Giving a cat medicine - Tootsie tales

I've learned something new about giving a cat medicine. I've read a lot about people trying to wrangle cats, or trick cats, or outwit cats, or out-maneuver cats to give them needed medication. And, something that works for one cat, won't work for another, according to my reading. So, this is FYI, fwiw!

Here's the deal:

Tootsie has been suffering from some kind of respiratory infection since I got her from the shelter. On my first visit to the vet, a week after I brought her home, the vet gave me some liquid antibiotics. But Tootsie was so unhappy with the vet visit, she became really evasive. And, she is one strong and wiry cat. So, I waited a few days, and then the symptoms seemed to go away. So, in the interest of comity and getting her to trust me, I didn't give her the medication.

But, suddenly last week the symptoms returned, and way worse than before. I discovered that the medication, which had been in the fridge, was discolored (label said do not use if discolored). I called the vet, explaining that I really would like to avoid major cat wrangling by bringing her in again (not to mention traumatizing her back to day-one state). The vet was really great about this- he gave a new prescription for the medication, without having to bring Tootsie in. However, included with this was: if she doesn't improve in 3 days, you need to bring her in for a visit.

When I picked up the liquid medication, I got incredibly good advice from the staff.

Thus- fill the syringe (no needle of course) with the dose, and don't try to make nice with her first. Just creep up on her while she is sleeping (stealth move), grab her by the scruff of her neck (scruff her, the way a mother cat picks up her kittens), pull back to open her mouth, and shoot the liquid down her throat. This is not a tactic I would have used without professional encouragement.

But, well, well! This worked like a charm. And amazingly, Tootsie hasn't been put out, except for maybe five minutes after I've done the deed. Very good indeed!

My experience thus differs radically from one I read when I did some earlier research and a post about giving cats medicine here:

Human said: I think it's very important to try and find "peaceful" alternatives to giving cats medicine rather than going for the standard "force their head back and squeeze it down their throats" method. The vet I saw did just that, but when I tried to repeat the procedure by myself, it failed miserably - my cat wiggled out of my grip, and we both got pretty spooked. What I tried next worked like a charm... (read more at link above).

And, on another topic, I haven't gotten any good new photos of Tootsie. Except for this one, which is amusingly odd. She was yawning. However... just look. The only caption I've been able to come up with so far is "majik cat doez optikal illusion" (in the idiom of I can has cheezburger).