Last weekend, we pretty much decided we were done medicating Rocky. Why? Because he hates being medicated. It's not a "geez, that's really icky, I don't want it" type of won't take them, but an "I'm never coming near you guys as long as I live, if you enter the same room, I will leave, if I see you at the door to the patio, I will run and get as far away from you as cattily possible and on the rare occasion you are able to catch me and one of you holds me down and the other one tries to hold my head steady while putting the syringe in my tightly closed lips and pushes the plunger, if any of those meds get into my mouth, I will promptly drool them out or puke" type of not wanting to take his meds.
I'm tired of chasing him. I can't chase him because of my hip. Brian won't chase him. We've talked to him. I had a friend who has dabbled in animal communication speak with him and he wasn't falling for it. We just figured at this point, we'll let nature take its nasty course. And brace ourselves for what's to come.
I mentioned this on Facebook. And my cat loving friends offered help. Try this, do that, maybe this would work. We did and it didn't. One thing we've really wanted to try, I may have mentioned this previously, is that I think he'd be easier to medicate if I could just pill him. And on this Facebook conversation, this came up and I explained that one of the meds would be too strong in pill form, the vet didn't want to go that route.
And one of my very magical Facebook friends did some research, crunched some numbers after I'd told her what he's getting now and gave a link to one of the meds and found the other and both would be doable in pill form. She held my hand when she explained how the numbers worked and I kind of understand it. This was Wednesday.
Yesterday, I sent an email to my vet's office (so much easier than being on the phone, they can pull records and research without having someone just sitting there, waiting for a response). I addressed it to both of the vets (Rocky's vet - the clinic owner - has retired). Opie's vet and Pancho's vet. I addressed our concerns about Rocky's well being and included the entire conversation about these meds in pill form. Well, last night one of the techs called and said that Opie's vet said "yes, pilling is possible" and that he'd call the pharmacy with her instructions today. This morning, Pancho's vet called and we talked a little and I let him know that the other vet had said okay yesterday. He wasn't aware of this, but said they'd put their heads together and see what they could come up with. He also said that Rocky's original vet was a really good vet, but he was bad at making notes. That made me smile. But they'd figure something out and let me know today about what the meds would cost and the dosing.
Well, Brian (the tech who works with the prescriptions) called and said I should be hearing from the pharmacy about dosing and payment. I got individual mail for each prescription, but paid for it all together (we also got extra doxycycline for URIs that run through the house). I asked for a breakdown and they redid the information. And I was checking out the dosaging.
It's pretty different. The fluconazale is the same dose, just in a chewable tab. But every day. Before it was three times a week. The terbinafine is still every day, but the dosage had more than tripled! Holy cow, that can't be right. I look at the clock, it's early enough, the vet is still open. I talked to Brian told him my concerns with each of the meds. And he said that's what it's supposed to be. That he heard Pancho's doctor talking to Rocky's (retired) doctor on the phone and they want to hit this hard.
I let Brian know I understood. Instead of hitting it with a rock hammer, they're using a mallet. Yeah, that's it.
I also ordered some Greenies Pill Pockets. I know the meds ordered today are chewables, but Rocky seems to like the pill pockets (I found an old bag of them in a ziplock bag, kind of stale, but still somewhat moist).
Let's cross some fingers that this will help him out.
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