It’s pill time!
Pilling cats in this household is so much fun! NOT! Formerly feral cats, I have two that take a lot of time to corral, reassure and then pill. I keep a bottle of hydrogen peroxide close at hand for my bloody arms and fingers.
We just went through and de-wormed the bunch. There were mice that got into the enclosure. This is the third time this year that mice have invaded the cat’s area and I had an epidemic of tapeworms!
So how do you worm formerly feral cats? Very carefully…
I bribe the ones I can into the house by popping open cat food lids. Once they are inside, Mike shuts the doors leading to the tunnels. Then it is a matter of listing each cat, and popping the correct amount of pills inside their mouths.
Next it is out to the enclosure and the herding cats begins. Chaplain, Maverick and Dash are the ones that I can’t get close to when intent is at hand. I do not know how they know that I am going to worm them, but they do.
If they shoot up the tunnel, Mike is waiting on the other side to open the door, thus trapping them in the house. I finally cornered Dash as she was attempting to scale the chicken wire door upstairs. My hands were already bleeding from Maverick and Chaplain, so with Dash’s claws thus engaged, I scruffed her neck, tilted her head in an angle to the ceiling and popped the pills in!
Success- all seventeen cats wormed and teed off at me! They will get over it. They always do.
Mike and I have decided this winter, we will be putting down a concrete floor in the enclosure to prevent any more mouse infiltrations. That would be nice!