Theophylline: anyone have experience with it? Does it have to be a liquid? Collapsed lobe in lung.

I WILL be asking the vet who prescribed theophylline if it has to be in a liquid form but I won't be able to get a hold of her until Monday at the earliest.


My cat just had a disappointing vet school visit which revealed a collapsed lobe(middle right) in his lung as well as an additional heart concern. He was prescribed theophylline. My friend just picked it up for me from the compounding pharmacy here and it hit me that 3ml is a lot of liquid as I drew it up into the syringe. I had them add chicken flavor to try and mask the fruity kid's flavoring but it smelled very much like candy to me. My cat, who is quite used to Clavamox & other liquid meds, resisted, cried out mournfully, and looked distressed. He did not like the medication at all. And I'm supposed to give him 3ml 3x a day. I'm feeling quite defeated as I don't want to do this to him. He was also prescribed Famciclovir 3x a day but eats the pills out of my hand with crumbled treats; no problem.

I've seen pills & I've seen a transdermal preparation. I also know other compounding pharmacies like RoadRunner can make things much more palatable for him. However, it's still a lot of liquid. I know liquids are absorbed faster but.. Any reason why she might have written the script for liquid and not pills? He has mild asthma & chronic URIs, and the collapsed lobe in his lung. He's had some increased respiratory effort and the hope is that the medication will prevent further damage to his lungs

I don't know anything about this medication, but that is a lot of liquid meds to give every day. In doing a quick search, I see that 1800petmeds.com and drsfostersmith.com both carry it in tablet form. HOWEVER, I see that the dose for cats is super small. I think it might be more of an issue of getting the proper dose (small!) for a cat, and perhaps a liquid is the best way they can do that. You could ask if they can compound a powder into a gel cap, which you would then pill.  I hope you have another option. The stress alone of giving the liquid could affect your cat's health further.