause esophageal ulcers if it gets stuck on the way down.

Hope this helps ease dome battles!

~MackieMac

I looked up and the generic brand of Zyrtec is not enteric coated only the 12 hr decongestant of Zyrtec so I'm good there. I am going to try this! I need to be able to pill her independantly and this sounds like a great way to do it. When you actually dispense the liquid into the cats mouth, how do you go about holding her? Between your legs, up on a table, down on the floor? Just curious...thanks for the great advice!

mackiemac · Apr 22, 2016

CrazyCatLady41 said:
I looked up and the generic brand of Zyrtec is not enteric coated only the 12 hr decongestant of Zyrtec so I'm good there. I am going to try this! I need to be able to pill her independantly and this sounds like a great way to do it. When you actually dispense the liquid into the cats mouth, how do you go about holding her? Between your legs, up on a table, down on the floor? Just curious...thanks for the great advice!

My little guy, Schrodie, loves his liquid so I don't have to hold him at all. I just hold the dropper or syringe down in front of him and he starts licking it. I just gently press the plunger to keep it flowing very slowly so his lick speed matches the drops from the syringe.. But in fair disclosure-- he's very easy to medicate anyway. When he was on daily medicine for years, I could shake his pill bottle, and he would come into the kitchen. Then he's sit and let me gently tip his head back a little so I could gibe him his pill and a few drops of Pet-Tinic to help it slip down. To him, those drops were a reward. He knew that when he heard the rattle of the pills, he would soon "do a task" (take a pill) and earn a treat. The vitamin treat was/is SO worth it to him! Plus he is very docile and trainable. So he got it figured out in a few days! But we trained on this beginning when he was still small.

For Skye, I have to work a bit harder. She's NOT docile for her medicine, and she is NOT amenable to training to do anything that she does not want to do. But even so, all I do with her is crook my arm loosely around her "zone" or rest a hand lightly on her shoulders just below the base of the neck-- the mama spot is what I call it ( the "mama spot" is what I call that spot where a mom cat grasps her kittens to make them go limp and relaxed when she carries them-- some cats reflexively go limp and relaxed when you touch that spot.) to keep her from sneaking away. Then I introduce just the tip of the syringe into the corner of her mouth and slowly squeeze until she has to pretty much lick it down. You can use whatever holding method works for you and is safe and comfortable for the kitty. Sometimes putting the cat UP on a counter or table instead of going down to the floor or working on a bed might be easier. It confuses them just a little, and takes a bit of the squirm out so it might be easier that way.With cats, use the MINIMUM restraint to do the job. If you hold too tight, the cat will fight. Often a loose hand on the mama spot is sufficient to keep the cat in place.

Some cats may try to fight even the syringe, but you can still kitty burrito in a towel if needed and slowly squirt/dribble the liquid into the corner of the mouth... where that natural tooth gap is. The syringe tip should fit easily in that space even if your kitty's doing the clenched-jaw thing.

Now wait-- just to be clear, the version of Zyrtec you want is not a "decongestant", it's an "antihistamine". Make sure that the kind you have isn't something like "Zyrtec D". It should be ONLY cetirizine as the active ingredient (an "antihistamine"). It should NOT have any pseudoephedrine (a "decongestant"). Double check to make sure that you have the one without pseudoephedrine.

crazycatlady41 · Apr 23, 2016

MackieMac said:
My little guy, Schrodie, loves his liquid so I don't have to hold him at all. I just hold the dropper or syringe down in front of him and he starts licking it. I just gently press the plunger to keep it flowing very slowly so his lick speed matches the drops from the syringe.. But in fair disclosure-- he's very easy to medicate anyway. When he was on daily medicine for years, I could shake his pill bottle, and he would come into the kitchen. Then he's sit and let me gently tip his head back a little so I could gibe him his pill and a few drops of Pet-Tinic to help it slip down. To him, those drops were a reward. He knew that when he heard the rattle of the pills, he would soon "do a task" (take a pill) and earn a treat. The vitamin treat was/is SO worth it to him! Plus he is very docile and trainable. So he got it figured out in a few days! But we trained on this beginning when he was still small.

For Skye, I have to work a bit harder. She's NOT docile for her medicine, and she is NOT amenable to training to do anything that she does not want to do. But even so, all I do with her is crook my arm loosely around her "zone" or rest a hand lightly on her shoulders just below the base of the neck-- the mama spot is what I call it ( the "mama spot" is what I call that spot where a mom cat grasps her kittens to make them go limp and relaxed when she carries them-- some cats reflexively go limp and relaxed when you touch that spot.) to keep her from sneaking away. Then I introduce just the tip of the syringe into the corner of her mouth and slowly squeeze until she has to pretty much lick it down. You can use whatever holding method works for you and is safe and comfortable for the kitty. Sometimes putting the cat UP on a counter or table instead of going down to the floor or working on a bed might be easier. It confuses them just a little, and takes a bit of the squirm out so it might be easier that way.With cats, use the MINIMUM restraint to do the job. If you hold too tight, the cat will fight. Often a loose hand on the mama spot is sufficient to keep the cat in place.

Some cats may try to fight even the syringe, but you can still kitty burrito in a towel if needed and slowly squirt/dribble the liquid into the corner of the mouth... where that natural tooth gap is. The syringe tip should fit easily in that space even if your kitty's doing the clenched-jaw thing.

Now wait-- just to be clear, the version of Zyrtec you want is not a "decongestant", it's an "antihistamine". Make sure that the kind you have isn't something like "Zyrtec D". It should be ONLY cetirizine as the active ingredient (an "antihistamine"). It should NOT have any pseudoephedrine (a "decongestant"). Double check to make sure that you have the one without pseudoephedrine.

Most definately I did NOT get the decongestant, just basic cetirizine 5 mg tabs and so far for the past 2 days of her having it, I just hid it in a tiny piece of pill pocket and she eats it right up, which was wayyy better than the experience I had with the benadryl tab! She just crunched into it and foamed and vomited, scared me silly! I thought I'd give it a try this time with the Zyrtec as I heard it wasn't so bitter like the benadryl ...she took it twice for me no problems so far, I just hope it continues to go smooth. I lost my extra hand in pilling her so now I most definately need to do it alone, so it was a relief that it was so easy...so far lol. I never get too sure...right after she eats it i give her her canned food for the morning. So far, she's doing really great on it, I love it more than the benadryl, it doped her up so much, and i only gave her less than a quarter of a pill and she's a 15 pnd cat. The claritin was better but still made her quite tired and now trying the Zyrtec, she's her usual self again. Awake, playing, not itching and scratching and sneezing and all stuffed up.. so I'm sooo happy! You're sooo lucky that you have such a docile cat like that! Wow, not too many would be so great about it, but like you said, training makes a difference especially since they were kittens. I really do appreciate your experience and recommendations, you definately know what you're talking about so it gives me great ideas if ever the pill pocket does not do the trick! Thanks again!

Zyrtec for Cats

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