Oh The Joys of Pet Ownership

Caution. May be a tad too gross for some readers.

When you own cats, one of the things you have to expect and accept as part of life with a cat is urping on the floor. They shed. They lick themselves clean. They swallow a lot of hair. The hair forms balls in their tummy. They urp it up on the floor-usually with a hefty wad of partially digested cat food that has red food coloring in it guaranteed to defeat even the toughest of carpet stain removers. It will not matter how much linoleum you have in your house either. They will do it on the carpet. Unless you don't have carpet, in which case they urp on the furniture-probably your bed or the sofa with the expensive upholstery fabric on it. (On occasion, when they were really pissed at me, my cats have urped into the basket of clean laundry-sigh...)

Day before yesterday I found cat urp on the carpet in the sun room. This was especially gross urp. In fact, it was so gross to look at I threw up and had panic attacks. It took almost an hour for me to get enough gumption to stay in the room and clean it up.

Someone has roundworms. (Gag, erk!).

I'll take hairballs and cat food any day over a pile of roundworms.

Despite all the little wild critters my cats eat, they have never had roundworms before. They get tapeworms once in awhile, but never roundworms. I guess we've been lucky that way.

Clearly, these are roundworms. I know what roundworms are and where they come from (which just makes it all the more gross). So I was loathe to take them to the vet to get meds. I would have had to take them both cos I don't know which cat did the urping. At $80 apiece, for a diagnosis I already know, just to get the vet to give me a prescription for dewormer--that's $160 to find out what I already know? I don't think so Tim.

I did a bit of research on the internet to find out the best ways for getting rid of roundworms in cats. I found out I don't need a prescription. So off I went to the local feed store. They had 2 roundworm dewormers on the shelf. Which one is best? I got lucky. A veterinarian came in the store to buy the very same thing I was seeking. I got to pick her brain for free. How sweet is that?

Unfortunately, both dewormers were the kind you mix in with food. One was liquid, the other paste. She recommended the paste. The paste is supposedly Grilled Tuna flavored. (I don't know for sure. I refuse to taste it). It comes in a plunger sort of container looking and working much like a hypodermic needle without the needle. You're supposed to weigh the cat, and push the plunger to the amount written on the side of the plunger that matches your cats weight. Then mix food into the resulting blob and hand it to your cat for consumption. HA!!

This is what my whole morning has been about.

The problem is--how do I get my cats to eat it?

1) My cats eat dry cat food.
2) My cats won't eat canned cat food.
3) My cats won't eat human food. (So much for mixing it in some cream cheese or raw hamburger)
4) My cats can smell meds a mile away and won't touch them with a ten foot pole even if they haven't eaten for a month and it's mixed in with the blood of a thousand of the tastiest mice on the planet.

Last night I came up with a plan of attack. First of all, I took away their food. I have one of those big vacation feeders. I fill it up once a month. It sits on top the dryer (away from the greedy dogs). They eat whenever they feel like it. I needed them to be hungry this morning.

When I got up this morning I got a good scolding from both cats for hiding the food. I wish you could have heard it. I sat and listened while they yowled and screeched at me very loudly. When they were done I said "I'm sorry guys, but you can't have your food. I need you to be good and hungry so you'll eat the special food. One of you has roundworms. We gotta get rid of 'em."

All morning long they complained at me. Finally, I figured I'd give the plan a try. I got out a small pouch filled with Friskies Fine Cuts-Grilled Tuna. Carefully I mixed the med doses in a spoonful for each cat and presented them.

Chenille licked up all the gravy and half the tuna, but somehow managed to leave the medication. (How does she do that?) Silver took one sniff and walked away in disgust.

So then I thought I'd add a bit of milk. They like milk. Maybe they'll eat it with milk. Neither of them would have anything to do with it. They just yowled and hissed at me. It ain't happening.

I am so glad I had the good sense to buy two plungers of dewormer paste, just in case. In frustration I grabbed Silver by the scruff of the neck, shoved that plunger down his throat and squirt 11lbs worth of dewormer into him. He swallowed it, and I'm not bleeding to death, so I've done the same thing to Chenille ('cept she weighs 9lbs). I had to chase her around first though. She watched me dose Silver so when I turned in her direction she turned tail and ran--little coward.

Lest you think I have won this battle, think again. Silver has just urped it all up on the carpet. Sigh.......


Have a better day than I'm having.

ETA 11:46 a.m.

I've ordered some worming tablets from an online store. Heck with the paste and liquids!