First let me stress that I am typically anti-OTC medicines. I know how dangerous OTC flea medicine can be, and other medicines worry me.
With that being said, here is my situation. I have a house full of cats. We had a small flea problem, which is now gone, but tapeworms were the result.
One of my cats is a 7 year old feral. I've had him since he was a 4 month old feral kitten and while he loves his fluffy beds and the other cats, touching him, let alone picking him up is near impossible to do. I've moved several times and moving with him has been an adventure to say the least. It's involved trapping him and then keeping him in a large dog crate for the duration of the trip. A few years ago he was so sick and literally near death. I spent several days trying to catch him or trap him to no avail. The only way I eventually got him to the vet was by scooping him up and putting him into a carrier while he was in the middle of a seizure.
Now I CAN get him to take medicine if I mix it into his food and isolate him while he eats.
My vet here will not prescribe me any medicine for cats that she hasn't seen. In the past, when I described Oscar, the feral, to vets, they have been more than willing to prescribe him medicine without seeing him. Knowing that I always kept my other cats up to date on everything and took them in at the first sign of illness made them trust me when I thought that Oscar needed something. This is the first time I've had a vet insist that she has to see him before prescribing him anything.
So at the moment I have tapeworm medicine for my other cats, but not for Oscar. I'm frustrated because I would absolutely bring him in to be seen if I could...but I can't. I even explained to her that he was literally near death at one point, and even then it took a seizure to give me the moment I needed to pick him up. And to add to the seizure story, when I got him to the vet they had to sedate him to look at him, and after trying to open his carrier to take him out, then ended up putting the entire carrier into a bag and pumping anesthesia into it because he was trying to attack them when they tried to open the carrier. Needless to say, if they had doubted me about my inability to pick up him before that moment, they definitely didn't doubt me afterward!
So my question is - is there anything I can give to him thats OTC and safe for him? Or is there a website I can order from without a prescription?
Note - I know I mentioned that he had a seizure in the past, but it's not epilepsy, so that wouldn't be a factor in anything that he can take. That particular incident was due to a severe flea allergy (because of course the only cat that I can't touch is the only one who can literally die if he has fleas), which caused anemia so severe that it gave him seizures.
I'm also a little hopeful that he may not have the tapeworms. It was only one cat that had the fleas (after Oscar almost died that time, we've been diligent about flea treatment) and we are assuming it's because she ran out of the house and away for a few days. She was treated as soon as we got her back but I don't know where else she would have gotten the fleas from. The vet wants all of the cats treated though because they all groom each other and could have eaten a flea.
So any advice on what I can do for him would be greatly appreciated!
With that being said, here is my situation. I have a house full of cats. We had a small flea problem, which is now gone, but tapeworms were the result.
One of my cats is a 7 year old feral. I've had him since he was a 4 month old feral kitten and while he loves his fluffy beds and the other cats, touching him, let alone picking him up is near impossible to do. I've moved several times and moving with him has been an adventure to say the least. It's involved trapping him and then keeping him in a large dog crate for the duration of the trip. A few years ago he was so sick and literally near death. I spent several days trying to catch him or trap him to no avail. The only way I eventually got him to the vet was by scooping him up and putting him into a carrier while he was in the middle of a seizure.
Now I CAN get him to take medicine if I mix it into his food and isolate him while he eats.
My vet here will not prescribe me any medicine for cats that she hasn't seen. In the past, when I described Oscar, the feral, to vets, they have been more than willing to prescribe him medicine without seeing him. Knowing that I always kept my other cats up to date on everything and took them in at the first sign of illness made them trust me when I thought that Oscar needed something. This is the first time I've had a vet insist that she has to see him before prescribing him anything.
So at the moment I have tapeworm medicine for my other cats, but not for Oscar. I'm frustrated because I would absolutely bring him in to be seen if I could...but I can't. I even explained to her that he was literally near death at one point, and even then it took a seizure to give me the moment I needed to pick him up. And to add to the seizure story, when I got him to the vet they had to sedate him to look at him, and after trying to open his carrier to take him out, then ended up putting the entire carrier into a bag and pumping anesthesia into it because he was trying to attack them when they tried to open the carrier. Needless to say, if they had doubted me about my inability to pick up him before that moment, they definitely didn't doubt me afterward!
So my question is - is there anything I can give to him thats OTC and safe for him? Or is there a website I can order from without a prescription?
Note - I know I mentioned that he had a seizure in the past, but it's not epilepsy, so that wouldn't be a factor in anything that he can take. That particular incident was due to a severe flea allergy (because of course the only cat that I can't touch is the only one who can literally die if he has fleas), which caused anemia so severe that it gave him seizures.
I'm also a little hopeful that he may not have the tapeworms. It was only one cat that had the fleas (after Oscar almost died that time, we've been diligent about flea treatment) and we are assuming it's because she ran out of the house and away for a few days. She was treated as soon as we got her back but I don't know where else she would have gotten the fleas from. The vet wants all of the cats treated though because they all groom each other and could have eaten a flea.
So any advice on what I can do for him would be greatly appreciated!
