How To Pill An Impossible Cat

So to start, I wanted to explain how one can pill a cat that will not, and I mean, will not take a pill with a pill popper, no matter how well you follow all of the so called tricks with towels, lifting the head up, etc.  About 4 days ago or so, we just about gave up completely on any hope of getting pain relief capsules into Weasel, but then a miracle occurred in the guise of 'pill pockets' by Greenies.  We purchased the chicken flavoured ones to start - as shown below:

What you'll require next to have on hand is an empty #4 capsule, which can be purchased from Amazon or other online retailers such as 'Thriving Pets'.

Then you will need a dropper that looks like the one below (the back plunger piece has been pulled out).

Pour the powder from the Yunnan Baiyao capsule (or other pain relief substance) into the back of the dropper (you may want to block the hole with your palm or a counter surface).  After this has been done, add one of the sides of the empty capsule over the end and gently tap the side so that the powder falls into the capsule that you're holding in place.  If it's not falling through the hole, breath lightly into the back end of the dropper to push the powder through into the capsule.  Try to not breath as you're doing that in case a puff of the Yunnan dust blows back out.  It's harmless if it does but doesn't smell or taste very good (it's not as harmless though if it's medication you're blowing into).  Once this end of the capsule has been filled, place it into a pair of tweezers as a holder.  I used a pair that we no longer bother with that were sitting in the cupboard so that it can permanently stay next to the herbal remedies.

Repeat the above process for the other end of the empty capsule.  Once both ends are filled, put them together and use a tissue to remove any of the dust off the outside.

Next, pull out two pill pockets and place the capsule into one of the ends.

As you can see, one isn't going to hold it so you'll need to jam the two ends together.  Unfortunately they almost immediately start crumbling and falling apart when you do this, so what I've had to do is use a small amount of Omega 3 oil and water if necessary to smooth out the crumbly bits.  I pinch any weak points to give spots of extra strength against chewing.  Then I leave the pill to dry a bit - minimum 20 minutes, as it seems to strengthen it's walls by doing so.  

Here is the end result:

The key to administering is making sure you have an eager cat awaiting his treat.  He'll chew it quickly, frantically searching for the next delicious serving of it.  I had about 4 days of heaven with this process and the cat was pain free.  Although it's only half a capsule of Yunnan, it's still enough to get him through the day in good spirits.

Today, we encountered another issue though which I will write about as a warning to others.  Weasel was having a really off day - took a massive decline and was vomiting.  I could see he was in quite a bit of pain, sitting around in a ball so I wanted to help him.  I thought I needed something far more potent than the Yunnan so I pulled out the Tramadol.  I wrenched apart the two sides on the capsule, which although is a perfect #4 size, is too potent a dose for my kitty.  The last time he had it, his eyes were dilated and he was acting a bit strange all day, so I halved the dosage and placed it in the empty capsules I have, following the regime outlined above.  The issue was that his pain made it so that he wasn't interested in food, only curious at best.  I went against my inner voice telling me, 'don't give him one of these in this state, you'll regret it!', as I was so worried about his discomfort.  He bit in and slowly started chewing.  

This, I knew was the end of a wonderful situation and sure enough, not only did the walls of the pill pockets break apart, but the capsule opened up too.  If the capsule had stayed closed, it would have been a non-issue.  I could have grabbed it and let him finish the pill pocket.  Ironically, the original capsule is built out of armour and would have stayed closed.  Weasel's mouth filled with the fowl taste of Tramadol and he instantly started foaming, confused as to what just happened and looking at me with a bit of fear to top it off.  My heart sank 100 feet or so.  Although he received enough of the medication to remain partially pain free for the remainder of the day, the trust was broken.  

Later this evening I tried feeding him his dinner and he barely touched it.  He didn't touch his hard treats and he sure as heck didn't touch the other pill pocket I had put together with the Yunnan.  I even covered it with a thick layer of delicious peanut butter and he sniffed and walked away.  I'm beside myself as to what to do next.  I fear that this is the beginning of the end.  With the pain, he won't eat.  If he doesn't eat, all of our efforts and hopes are gone.

On another note, yesterday we had a promising visit at the Holistic Vet in Newmarket.  Dr. Haghighat gave Weasel his treatment using acupuncture points to administer beneficial remedies into his blood stream.  We also received the good news that the mass is now soft, and not hard.  Dr. H also gave us a package of Naltrexone which thankfully can be administered by rubbing it on the cat's ears.  I've never felt so much relief in hearing that.  Naltrexone has had some success in treating cancerous tumors.  This website I came across was very interesting in a study that was conducted using Naltrexone for treating cancer:
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ldn_and_cancer.htm
Naltrexone may, just may, stop the growth of Weasel's tumor.  Unfortunately, it's arriving a bit late in that Weasel is now in discomfort.  If he's in pain, he won't eat.  If he doesn't eat, we're going to lose him fast, not allowing the Naltrexone to work its magic.  It's incredibly frustrating to have a cat that's so unnecessarily and absurdly difficult as well as suspicious, to give anything to.  

Today is also the first day that I wasn't able to give him the Essiac tea, Amino B-Plex and Life Gold remedies.  

I'm down to smearing vitamin C on his paw which takes an entire day to clean off and gets everywhere, and applying the Naltrexone.  Nothing else is holding up.   If I could afford it, I would have a feeding tube inserted into Weasel to give all of these treatments a fighting chance.  If we could stop the spread of the cancer and reduce the size of the tumor, that would be monumental.

We've Had a Few Great Days

I'm happy to finally bring forward some good news.  Weasel has been upbeat, happy and eating everything we give him for 3 straight days now.  His energy levels seem to be high too which is wonderful.

The secret? Well the current regime is to feed him only his Halo wet food with no herbal remedies added during his regular meal times.  Every night he receives a snack - either a small amount of a fresh salmon cooked for him and his brother or sardines which he loves and I add a tablespoon of Essiac Tea along with some Omega-3 which is almost unnecessary but he loves the flavour of it, his Amino B-Plex and 5 drops of the Life Gold.  He eats it up very quickly thankfully.  Today I tried to give him a similar snack - salmon based with sardines mixed in but I added the Milk Thistle drops and Black Cumin Seed Oil to see if he would finally take those remedies which are fairly important.  He ate 1/4 of it and walked away so no luck there.  Perhaps all I need to do is remove the milk thistle.  The Black Cumin Seed Oil is more important anyway.

I've unfortunately had to give up on the tactic to spread the Vitamin C on his paws.  I could see that it was causing him to become depressed.  In addition, his ability to groom it off seemed haphazard at best.  The Vitamin C was one of the most powerful 'tools' I had in my possession to fight the cancer so it's frustrating that I have hit a wall with it.  I'll try experimenting with adding it it to some food but he really doesn't like the taste and probably now associates it with the grooming he disliked so much.

I can sense that Weasel's discomfort has increased so my vet prescribed Tramadol to ease his pain.  The downside of this is that a) It's not available in a cream or liquid version and b) administering a pill to Weasel is pretty much impossible.  In fact, I bet he would make the top 10 for 'hardest cat to give a pill to' category.  I even recently purchased the 'Buster Pet Piller' which has a soft rubber end and allows you to shoot water behind the pill.  It's the best piller on the market and even that didn't work.  We've wrapped him in towels, held him in different positions, etc. It's stressful on us and him.  I did however manage to get one of the capsules down yesterday (by sheer luck) but unfortunately it didn't generate the best outcome.  Shortly after, Weasel's pupils became dilated and he was very quiet for the remainder of the day.  On the label it states to administer 2 times a day but the one capsule was evidently an overdose.  The other issue with Tramadol is that it's an addictive drug.  The last thing we need is to give my cat an addiction while battling cancer.  The only alternative liquid based drug I can give to him for pain is Metacam which, after researching online scared me completely.  Supposedly cats can die on this.

My current concern is how I can control the fever he seems to have each day.  His body is so warm and his ears are hot. The Tramadol cannot help with this.  I may start giving him the Yunnan again which I stopped administering while attempting to give Tramadol as it was becoming too traumatic for the both of us.  It's possible that the Yunnan will be an effective treatment for this.  I'll call the holistic vet tomorrow to find out what our options are.

I've had to start taking a new perspective on this situation, enjoying each day we have together and not obsessing over the negative ending to this saga.  It's really the only way one can stay sane in such a grave scenario.

We're Losing Our Battle

To begin, it's been - quite frankly a rough four days.  My other cat suddenly became ill and has been hospitalized for 3 days.  The vets couldn't figure out what the issue was and hoped it was bacterial.  I did the 'self diagnosis' thing, became obsessed that it was FIP and gave myself an unnecessary near nervous breakdown.  I received good news however this evening that the fever he had is slowly lifting which means he's finally responding to the latest antibiotic that he's on.  If this is indeed the case and he doesn't have cancer or goodness knows what else, then I have to unfortunately conclude that the raw food is the culprit as the timing is bang on.  The vet did point out that if raw food was so wise, humans would be eating it without 'rules' about that in place.  He raises a valid point.  The vet was a proponent of high quality foods without preservatives but not raw.  He mentioned that a client of his insisted on feeding his two dogs raw food, which, after they (the vet clinic) saved the dog from a bacterial infection, shortly after died, when the owner insisted on continuing to feed it to him.  I don't know the circumstances, and I've heard valid arguments from both sides; however, after my personal experience, if I get to take my sweet Gabriel home again, he's not touching raw food.

Unfortunately although there may be a silver lining in the horizon for Gabriel's outcome, there isn't one for Weasel.  I've had to give him a full capsule of the Yunnan Baiyao every day just to get him to eat.  Although he's active and zips in and out all day, he's unhappy.  I can see the depression taking over.  I feel terrible for putting the vitamin C mix on his paws as it just adds to the depression.  Each time I administer the Yunnan capsules, he looks absolutely miserable.  This isn't much of a life for him.  I have to wonder if we're doing this for us or for him...tonight I sat beside him as he tried to vomit, with only a small white foam pile coming out. It sounded as though he couldn't catch his breath.

I've done everything by the book..good food, herbal supplements, Essiac Tea, but it feels like it's doing absolutely nothing.  In the past 4 days I've seen a significant decline which astounds me as the ultrasound confirmed that the tumor was only on the pancreas and hadn't spread.  I thought with news like that we would have a year with him, not a month.

This begs the question, how do you know when to put your pet out of their misery? Or, do you keep them alive as long as possible and let them fight for that chance?  Who are we to play God to their lives? Or is it truly a considerate decision to make to remove them from their pain before it's too much.  I'm very confused and stressed out about this entire situation.

Tomorrow I'm going to ask about steroids and pain killers.  If he's still eating and running around, I'm hoping that will remove the discomfort and allow him quality of life.

I was really hoping that this blog would evolve to reveal wonderful and inspiring news for others.  Perhaps my situation is unique though and someone else will have a success story to share.

It's not over yet though.  I haven't given up, and I'll continue to write about the small milestones and positive turns we make.  I spoke to a vet technician today who told me that when he was 16 his mother was told she had only a few months to live.  He informed me that she was told this several times since then and 16 years later, she's still alive.  Sometimes people or animals can defy the odds.

First Signs of Decline

Today has not proven to be a good day.  Weasel hasn't touched his food at all.  He had cooked chicken bits, Tollden Farms raw food mixed in with his favorite Halo food.  To inspire him, I melted a small amount of butter and drizzled it on the top.  He still wouldn't eat.  I prepared another plate of food with just the Halo and poured the dry Urinary SO on top which he eats like candy.  He had maybe two mouth fulls of that.  It's really really hard to see a cat suffer.  He's obviously in pain, although hiding it well as cats do.

He vomited today and although there were two piles, the one had a hard looking fur ball so my 'positive thinking side' believed that to be the instigator and not the cancer.

Last night I made a batch of Essiac Tea and today was able to pour it into Mason jars so the contents are nicely sealed which should help it last slightly longer than the 2 weeks they state.  This afternoon I gave Weasel a teaspoon of the concentrated tea, mixed in with Tuna and he ate it up.

In an hour or so I'll give him the Life Gold and Amino B-Plex in a small tuna mix which seems to be the only thing he'll eat at this point.

Choice of Food

Weasel's diet is gradually improving.  I recently purchased frozen raw 'patties' from the pet store - Tollden Farms brand, in duck and chicken flavours.  I also bought a single rabbit one to see how the kitties like that.  Initially when I placed a thawed out patty on each of their plates, they sniffed at it and walked away - not sure what to make of it.  When I added their own food as a mixture, they dove right in.

To avoid putting Weasel off of eating, I'm ensuring that his breakfast and dinner are herbal free.  He receives snacks during the day of tasty treats such as tuna and chicken that contain the herbal mixes.  Some of the items, no matter how fancy the treats are, he will not touch.  So as an alternative, I've tried putting the 'poor tasting' substances in the Vitamin C goop that goes on his paw each day.  I'm skeptical of how impactful this is though as some of the mixture drops to the floor when trying to apply it to him, or he flicks his paw and bits flies off, or he squirms away and in doing so, it ends up on my hands, etc.  I feel as though he gets 1/4 of what his daily intake should be - if even.  There's no way to hide the flavour of the Vitamin C though in his food.  He also has a habit of shortly after, sitting and curling his paws under him so that the substance comes off onto whatever surface he's on.  I really wish cats could understand what they're contending with and cooperate.  So many more lives could be saved if that were the case.

Now on a side topic and a very important one, I assumed that my other cat - Gabriel, would improve on this new and improved diet.  The consequence of this thought was me rushing him into the vet this morning.  He was lethargic all night, unresponsive, wouldn't eat and sat in the basement on a mat.  I made the assumption that his Cystitis returned, triggered by the new diet.  The vet went along with this theory and drained his bladder but he wasn't even full, nor was the urine cloudy which makes me concerned that it's another issue altogether but Cystitis is the only thing that makes sense.  He hasn't vomited either, which would be symptomatic of some other issue.  The vet didn't have any suggestions, so we came back home but he doesn't show any signs of improvement even after having his bladder drained.  I'm hoping he's simply off because of the catheter which is a terrible thing to endure and causes spasms.  So it looks as though Gabriel will be on Urinary SO for the rest of his life which is extremely unfortunate as it's full of garbage and preservatives.  I wanted so badly for him to live to the ripe old age of 20 but I don't see it happening if he has to live on this poor quality food.

In contrast it was extraordinary to see Weasel running around happy as can be, oblivious of his brother's pain, knowing what I know of their health.

Is Tuna The Clue?

So yesterday was a rather disappointing day.  Weasel wouldn't touch anything that contained herbal remedies.  He in fact, wouldn't even groom himself and had a vitamin C mix sitting on his paws for the entire day and night.  He also kept walking away from food that was herbal free.  Eventually at midnight he ate the rest of his dinner.

I have also learned that the brown rice that was used in my homemade concoction is very dangerous for Gabriel to eat, as he suffers from Cystitis, so he went back onto his vet food for the time being.

Today in another story. I thought why not try a spoonful of tuna on a dish with some of the herbal remedies.  I added the Life Gold and the Amino B-Plex with some Omega3. He ate it all and quickly too!

I also pulled out the Vitamin C goo and added a slight amount of Milk Thistle - not nearly enough for what he should have but something is better than nothing I have to figure, and the HMF powder.  To make it tasty I added some Omega3 to that as well, as the fish oil might inspire him.  An hour later, he had it completely groomed off his paws.

Today I'm going to follow the recipes within the ebook I purchased 'How to Make Homemade Cat Food' (only $2.99!) but I really need to find a good source for rabbit meat (not in those recipes but highly recommended from other sources).  I feel like I'm overdoing the Chicken which may cause a reaction in Gabriel as Cystitis sufferers are often allergic to chicken.

And finally on the 'potentially' good news front, I have tracked down another remedy that has been specifically linked to preventing pancreatic tumor growth.  Here is one of the articles I found: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080519092215.htm

The vitamin that contains Thymoquinone is called: Provita Nutrition Nigella Black Cumin Oil.  I'm hoping my local herbal store has it in stock.  They seem to have most items.

So today I have to purchase this remedy, buy Mason jars for the homemade food to be frozen, return a useless package of toothpaste for cats and dogs (there's no way that will work - I've discovered better alternatives) and figure out where people get rabbit meat from...hmm...

And on a humorous note, this is how I have to work today - around the fur ball :).

It's The Small Steps That Count

Today was a better day than yesterday.  I made both kitties their first home made food.  The recipe was:

- 3 medium to large size chicken necks boiled in organic chicken broth and water
- 1 cup of brown rice
- 3 organice carrots chopped into slices and boiled

Once cooked, I then removed the chicken off the bones and placed the meat, carrots, rice and chicken broth in the blender, mixing it all together nicely.  I let it cool down in the fridge to room temperature and it thickened up nicely.

Just before their dinner, I gave each cat a small amount of the new food with most of their herbal concoctions mixed in (minus the Yunnan Baiyao and Amino B-Plex as I didn't want to push my luck).  Thankfully they ate everything.

This morning I mixed the HMF Powder, along with some Milk Thistle into the Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C, which is thankfully a sticky substance and smeared it onto the top of Weasel's paw.  He eventually groomed it completely off (however it took a very long time) so he received his intake of that as well.

I'm not up to the daily consumption levels Weasel is supposed to have but I can't push it.  Some of the items he needs to eat are twice a day.  I'm lucky I get it in once every day.  I have to assume that something is better than nothing though.  The important thing is that he still eats.

I've completely stopped feeding them dry food and will mix small amounts of canned wet food into a larger amount of healthy home made food.  I will slowly start integrating raw meat as well.

Tomorrow I'll buy Mason Jars - a great way to store food, and start freezing the extra amounts of blended food so that it doesn't go bad.

It's exhausting to go through this regime each day to say the least, but I can't afford to relax and take things easy anymore.  This disease has changed everything considerably.

Some Good News, Some Bad

Yesterday I visited the Holistic Vet in Newmarket - Dr Sasan Haghighat.  He was obviously someone who cares about the wellbeing of animals and was extremely friendly and gentle toward both cats (I took my second one as he has suffered from Cystitis).  The examination was an hour and a half in total for both cats.  I showed Dr. Haghighat the remedies I was administering and he approved of them but there were some quantity adjustments to be made:

The vitman A drop should be once a week
Since Life Gold, which arrived yesterday contains burdock root, I've adjusted the pure burdock root to 5 drops

I'm in a quandary of a situation though.  Weasel has been completely put off of his food due to the amount of fowl tasting substances he's encountered.  The gel caps don't work as he bites through and tastes what I was trying to hide.  He hasn't had Milk Thistle in two days - one of the more important substances for him to consume.  Now we're adding an extremely vital remedy called Yunnan Baiyao which could actually contribute toward shrinking the tumor.  It's very potent and of course the cat dislikes it.  The vet gave me Amino B-Plex to administer with it as it has a mushroom flavour that most cats quite enjoy.  Unfortunately because it's combined with the bad tasting item, the association has been made and it's impossible to get him to touch it - even only one day later.

Aside from the Yunnan Baiyao, and Amino B-Plex, we've added:

Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C which is the oral version of a vitamin C drip - a very effective cancer fighting agent.
HMF Powder - basically good bacteria
A remedy the vet created - liquid form called Heel 4

In addition to having new herbal concoctions, Weasel received an acupuncture treatment with essential herbal mixtures injected into key points.

The visit at the vet gave me so much hope, I was on cloud 9 yesterday.  He shared stories of pets who have gone on to live for years with terminally ill cancers or many more months at least, pain free.  Some of course didn't respond to the treatments, but many did and that's what's important.

What I didn't realize until last night when I tried to feed Weasel the Yunnan Baiyao is that even though I have the tools in my hand to potentially even cure him (on the positive extreme), with evidence of success already occurring, as his cyst has shrunk, he is literally his own worst enemy.  For a cat to walk away from one of the best quality wet foods on the market - Halo, and to snub his nose at fresh chicken, means that I have a battle that may not be one I can fight and for me to admit that takes a lot as I have a very stubborn disposition and refuse to give up 9 times out of 10.  I haven't given up yet but he leaves me very little choice but to start shoving gel caps down his throat - an also impossible feat which has failed previously.  If he stops eating altogether, I have another potentially bigger issue to contend with as then his liver will start failing.

This morning I took drastic measures and put the amino B-Plex and Yunnan Baiyao in natural peanut butter and smeared it on his paw.  Most of it fell off - didn't stick to the fur so I placed it just above his tail.  It's been hours since this was done and he's made no attempt to groom himself.  He would rather just have this substance sit on him all day.  I'm so incredibly stressed out about this whole thing.  I can't imagine what other owners must go through but it's a horrible experience to endure.  I've lost my own appetite over the worry I'm feeling and feel short toward others.

I really wish people were allowed to use needles to inject these remedies, as a diabetic patient might for his regular insuline requirements.  It would make a world of difference.

My next mission is to track down the smallest gel caps on the market - ideally chicken flavoured and order them to house the Milk Thistle and Yunnan Baiyao.  Unfortunately that's another week of waiting.

Today I'm purchasing Chicken giblets and neck - rare meat that's healthy for cats and dogs. I'm also buying a fresh salmon and cooking that for him.  Sometimes I'll feed him without adding herbal remedies in the hope that he's at least still eating a lot as we don't want the weight loss issues to take over - a side effect of cancer.

I'll wrap this post up with some wise advice that the vet shared with me - two things:

Don't inoculate your pets more than once or twice in their lifetime tops.  It's quite dangerous and not required.  These little guys are designed to have a higher resistance to external viruses and 'dangerous' germs, due to the fact that they're supposed to hunt critters out there that may have all sorts of illnesses.  Their systems are designed to handle that, yet we keep administering the same antibody building concoctions,  sometimes annually, as though it somehow just vanishes from their systems.  It doesn't, they keep it like we can keep resistence to small-pox and other diseases after one needle.

Don't feed your pets dry food.  Dry food is full of fats, salts, preservatives and many other harmful ingredients that do not provide anything beneficial per say to your pet.  It's somewhat like eating chips and white bread all day.  They need to have lots of moisture in their diets so a pure wet food diet is essential.  It's actually not natural for a cat to drink a lot of water.  They don't need to when they're eating properly.  If you notice that your cat drinks a lot, it's probably because of the dry food you're feeding them. Seek out high quality wet food - no by-product ingredients and add raw meat such as chicken giblets and neck.  Avoid beef and lamb in cat food.  Serve the occasional fish flavour but not all the time and treat them occasionally with cooked fish too.