Thursday, July 7, 2011

How to Give a COW a Pill (written with some confidence now)

Day 3 Round 1 goes to yours truly!!


Looks like the carrier-trick is working, and instead of Cow developing resistance to the trick (which we thought he would), he seems to understand that's how things are going to be and he's relenting/cooperating....OR, I'm just pushing my luck and dreaming?


Never mind.....it's moments that matter.  If it doesn't work, we have Plans B, C and D in store.


So, this morning, it was breakfast as usual first.  


After everyone had eaten, I first took out the pills all ready in a separate packet.  Then, I opened a new can of Fussie Cat and got a food bowl and spoon all ready.  Pills, Fussie Cat, bowl and spoon were placed next to carrier.  


Very quickly, I caught the Cow and plonked him into the carrier, upright, like yesterday.  


There was no hissing. 


Without giving him time to think or decide on his next course of action, I opened his jaw and Pill No.1 went in.  Rubbed head vigorously to distract, and praised him like crazy, while waiting for the tongue to show so that I know the pill has been swallowed.  But the tongue never did show....never mind.  Cows may be different from your regular cats.  


Stopped the rubbing of the head and waited....all seemed well.  No spitting.


Very quickly again, plonked in Pill No.2.  Repeated process above.  


No spitting.  


Yay!!  


 Bribery in progress...but it's "bersih" bribery (for a good cause).  And anyway, it's AFTER the deed has been done, so it isn't even bribery, I think?  

 Bunny on stand-by for leftovers, if any.

 Good boy, Cow.

 Confirmed....no pills in carrier.

Mission accomplished!!

 Er...we also want the same.  Can we have?

 I don't mind eating medicine, if I can have Fussie Cat after that....

 I want, I want!

 Now, when is she going to do this again?
I'll just humour her and let her think she's got me fooled...hah!

Okay...everybody gets some Fussie Cat....

Wish me luck for this evening, but believe it or not, I think we might have just found THE way to give a COW a pill!

You think?

Mooo.......


6 comments:

Fabriella FF said...

hahah i LOL at the part "...praised him like crazy..." hahahhahaha

Anonymous said...

No, no, I do not think of it as bribery, dear, be more positive, think of it as REWARD.

You are rewarding Cow for good behaviour. You call it bribery when you pay someone to do something that he is not supposed to do. Cow is supposed to take his medication, so when he does so, you reward the boboy. And without torn curtains, broken curtain rails, tetanus jabs, emergency wards, etc. hehehheeeee!!!

And, you and MingYi are supposed to help him take his medications. Having successfully done that, you two can reward yourselves with a nice big ice-cream, no? :-)

Yen Ling said...

haha :)

for my old cat, I had no choice but to marinate the pill with Whiskas pouch. It was the ONLY way to get my cat to take medicine.

kilikulu said...

i learn from the net and try it on my cat. it works. you can either blow cow's nose or touch it , then u will see his tongue lick the nose. good luck. :-)

chen said...

This reminds me of something I read. "If you need something from somebody, always give that person a way to hand it to you" in "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. Maybe Cow knows that you want to stuff little awful thingies into him which is sooo unmacho, so he cannot let you do it without putting up a fight. But because you've changed the parameters (by sticking him in a carrier where he cannot be seen)and giving him a reward, it does not seem so unmanly to comply.

MasAyu said...

You remember Duke, the old boy that near died being torn up front to back both sides by a pack of stray dogs and had to be stitched up twice by good old Dr. Vijay (even the good doc had been very nervous as to whether with such monstrous sized wounds, Duke would escape sepsis and survive!)? He owes his life to you, AnimalCare and good ole Dr. Vijay, yay!

Well, he is one smart big boy who like most, absolutely hates being medicated. Being an absolutely gentle boy, he does not hiss, scratch or bite. But come medication time, I have to hunt for him in the enclosed area as he will try to hide and make himself invisible by squeezing into somewhere. He even starts drooling in dreaded anticipation.

I always have to pull out things i.e chair, shelf, box, etc to pull him out. And he crouches very still. I would manja him and stroke his head, shoulders and chin. With my left hand, I calmly hold his head and tilt it. With my right hand, I gently pull down the lower jaw and aim the tablet deep into the centre of his throat, close his mouth and stroke his chin several times.

He does not struggle at all, he is that good. Real gentle giant. I start to stroke him all over and fuss over him, telling him that he is such a good boy. Immediately after that, I scoop kibbles onto his plate and he will get up to eat.

Yes, the old boy is that good! In fact all my cats allow me to calmly pop pills easily after learning from a vet with very good animal handling skills.

It is important not to do anything unless you yourself are absolutely calm and start and end the act with lots of manja-manja and food treats.