Sooooo, the first time I had to give my cat an injection, I thought to myself, “This is never going to work.” This statement held true for at least the next week. So, that night, we get home, I already have a massive headache from the overload of information that I had received and I prepare the insulin syringe. This part is easy, I have done this many times….just not with a cat.
I hide the syringe behind my back, nevermind that Tigger can read the intent in my body language and he runs from me. Damn, now I have to try and chase him down…with a pointy needle in my hand. LOL. So you can imagine me running through the house yelling at everyone to stay out of my way because I have a needle in my hand, yeah…it probably was a pretty amusing sight.
I catch up with Tigger and I pick him up. Now, this is a cat that hates to be held, touched or anything if it is not his idea. Well, this was my idea not his. He immediately digs his back claws into my legs and starts growling at me…yes, growling at me. Even though he was sick, he was still full of attitude.
I get Andy and ask for help. By this point I am discouraged because I have to be able to give him these injections by myself. I have to know that it can be done with only one person, so should we want to go out of town I can have someone come in and take care of him. Of course, Andy tells me to give it time, this is only the first day. He is right, but I am still feeling down about the situation and I haven’t even given Tigger his injection yet.
Andy holds Tigger down on the couch, because this is the only way to avoid getting bitten or clawed. I struggle to pinch up some skin to stick the needle into because there really wasn’t much left to him. Finally, after what seems like minutes, I am able to get the needle in his skin and inject. The whole while Tigger is struggling to get out of Andy’s grasp, making it even more difficult to inject him. But, it’s done.
Now I begin thinking, I have to do this twice a day. There is no way in hell I can do this twice a day for the next 10 years. Andy says it will get easier…yeah right. A week into it and I am still chasing Tigger around the house and having to hold him down to do this injection. At least at this point, I figured out that if I catch him on the ground I can do his injection by myself. We only had a couple of incidences where the needle ended up bent from his struggles!
Andy says that we just have to get him into a routine and give him some kind of reward. So, we decide to give him a small piece of lunch meat after each injection. This was the ticket. After about a week, Tigger would come running when he heard me get the insulin out of the fridge. Now, 2 months later, I get his insulin out, say his name and he comes running. He sits down and waits patiently and even ducks his head for me to give him his injection. Afterward, he gets his piece of lunch meat and he is happy. He will even lead me to the fridge around the time that he is supposed to get his insulin.
I never thought we would be to this point but we are and I am so grateful. I was so worried for a while. I have my cat back though. He is my moody, don’t touch me unless its 3am cat, but his coat is healthy and he has gained back all of the weight that he lost. I love him, even with his weird mood swings.
