Floki had a vet appointment yesterday morning so we trapped him in the cats’ room and Rose and I worked together to catch him and put him in his carrier. I then put him in the car and drove him to the vet.
When I got to the vet I had to call them so someone could come out to get Floki. They are still not allowing people in the office. I think they are dragging out this pandemic because keeping people out is easier for them. They are not alone. Many businesses have cut customer service because they save money and Covid gives them the perfect excuse. Have you called a large business lately and been told the wait time is forty-five minutes or longer? Most of these people work from home now so there is no excuse.
As far as vets are concerned, I think it is important for people to go into the exam room with their pet. Imagine a parent being forced to wait in the car at the pediatrician’s office. In order to get the full picture of what is going on, you need to be there during the exam. It is also important for your pet to know you are there. Most will be very nervous that a stranger is poking and prodding them and need reassurance from their parent. I may consider changing vets if this continues.
Floki was there for three reasons. First, he needed to get his nails trimmed. It is impossible for us to trim them because he is such a squirmy little bugger but the vet techs can do it. He is good for them for some reason.
Second, he has been having trouble with his ears lately so they cleaned them and informed me he had an infection. They wanted to take a sample to test what kind of infection it was so I agreed. They then gave me a bottle of medicine with instructions to put five drops in each ear every day. Since we can’t even clip his nails, I have no idea how we are going to put medicine in his ears. Chris also has a recurring ear infection and it is hard enough putting drops in his ears, Floki is ten times harder.
Lastly, they checked him for fleas. The last time he got flea medication he was sick for three days. The plan was to give him a kitten dose of another flea medication if he had fleas and no medication if he did not have fleas. Fortunately, he did not have fleas.
After I brought Floki home and let him out of his carrier, Frankie got inside of it.
He went in through the top and I have no idea how he managed to get under the flap.
As I write this on Friday evening we have yet to attempt to put medicine in Floki’s ears. Hopefully, I won’t have to report a few new scars on my next post.
Update: We tried to put the medication in Floki’s ears last night. He was on the dining room table and I held him by the scruff while Rose attempted to put five drops in each ear. She got two drops in one ear before his struggling became too intense and I lost my grip. I grabbed him again and tried to hold him down but he managed to roll over on his side and started to kick with his back feet. I let him go at that point to prevent serious injury. I now worry that a daily struggle like that will cause Floki to stop trusting us.
Bad Cat Chris 
I feel your pain (literally). Teddy had a recurring yeast infection in his ear and we had to put drops in his ears for 10 days. Not fun. But we just wrapped him burrito style in a blanket and while David held him (tightly) I put the drops in. He’d shake his head afterwards – I know it’s irritating having something in your ears – but enough of the med goes down the ear canal to help. Not easy – not fun – but “ya gotta do what ya gotta do” when it comes to these things (painful though it may be for us!!). GOOD LUCK!
Hugs, Pam
Thanks. We will need it. 🙂
I completely understand your fear of losing Floki’s trust. But if you give him a treat directly after he won’t lose trust forever!
Good idea
as said above, yep, I’d suggest you wrap Floki in a towel, with only his head poking out when you have to deal with ear drops. Good luck!
Thanks
My hubby has a pair of ‘gauntlet gloves’ for gardening… we have several thorny plants. He discovered they were for feisty cats, too. If the burrito doesn’t work, you might want to try that.
I need a suit of armor. 🙂
Ooooooohhhh, that’s bad!
Purrseidon
Ear medicine is the worst. Good luck. We like the burrito idea.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Thanks.
Good luck with that, really. Ours are all good with everything except Simon and a pill. All our Vets up here have allowed 1 masked human in with the pets and they have since mid April. We actually have 3 Vets and 1 is new because the one still wasn’t allowing humans in so we fired her.
I think it is past time to get back to even somewhat normalcy.
The regular vet allows one person to come in now as long as they are masked but Ernie’s oncologist still is not allowing anyone inside. It is frustrating. Maybe try the ear drops when Floki is sleeping? He’ll wake up but may not fight as much.
Oh and reward him with treats or something he really likes afterwards.
Someone else said that. It is a good idea.
One person is good enough.
Floki sounds worse to medicate than Binga! Although my human actually was eventually able to manage it.
Floki is the hardest cat to do anything with. Just putting on flea meds is difficult.
That is a big pet peeve of mine when they stopped letting pet parents in with pets. No one would expect a child to go in without a parent and to be this is the same. Have you tried wrapping him in a towel for the drops? Sneaking up when he is sleeping?
We will have to try the towel but the sight of it will surely get him running.
Oh my goodness. Five drops per ear is quite a hefty dose!
One drop is hard enough.
I can well imagine! I don’t think we’ve ever had to give Catorze ear drops, or maybe we did years ago. I can’t imagine doing it now.
So far we have been unsuccessful and now Floki is suspicios of everything we do.