Pilling Samson is not a fun time. Poor boy he tenses up and starts to shake no matter how gentle I am to him. I gave him a nice meaty treat when we were done. I wish I could tell him that these pills are to help him. With the e-collar it makes it easier on me because he can’t claw me. He can and he does bite though. This morning he bit the syringe tip in half! I make sure to give him water after each pill so they don’t seize in his throat.
I pulled down the screen doors from upstairs yesterday and used these to block the underside of the bed so he can’t escape there. That’s all I need to have him hide underneath the bed with the e-collar on!
His poor eye looks so bad- all goopy and weepy despite being stitched closed. The vet said it would do this- drain and weep which is why they put the drain in.
I just pray the vet is wrong and it isn’t cancer. I saw the spot in question yesterday during the exam and it is a large mass. The vet said when he scraped it, part of it was thick while the rest was thinner. Said he never has seen anything quite like this before (figures).
I had to laugh though after the initial exam. Steve looked at me with some exasperation in his face and said: “Mary Anne can’t you ever just bring me a normal case?” HA! I can handle the normal cases, it’s the complex ones that baffle me.
This is the first time that Steve has examined Samson. He wasn’t available before now.
A friend asked me last night why not just put Sam to sleep? Right now I can’t. I have lost Shell, Manchester, Brooklyn and Frasier in a very short amount of time. To lose yet another one I can’t go there. Sam isn’t suffering. He was actually playing this morning with the tip of my blouse as I got dressed. If he were suffering it would be a no-brainer. If the eye and the ear tips can be removed along with the cancer- he has a chance to finally have a life denied to him before. True, he has to spend his time in the bedroom away from the direct sun- but it beats the alternative.
My friend Delores is coming by later to take Barnaby off my hands. She runs a private rescue over the mountain and is in town for some meetings. I told her about Barn and she said she has room to take him.
I understand about trying to pill an unwilling cat because Kirzon is that way. He won’t do liquid meds either. We are lucky that so far all his meds were able to be compounded in to a gel that can be put in his ears (it goes in through the skin in the ears).
And I understand about keeping him with you – if he isn’t in pain or suffering and still has a decent quality of life, then it would not be right to have him put to sleep. I would be doing the exact same thing.
I remember when Tuxedo was undergoing intensive treatment for anemia. You asked me to question my motives: were we keeping Tuxie alive for US or because he still had a chance at life – and we weren’t putting him through undue suffering to get there?
You have such extensive experience making these decisions, heartbreaking as that is, it comes with the wonderful work you do for these cats and kittens in need. I know they’re NEVER easy, but I’m also confident you base such decisions on the information you have, the behavior of the cats, the opinion of the vet, and not because you can’t let go.
Sending many prayers and vibes for Samson!
One of my cats, Woody, has a chronic sinus infection. He has to be on low dose antibiotics the rest of his life. The pills work the best and are much cheaper than liquids. He was a holy terror though. He is my gentle giant but he is also VERY strong and I just couldn’t pill him on my own.
Enter, HAM!! Oh, ham is Woody’s catnip. He goes absolutely bonkers every time I pull out a thin slice. Then I rip a little square and wrap it around the pill. Woody takes it and swallows in one gulp! Problem solved!!