Unleashed: A kitty that won't eat tuna? Wha??? - A blog for animal ...
Crime reporter Peter Hermann needs help from Unleashed readers. He's got a stubborn kitty who needs medicine, but won't take it. Here's his story. Please console him and post advice:
I own a cat that won't eat tuna.
My two overweight cats, Mashu and Sienna, hate being picked up, and most of the time, even touched. To get them to the vet this past weekend, I had to hire a cat sitter to come help. It's a two-person job that involves trapping them in a room and flushing them out from under a bed.
It went quickly this time, only to discover at the vet that Mashu had a cut on her paw that was slightly infected. That meant giving her a dose of medicine twice a day and soaking her paw in a solution three times a day.
I knew right away that was not going to happen.
when I got her home -- before I took her out of the carrying case. I missed with the medicine and then for two days couldn't catch her and hold her long enough to administer any. I called the vet, got a reprieve from paw soaking and picked up some tablets that I only had to give once a day.First I tried inserting the pill in a "pocket treat." Mashu simply batted it around for a while but refused to eat it. Then I crushed the pill in some wet food. Mashu removed the ugly clump from her dish, rolled it into a ball and shoved it under the fridge. Then she and her sister refused to eat anything out of the contaminated dish and complained loudly.
Finally, I walked across the street to a corner store and bought a can of tuna. No cat turns tuna down. Right? Right?
I crushed a pill into a teaspoon of tuna, put it on a new dish and put it on the floor. Mashu sniffed, but then walked away. She swung back around but pawed at her little rug as if she was in a litter box, her way of saying absolutely not!
An hour later and very hungry, she took three or four bits of tuna. I wasn't sure if she got any medicine. This morning, I put the dish down again and she ate all of it. I left the house with both cats mad (even though they each had a full dish of food) but happy that Mashu at least got one pill inside her.
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