THE SPARKY REPORT #42

Today I come to you with a humble heart full of gratitude and thanksgiving. Sparky continues to improve, thanks to your many prayers, good wishes, healing energy, Reiki, financial donations, emotional support, and the wonders of modern veterinary medicine. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I say it takes a village to heal a cat. A village of compassionate Sparky fans and friends. After posting the GoFundMe donation page for Sparky, I sat back in wonder as the donations began pouring in. You guys mean business! Sparky and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

And now, the Sparky news! It's all good. In fact, Sparky is doing so well that she's brimming over with enthusiasm and high-jinks. She's making up for lost time. What has she been doing, you say? Oh, the usual . . .

. . . like thundering across the sofa and tumbling the pillows

 

Or attacking the legs of my long-suffering Boxer. (Just look at the pitiful expression on Shona's face!)

 

Or opening my desk drawer and snooping inside to see what goodies she can steal.

 

Or stealing elastic hair ties.

 

Or Q-Tips.

Not much gets past Sparky. She has a built-in radar when it comes to her medication, and she's ever vigilant, lest I try to smuggle a pill in her food.  

Sparky keeping a suspicious eye on me as I prepare her dinner and attempt to slip her daily pill in the food.

So you can see that Sparky's back in rare form. I wouldn't have her any other way!

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The Sparky Report #41

Comments

[Kathy Lynn Emerson]

Sherrie, Will she let you take hold of her jaw? Our Bala has to take a half pill twice a day for a potassium deficiency and, with the promise of cat yummies to follow, she will let me gently open her mouth with one hand while poking the pill toward the back of her throat with the other. Then I hold her jaws closed and rub her throat with gentle downward strokes until she swallows it. Then the treat, of course. It took a little practice it get the angle right, and she does occasionally spit out the pill, but the bribery works wonders. Nowadays, she'll even come running on her own when I rattle the pill bottle and call out "Bala! Pill!"

So glad to hear Sparky is doing so much better.

Kathy

[Laura]

Kathy, I've had limited success trying to pop the pill into Sparky's mouth. It's a real struggle, making me wish I had three hands. *g* When I do manage to get the pill in, I then hold her mouth shut and blow on her nose. That's supposed to make a cat swallow involuntarily, and it works. But as I said, it's a struggle.

Right now, I'm having better success using baby food. Her favorite is beef and gravy. I don't mash the pill into powder, because I believe she can taste it in the food. But if I break the pill into teeny tiny pieces, then mix it into her food, Sparky will usually eat it. If she doesn't, I remove her free-choice dry food and replace it with the unfinished wet food with the pill. She generally gets hungry enough to finish off the wet food sometime during the day.

I've tried mixing the crushed pill with liquid and squirting it into Sparky's mouth with a syringe. I've used a "pill gun," but like so many things, it was made for a person with larger hands and longer fingers than mine. I've tried the old poke-the-pill-down-the-throat-with-a-pencil-eraser trick. I've tried wrapping the pill in cheese and popping it in her mouth. I've tried mashing the pill to powder, cutting it into tiny pieces, coating it with butter, mixing it in cream, etc. So far, the baby food seems to work the best. I'm now off to give Sparky her daily pill. Wish me luck!

[HJ]

So wonderful to hear that Sparky continues to improve.

[Laura]

Hi, HJ. Thanks for dropping by. Yes, it *is* wonderful that Sparky continues to improve. When I discovered she was blind, it was such a shock! I was so afraid she would be permanently blind.

This cat leads a charmed life. She has overcome so many obstacles in her first year of life, and it is a testament to her free spirit and will to live. Sparky Tabasco is one awesome and special cat, that's for sure!

[MaeLou]

I'm so happy to see the GoFundMe goal has been met in just seven days! Can supporters continue to donate to help the maintenance level? Those pills can't be cheap! Consider it a show of appreciation for your sparkling writing and heart-warming photography skills. Plus we all want to see feisty Sparky continue to thrive, experience new adventures, find new ways to be adorable, and find new ways to utilize those poly toes.

I'm convinced Sparky is your Muse extracting a book out of you one unsuspecting podcast at a time. WHAT IF this heart-stopping scare was really just a drama spike in the ongoing Sparky Tabasco Adventures? And she just encountered a germ protagonist out in the wild forest of Olalla? The possibilities are endless and intriguing...and you are Holmes to her Sherlock. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun).
<3 <3 <3
MaeLou

[Jenny]

I am so glad Sparky is continuing to get better. I had a dog (of course not the same as a cat) that had to take tablets. I used to put it on top of her food like a candle and she would take it every time. She ate everything!! Other tablets had to be disguised in peanut butter, soft cheese, poked into little bits of meat. The things we do to give medicine to our beloved pets.

[Elaine Brown]

Great news on the Sparky front. When I've had to dose cats or put in eardrops, I've wrapped the cat in a towel so no claws are useable. Then I force the jaws open and push the pill down the throat. Not a nice experience for either of us, but necessary, and we recover.
Hillary is sitting on my lap as I type. She likes cotton buds too. That's what we call Q-tips. I always give her one to play with after I clean her ears. ( A new one of course)

[Jackie]

This is the best Sparky report ever ! Yahoo !

Giving pills to my Husky is always a bit of a struggle but I have learned to do it with the least hassle for her and me. I wet the pill with water, put it in the back of her throat and gently rub (same as mentioned by the first poster, Kathy). Wetting the pill makes it much easier to go down.

[theo]

With thanks to whoever owns this blog...

How to Give a Cat a Pill
http://www.nanceestar.com/CatPill.html

I'm so, so very glad to hear how well she's progressing. Such wonderful news and that picture of her chewing on Shona's leg takes the cake!

[Wendy]

I wouldn't have it any other way either. My husband and I adopted a kitten a little older than Sparky about the time he found his new home and I so enjoy keeping up with his antics We are so glad he is recovering so well

[Laura]

Dear MaeLou,

Thank you for your comment regarding Sparky's GoFundMe page. This is the first time I've ever done a GFM donation page, so I don't know what happens if you go over your goal. The page is still up, and I'm continuing to post updates, so I presume if anyone wants to make an additional donation, it would still work.

Yes, Sparky's continuing care is expensive, and no, I didn't include future care in my goal. That just seemed a bit greedy. :-) I do have a follow-up appointment with the veterinary eye specialist this coming Thursday. He's quite expensive, but wow, is he ever good! Nothing but the best for Sparky.

And good news about her meds: they cut her doseage, and now it's considerably cheaper. I was looking at $120/month, but with the current doseage, it's down to $33/mo. Much less impact on the ol' budget!

Funny you should mention a Sparky Tabasco Adventure! Love it! I have actually collected all the Sparky Update posts in a Word document, and I do plan on doing something with them, though not sure what. Maybe a self-published book? Or an e-book? Sparky fans have been urging me to do this all along. If I ever actually do this, I'll dedicate the book to the Word Wenches and Sparky Fan Club members! :-)

[Laura]

Jenny, I laughed over your description of dog meds being put on top of food, like a candle! Ingenious!

I've never had a dog that didn't readily take her meds if the pill was put in peanut butter or a pat of butter. Anything that was food worked. I've adopted rescue dogs for decades, and many of them came to me with special needs. Right now, my rescue Doberman, Kyanne, is on thyroid meds for the rest of her life. Twice a day she gets her pill poked into a pat of butter, and Kyanne starts drooling as soon as she hears me take the lid off the butter dish. Dogs are so easy.

So far, my latest trick for Sparky's meds is to cut up the pill into tiny pieces and mix them with baby food. Sparky scarfs it down and cries for more. Her favorite is Gerber's Beef and Gravy. This is a bonus for me, because no matter how palatable canned cat food may smell to the cat, I detest the smell. It's why my cats get super-premium dry cat food, free choice, with canned food only for meds or as a training aid. I have to hold my breath when dishing up wet cat food, but the Gerber's baby food doesn't revolt me like wet cat food does.

If someone had to force feed me a daily pill, all they'd have to do is bury it in a piece of chocolate!

[Ella Quinn]

I'm so glad Sparky is better!!

[Laura]

Elaine, the towel method is referred to as a "burrito wrap" by vets. Sparky never bites or uses her claws. I've never had a cat that was so careful with its weapons. Many times Sparky has tried to jump onto my lap and missed, but she never uses her claws as she slides down. Even when force-feeding her a pill direct to the throat, with her struggling in my head-clamp and pushing at me with her paws, she's never scratched or bitten me.

Which is odd, considering one of her favorite things to do when playing with me is to "bite" my hand. She doesn't inflict wounds--just controls my hand or pretends it is a varmint. Even when she tries to "disembowel" my arm with her hind legs, she keeps the claws sheathed.

"Cotton buds" seems a far better name than Q-tips, doesn' it?

[Laura]

Jackie, what a clever person you are! I never thought of wetting a pill before giving it to a dog or cat. That makes sense--if wet, the pill will stick to the tongue and be harder to spit out.

Yes, throat rubs help the animal to swallow, but I prefer the easier (for me) method of blowing on the cat's nose. A vet showed me that. Apparently blowing sharply on the nose triggers the swallow reflex. Here's an excellent page showing in pictures how to administer meds to a cat: http://tinyurl.com/29yxypm

[Laura]

Theo, you are evil! Any cat owner will readily identify with the several scenarios of feeding a pill to a cat.

Poor Shona gets her legs chewed on by Sparky all the time. Sparky really gets into it. She'll pin her ears and pounce, then make a ferocious face and latch onto the leg, often holding it against her chest while doing the disembowel kick with her hind legs. Like most Boxers, Shona is good natured and loves to play, but despite having the advantage in weight (70 lbs. vs. 12) Sparky is usually the victor.

[Laura]

Wendy, aren't kittens adorable? They are so bouncy, like popcorn, and their antics just keep you laughing. I regret I didn't take more pictures of Sparky when she was an infant. Of course, back then I never knew she was going to be the godkitty of all 8 Wenches and become a minor celebrity with her own following. I certainly never lack for entertainment around here! (P.S. Sparky is a she, not a he. You're probably remembering the early days when she was still an infant and got misidentified as a boy(

I'll be the kitten you adopted last year is all grown up and a part of your family by now. I can't imagine life without a cat!

[Laura]

Ella, that makes two of us! Sparky is a fighter, and from day one she claimed the world as her own, and never looked back. I'm certain her strong will and independent spirit enabled her to weather the blindness. (And thank God it was temporary!)