It’s too bad cats can’t be sniffer dogs.

I live with a cat named Jellie. She is 18. She is beginning to act her age. The old girl has lost most of her hearing, but none of her voice. She is still sweet and a great companion EXCEPT when she shrieks in a dementia-like level and roams. My lovely veterinarian makes house calls. Thank goodness.
We started with the assumption that she was in pain and tried steroid and other various injections. No change. Other medications failed as well. Maybe she is depressed? The first anti-depressant made no change, so we changed to another one. Here’s the thing. The medicine cannot possibly work unless I can get it into her. Lots of suggestions from friends. Have I tried fill-in the-blank? Yes. 

I started by following directions from YouTube videos for “simply” popping the pill into her mouth. Several band-aids and almost a full tube of antibiotic ointment (for me, not the cat) later, I realized that another method would be needed. I bought an oral syringe added a crushed tablet to warm water and made an attempt to squirt the contents into her mouth. More band-aids and ointment, but sleep became a problem as the
mostly-at-night shrieking worsened. Thinking it was a taste problem, I bought vegan chicken flavored gravy gel to mix the tablet in before using the syringe. Then my bathrobe smelled like roasted chicken from the rejected gravy, but it was another failed attempt. 

People who do not own cats may not be familiar with hairball cream. The idea is that if applied to the cat’s skin, they will lick it off and because it is salve-like, the hairballs will not form in the first place so less puking all around. Super thinking, no? The salve is chicken flavored, so I thought aha! I will crush the tablet, add it to the salve and voila – medicated cat. Problem was that Jellie sleeps on my pillow and rubbed the lovely chicken-smelling salve on the pillowcase. 

Pill pockets to the rescue! A (you guessed it) chicken-flavored gummy with a pocket for the pill. Put the pocket in her food, easy peasy. Jellie would make a grand alert dog for the police. She can eat all of her food and the one remaining bit is the pill pocket. I have tried making the pocket smaller and only using ¼ of a tablet, but she can still pick it out. I have tried hiding it under the pile of kibble or stinky wet cat food to fool her. So far, the score is Jellie – 6 and Jeri – 0. I wonder if I should just take the medication myself and sleep through the shrieking? I am kidding. Sort of.

Here’s a glam shot of Jellie giving one of her best Zoolander poses.

I hope that my care for my senior cat will be an example for my son. When I am old and demented and shrieking in the night. Hopefully
by then the delivery methods will be
chocolate -flavored.

Oh good grief. I just  took a look at the hairball cream tube. It’s FISH-flavored! See what lack of sleep can do?