Greenies Pill Pockets

Molly suffers from inflammatory bowel disease and has been receiving a liquid medicine (Budesonide) through an eye dropper for the past 2-3 months. She wasn't happy about it, but with the element of surprise on my side, it was fairly easy to stuff it down her throat before she had the time to be upset. My husband didn't always fare as well.

My cell phone rings.

"I'm done giving her medicine."

The medicine was kept in the refrigerator and needed to be shaken. Hubby got the barbecue sauce out of the refrigerator and shook it. Molly crashed into the refrigerator in her crazed scramble out of the kitchen. She was fine. My husband was frantic.  

We soldiered on and thought she was well on the way to recovery, but she was still having some issues with diarrhea. I called the vet. There's medicine for this, but it comes with a warning:

"It tastes really bad. She's not going to like it." Great.

Turns out, that was an understatement. I've never seen a cat make herself foam at the mouth so she could spit something out with such determination. It was actually painful to watch. 

At her follow up visit this past Saturday, the vet changed Molly's medicine to Prednisolone pills. It was something out of WWE Wrestling match to get the Budesonide into her system some days. I was sure the Prednisolone was going to be a disaster.

I tried putting one down her throat and she bit, thrashed, screamed and spit until the melted pill was mashed into the living room carpet. I tried to crush one into her new hypo-allergenic prescription diet. This is the same food she had eaten earlier in the day with no problems. I thought I was being tricky but she looked down at the food and then up at me. She even snorted as she walked away. I was determined this cat was going to take her medicine whether she liked it or not.

Enter Greenies Pill Pockets. At almost $10 for a bag of 45 treats, they are far from the cheapest cat treats I've ever purchased. Since she sniffed out the medicine in the canned food, I was convinced the Pill Pockets were going to turn into a new chapter in the human/cat battle over who was the boss. I was convinced she would chew it once, notice the pill inside and spit it out.

Interestingly, I was wrong.

Molly inhales the Pill Pocket treats like they are a slice of kitty heaven. Put the pill in the center opening, squeeze the soft treat shut and kitty unknowingly ingests her medicine with no bellowing or protest.

Finally, a battle with Molly I actually win.