Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Saturday afternoon found Darrell and I making an unplanned trip to the vet and having my Faith kitty sedated for x-rays and blood tests. The results indicate my furry baby has hyperthyroidism and early signs of kidney disease. Oh lovely!

Speaking with the vet about the test results yesterday, there are three ways to treat hyperthyroidism:

1. Medication: one pill twice a day for life, or
2. Surgery: to remove the thyroid, but might not get all of the gland if some is further down in the chest, or
3. Radiation: at a Vancouver clinic. From my crash course in feline hyperthyroidism on Sunday night, cats are then in isolation for two weeks. And, the procedure is expensive.

Leaving hyperthyroidism untreated, at least at this point, can lead to severe illness, kidney failure, seizures and such. Not something I want my cat to go through. Since the last two treatment options sound too drastic right now (I’d need to be sedated first!), that only leaves the medication route.

Now, Faith is a loving, purring, affectionate cat…with me…most of the time. I call her my puppy-cat. But, only when it’s on her terms. Other times, when she is scared or threatened, she lashes out…with all of how ever many claws she has! Getting her into her carrier to take to vet left my left hand looking like ground meat!

The thought of giving her a pill twice a day for the rest of her life (or mine!) was: Yeah, right! How the heck am I going to catch her, pry open her mouth, pop in a pill and make her swallow…twice a day…without looking like ground meat permanently? I love my cat dearly and will anything I can to give her a health and happy life, but let’s get real here!

The vet gave me twenty pills – one per day to start – to try to get into Faith any way I could. He was as skeptical as I was.

On the wheel home, I began doing what I do: creative problem solving. By the time we arrived home, I had an idea.

I still had several cans of giblets with gravy left from several weeks ago when I was trying Faith on different foods after learning the long trusted Purina brand is filled with crap and could be the reason why Faith had been sick and lethargic earlier this year. She didn’t like the giblets, but she loved the gravy! If I dissolved a pill in a tiny bit of water and then mixed it with the gravy, perhaps the medication would end up in Faith without me needing to lose a body part!

I gave it a shot. Faith licked the bowl clean, spitting out the giblets. In theory, the medicine was now in her! I tried again this morning, making sure yesterday’s success was a fluke. Again, Faith licked the bowl clean. Yes! Two for two!

Great. But, there’s not point buying canned cat food for only the gravy. What I need is kitty gravy made and then frozen in ice cube trays. Then I pop out a frozen cube, thaw and dissolve in a pill. Faith thinks she’s getting a treat while, really, she’s getting her medicine without me losing a limb. A brilliant idea, even I do say so myself!

Mom has volunteered to concoct a kitty gravy. (Thanks, Mom!)

Creative problem solving at its finest.

Hopefully, Faith will soon be back on track to being her healthy, playful self and that she will resume her Chief Feline Officer’s duties shortly.