If you do the puffs while blocking the mask with your hand and then put it against the cat’s face you solve the problem of scaring them with the hiss of the pump. I administered my kitty’s meds this way and it worked like a charm. I acclimatized her to the mask by itself first with malt flavored kitty toothpaste which she loves, and then replaced that with treats post-treatment. Great video, very helpful!
We discovered the same thing. In our case, the sound of the puff has never seemed to scare the cat-but the forced movement of air in his face made him pull away. We put a thumb down in the mask, to cover the hole where it joins the chamber, then do the puff, then gently remove the thumb.
These two tips have helped me and Minnie the most. Jill and Smadaf, thank you. I hold the device off to the side and say a bit loudly , okay let's do it, while doing the puff. And as Smadaf says, I put my finger down into the mask all the way through to the green tip while pushing the puff. This helps keep the med off the mask including the short connecting tube. Minnie does NOT like the smell of the med. Then I smear some tube (churu) chicken puree all around the inside of the mask. Also wipe off the finger. This seems the most successful so far. Also clean it all right away after, so it's dry for the next session. Thanks you two!
Great tips. Aww! Samson is such a beautiful boy! I had never known about the Pediatric Inhaler. When my cat (who's since passed away) was diagnosed w/ asthma, I was lucky that I had had someone, (yrs prior) donate the feline one, so I had it on hand. No-one sells the feline one in a brick & mortar store, you have to buy it online, & that's rediculous, because you NEED it THEN...not to have to wait for it! It would be nice if the E.R. Vets & the G.P.'s knew of this information, so you could get a pediatric one right away! I can also clearly see the the shape is different than the feline one, and the Pediatric one is absolutely a much better anatomical fit. The feline one is completely round, and such an inferior design. Luckily my boy, (rest his soul... that's him, Kit, in my pic) he was So Amazingly good without even any slow habituation. He also had other chronic health issues, and he was on so many Holistic protocols...but he was just such a good boy, & was THE Most compliant cat Ever! He was so easy going. He's my Sweet Angel now. I miss him so!!! 😔
Yay. This is AWESOME. We just got told my kitty had asthma too and I thought of putting food in the mask to create positive association....great minds! VERY happy to see this content. And, I hadn't thought about the hissing t=sounds so this was great to know in advance - you saved some nervousness for my own cats experience. 10/10. Go Samson the super star!
Great video! After a couple traumatizing attempts (for both me and my cat) at using the inhaler with the cat spacer that I bought, I am going to have to start from square one to get him acclimated to it again. Where did you get the peds spacer and mask in the video? Could you share a link if you have one?
THANK YOU for posting this. I have been trying so hard with my cat but struggling. I tried this tonight and he did so well. Just bought a peds spacer instead of the aerokat too!
My cat just got her inhaler today and it didn't go well at all. I wish my vet would have warned me and given me some guidance before I traumatized her with it today. Hopefully I can follow these methods to train her, but I fear that maybe now she is already too afraid of it
I really hope it worked out. I know it's not really helpful for this specific situation anymore, but it is always, always, ALWAYS worth checking to see if there are instructional videos from the manufacturer for whatever you're using. The makers of the AeroKat have a whole series of videos on training your cat to use an inhaler spacer. There are a lot of helpful details that you just can't fit in a 4 minute overview. And unfortunately the missing parts are details that might be helpful for a cat that's more fearful. I don't think there was any explanation of why the "muzzle" cue was being given or how to use it. It's also important to wipe their faces clean after treatment to prevent any irritation from the residue, particularly to the eyes, which brings me to my biggest concern here: The mask should never extend over their eyes during treatment because the medicine can get in their eyes that way. So a pediatric mask may only be preferable if you have one of those poor flat-faced kitties and you cannot get a good seal with the cat-specific mask. I've seen vets advise against using pediatric products because the masks are improperly sized/shaped for most cats and the flow indicators are not sensitive enough to reliably respond to the smaller capacity of a cat's lungs. So if your cat's breathing is too shallow to see well, you may not be able to count how many breaths they've taken And they might not get enough medicine. (My understanding is that the standard prescription is 7-10 breaths 2× daily. At the very least, that's what my cat's been prescribed and the impression I got from her vet.) I only have her rescue inhaler right now but I've been trying to find out how to get her started because she came to us as a pregnant stray and has not enjoyed being handled for medication. We have some oral steroids to manage symptoms while her maintenance inhalers are in transit. I'm going to train her kitten (5 months old) to take treats from the mask so she knows it's safe. He's probably at increased risk to get asthma too, so having him comfortable with the mask early isn't a bad idea either. I hope it never matters for him though.
My first attempts with giving Wiggles the inhaler have been quite frustrating for me. Tomorrow we start your suggestions! I am praying we get to some sort of agreement on this!
Just starting this journey! We are doing the syringe feeding now...and playing with food...have to get the mask popped onto his nose for a few seconds now! Thanks for the video!
Excellent instructions, thank you! Working on the mask-treat steps now. I really want a mask like the one you have, but cannot find anything like it. Some have the general shape but are far too big. Would you please share that model? I still have time to return my aerokat.
Super helpful thank you! The mask that I have is too small for my cat to put her face and lick the treat. Can you put a link or brand for the spacer that you are using?? Please I can’t find much on Amazon only masks for 1-5 years old not for infants. Thank you so much !
My cat has never liked anything as much as this kitty did. Can you tell me exactly what he s eating so I can use the sand stuff? Or do we cut down in this food intake they regularly have so when its offered she s acting as if she s starving, both the dry brand and especially the soft food you were using to feed her through the inhaler. Thank you so much in advance:)
I believe the wet food in the syringe that Samson is enjoying is : Hills Prescription Diet "urgent care" a/d. Hills a/d canned food is for supplemental feeding only; it is a nutritionally dense food that is pork & byproduct-based and can be fed to cats, dogs, or any carnivore, I assume ;) It is intended for recovery care or getting a finicky kitty to eat. It's supposedly highly palatable. The consistency is very smooth, somewhere between baby food and regular pate cat food. I have fed it to many kittens and cats over the past 18 years, many times by syringe. I always keep many sizes of syringes and a few cans of a/d because you never know! You do need a rx from your vet and the food is not cheap or nutritionally complete for the main diet. The idea to feed "nectar of the cat gods" through a syringe through the mask is 🌟BRILLIANT🌟 we have been using tiny pieces of freeze-dried chicken breast and pill pockets, but if we had known that trick, I bet my 16+ year old DLH, Miata, would have made more progress in fewer sessions. Remember to always keep it a positive and yummy bonding experience!
I just found out that my cat might have asthma and the prospect of masking him just seemed way too much. He doesn't like anyone touching his head at all. Thanks for the tips.
He might have pain related to his teeth if he doesn't like his head being touched. Did the vet ever do a dental x-ray on him? FORL is really common in cats, you can't see it just by looking at the teeth and it causes a lot of pain that goes unnoticed
I had a question... we're started giving our cat her inhaler 5 days now around 730pm. We need to change her treatment time to 4am. The vet recommended once a day. Not sure if we should skip today's treatment to start in the morning? She is also diabetic and we gave injection time at 4am/pm. Also I believe it's the cat litter that causes this asthma.
I have a cat that reacts to food in a desperate panic like she's never going to see food again (abandoned on an acreage by her family as a kitten). She paws at me and nibbles at fingers trying to get treats. Any tips on how to get her used to the mask when she will do literally anything to get a treat?
One of my cats was diagnosed with asthma today. I put the inhaler next to his favourite blanket to let him get used to it. His favourite treat is freeze dried minnows. I'll do this trick to get him used to the mask.
As recommended by the various feline asthma forums, we got a Flixotide 125 micrograms inhaler for our kitty, along with an Aerokat. The Flixotide came from Northwest Pharmacy and has what appears to be Turkish writing on the box. I shake the metal cartridge (which is housed in an orange plastic casing). Then, I place it into the end of the Aerokat. Then, I place the mask side of the Aerokat on the cat's face, push down for one puff, and let him breathe. My questions: Has anyone else ordered this generic of Flovent from Northwest Pharmacy lately? I'm wondering if they sent a legitimate product because there seems to be no discernable smell to it... i.e., I can't tell whether the cat is getting what he needs.
My cat has seasonal allergies since a small kitten. Getting this done at the vet is very expensive. He's now 14 and we have this under control. I did not know that this could be done at home.
If your vet prescribed an inhaler and never told you that you could administer the inhaler at home, but just kept charging you money to do it at the office, then maybe it's time for a new vet.
Sadly this method doesn’t work with my cat. He is on a very strict diet - only Royal Canin Anallergenic food due to a severe allergy to meat proteins. Unsurprisingly he also has asthma. We are just starting on the inhalant journey. He isn’t at all excited about his anallergenic food (who would be?). Any suggestions for cats who can’t have treats?
My cat has severe asthma and is gradually weaning off prednisolone. She sometimes had wheezing when eating food and stress or excitement on pred. She wad having respiratory distress multiple times a week before the pred. I got flovent and the aerokat device and I'm having a hard time getting her used to it. It has been a week, I know not long but I am worried she is not getting enough of her medicine. She will have wheezing fits from me trying to use the mask gently by holding my hand behind her head and placing the mask on her face. She even peed from being scared or stressed. She refuses to eat any type of treats i have tried for years to see if she would like different types, I even tried canned tuna which my other cat goes crazy for. She will turn her nose up at anything besides her dry food but will not eat the dry food unless it is in her bowl and she is famished.. I dont know what to do for her i dont want to rely on pred because she was having GI upset from it. Any help is appreciated!
@Daniel Vanzin no unfortunately. I had to go back to pred .75 twice a day. She still has asthma attacks daily but no respiratory distress which is good but keeping her on pred is not ideal due to its side affects with long term use. She tolerated the aerokat a few times but those were rare occasions. She is still having wheezing and near attacks when i try to give her flovent with the chamber and hides under the bed.
Ava Lt, maybe some of our story will help you. Our cat was on prednisolone for months, while we figured out how to get him to take his inhaler. The first ideas we encountered, at the vet and online, just weren't working. What has worked for us is Temptations treats. These are sold at supermarkets and come in two kinds of package: a resealable pouch (like a zip-top bag) and a tall, clear plastic box. The box costs less per treat than the pouches, but it has three problems. The first problem with the box is that, once you tear away the clear plastic seal, which is under the lid, the container doesn't seal anymore: there's a little 'door' in the lid, and when it's closed you can look right through the gap at the corner of the door. If you buy the box of Temptations, immediately transfer them to an airtight bag, to help them stay fresh (appetizing!). The second problem with the box of treats is that it's rigid: as you use up more and more treats, ever more space in the box is empty space, where air, even with the lid closed, makes the treats go stale-and, again, the solution is to move them all to an airtight bag right away. The third problem with the box of treats is that it contains so many: even if you move them all to an airtight bag, by the time you've used them all up in inhaler training and inhaler administration, you will have opened the bag so many times that the ones toward the end will be significantly less fresh than the first ones you took out, when the package was new. So things may work better if you buy the small pouch of Temptations instead. Open the pouch just long enough to remove the treats you will use in one session of training or administration, and immediately close the pouch. Squeeze the air out, fold the empty portion flat over the part filled with treats, and zip it shut. When you store it, keep the flat, empty part under the rest, to inhibit leaks. It may be a good idea to associate the treats exclusively with the inhaler. If your cat knows she can hold out and get treats at some other time, without all this inhaler silliness that humans bring along, she may resist the inhaler part of the deal more than she would if accepting it were the only way to get treats. I get out about nine treats and put them in a little white glass bowl with me while I kneel on the floor. The bowl is there for five reasons: to keep the treats together, to make them easy for our cat to see (dark treats in white bowl on dark floor), to keep them off the floor, to give me a hard surface against which to break the treats in half, and to take the crumbs that result from the breaking. Then I break one treat in half, put half of it in the lip that runs around the rim of the inhaler mask, and put the other half on the floor and hold the whole inhaler affair (mask attached to chamber (spacer) attached to inhaler; let's call this trio "the apparatus") near the treat that's on the floor. This is before I've done a puff; this is to reduce the chance of wasting puffs: if he eats the treat on the floor and then eats the one in the mask, it's likely (but not certain) that he'll continue to go after more treats, when I put them in the mask after quickly doing a puff. Sometimes he doesn't want to play the inhaler game, and there's no point in spending money on puffs that he ends up not taking. There are three reasons to break the treat in half. One is that it exposes the inside, which is more enticing than just the outside. The other is that the smaller, half pieces work better at getting him to dig his face in to the mask in a way that means he gets the drug: a whole treat, not broken in half, is too easy for him to remove from the mask quickly. The third reason is that, once he has gotten it from the mask, it takes him less time to eat, so be puts his face back into the mask (for the next treat) sooner. The drug in an inhaler is a very lightweight powder: it is a powder, not a gas (just the propellant is a gas), and it does eventually settle, so we want our cat to inhale with his face in the mask as many times as we can get him to, as soon after doing the puff as possible. (A note on buying inhalers. Living in the United States, we've found that the cheapest way to get fluticazone inhalers for our cat is to order them from Northwest Pharmacy, which is based in Canada and focuses on mailing prescription drugs to people in the United States. If your cat has insurance, maybe you have a cheaper option.) Continued . . .
. . . Continued. If he refuses these first two half-treats, we try again later. (Hunger helps.) If he takes them, then I break another one in half, do the first puff, and put the treat in the rim (or put it in the rim and then do the puff). I always make a point of letting him watch what I do with the treats. (Sometimes he goes after a treat in the mask, can't get it out, and stops trying. When this happens, often it's because the treat has moved to an area that he can't reach. When that's the case, I tilt the apparatus down and gently shake it, so that the treat falls back down into the rim. He often thinks there's still no treat there after that, and doesn't bother to put his face in, so I just pretend to get another piece from the bowl and pretend to put it in the mask; the mimed movements do the trick.) While he's digging his face in the mask for this treat, I may start breaking another one in half. In the past, I would break all the treats for that session before I even got down on the floor with him, and this was fine. Later, he became a less reliable inhaler-taker (more on that in a moment), and so I started breaking only one treat at a time, because I didn't want to break each treat until I had a good sign that he would be willing to go after it in his inhaler mask right then. While his face is in the mask, I keep a close eye on the little flap, at the mask end of the chamber, that indicates air movement. I always make sure this side of the chamber is turned upward, not facing the floor, so that I can see it. When the little flapper valve moves, it means the cat is inhaling the contents of the chamber. If the valve isn't moving, he's getting little or nothing from the chamber, regardless of how much air he may be inhaling from elsewhere. At the beginning of each inhaler session, make sure the apparatus is free of treat crumbs. It should be, if you shook it out at the end of the previous session. Also at the beginning, before you do any puffs and treats, you can put the mask over you own mouth and inhale, to make sure that the little flap moves. Sometimes it gets stuck; your powerful, human inhalation can unstick it, so that it's sure to move when your cat inhales with her face far enough in the mask. Anyway, you'll have to experiment with both the height of the apparatus (above whatever surface your cat sits on for taking her inhaler) and the angle that you hold it at, so that she puts her face far enough in, and at a good angle, so that there are moments when her face is pressed well into the mask and her inhalations are pulling air (and medicine) from the chamber. Cats breathe a lot when they eat-so, if your cat is pursuing a treat with her face in the mask and you don't see the flap moving, it probably means she isn't sealing her face against the mask. Try other angles and heights, and you should be able to find a combination where many of her breaths are opening the flapper valve as far as it goes, a full 90 degrees. When I give our cat his inhaler, we usually do it on the kitchen floor, next to a stack of two heavy boxes. The stack of boxes has two benefits. One is that the top edge of the bottom box is a good height to hold the apparatus at, so that our cat makes good facial contact with the mask: the box makes it easy to remember exactly how high to hold it; we just go for the top edge of the bottom box, rather than try to guess what height. And the stack of boxes is heavy enough that I can hold the apparatus in one hand, pressing it against the stack of boxes, to keep it stable despite the pushing movements from our cat as he seeks the treats, while I use my other hand to break the next treat in half. The stability really helps: think about how it would be for you: would it be easier to lick food (without using your hands) from a bowl that was glued to a wall, or from a bowl that was hanging on a rope that wouldn't hold still? Continued . . .
. . . Continued. Anyway, when he's had about eight half treats from the mask after the first puff, I shake the inhaler again and do the second puff, and then we do about eight more half treats. Really, I keep it up as long as possible, because I want him to get as much from the puffs as possible; but he usually stops after about this many half treats, probably because of the 'whisker fatigue' that comes from putting his face in the mask. (When I see a TH-cam video, such as this one, in which the mask is only on the cat's face for three or four seconds, and the cat inhales only three or four times, I don't know what to think. Our vet said that one dose should be a puff, fifteen inhalations, a second puff, and fifteen more inhalations.) Whenever I do a puff, I - take the inhaler out of the chamber - shake the inhaler vigorously - put it back in the chamber - put my thumb down into the mask, completely covering the hole where the mask connects to chamber - do the inhaler puff - gently remove my hand - present the apparatus to our cat. I have big hands. If your thumb is too small to cover that hole, then another option is to use the palm of your hand to cover the big, open end of the inhaler mask. Press firmly enough to seal you palm against the mask, but don't press so much that you deform the mask: if you compress the mask, then the first thing that will happen when you remove your hand and the mask springs back into its normal shape is that some of the content of the chamber (the expensive drug you've just put into it) will be sucked out and wasted. That's also why you should remove your hand *gently*. Another option is to use a flat area of your arm, your leg, or your belly, to cover the open end of the mask: again, don't deform it, and do move gently. At the end of the session, wash the mask gently with your fingers, warm water, and mild dish soap. Unscented soap may be better, because scented ones may be unpleasant to your cat. Speaking of treating the mask gently: Early on, our cat tried to use his hand to get a treat from the mask, and made a small tear in the silicone. This got bigger as the months went on, until finally we had to buy a replacement mask. The replacement actually has a better design than the first mask, but anyway I want to warn you against letting you cat tear the mask with her claws. Continued . . .
Hey can I ask what food is in the syringe? I can’t get any food to come out of a syringe freely and don’t want to keep giving him those bad for him treats . Anyone come up with a solution for a healthy treat ?
Nothing makes me more angry than videos like this. I could do this for 3 weeks and my cat will still run when any type of pressure is put on her to keep the mask on. They always use docile cats. So terribly unhelpful for us with cats who aren't mannequins.
Doesn't work. All these God damned methods assume cats will actually want to do something for treats. My cat does NOT care. No vet has ever fucking helped me .
wrong, the x rays clearly show asthma, I have both bad allergies and asthma. allergies don't make you wheeze. When my cats having an episode, it looks like a violent hairball, but they are horse and coughing. My other cat has allergies his eyes weep a lot, he sees the vet, and it's allergies, nothing else, and he doesn't do this.
If you do the puffs while blocking the mask with your hand and then put it against the cat’s face you solve the problem of scaring them with the hiss of the pump. I administered my kitty’s meds this way and it worked like a charm. I acclimatized her to the mask by itself first with malt flavored kitty toothpaste which she loves, and then replaced that with treats post-treatment. Great video, very helpful!
We discovered the same thing. In our case, the sound of the puff has never seemed to scare the cat-but the forced movement of air in his face made him pull away. We put a thumb down in the mask, to cover the hole where it joins the chamber, then do the puff, then gently remove the thumb.
These two tips have helped me and Minnie the most. Jill and Smadaf, thank you.
I hold the device off to the side and say a bit loudly , okay let's do it, while doing the puff. And as Smadaf says, I put my finger down into the mask all the way through to the green tip while pushing the puff. This helps keep the med off the mask including the short connecting tube. Minnie does NOT like the smell of the med. Then I smear some tube (churu) chicken puree all around the inside of the mask. Also wipe off the finger. This seems the most successful so far. Also clean it all right away after, so it's dry for the next session. Thanks you two!
Can you please share the brand of toothpaste you use or an Amazon link to it? Can't find anything malt flavored
EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO LEARN.... I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!!!
That syringe trick is GENIUS!
Great tips. Aww! Samson is such a beautiful boy!
I had never known about the Pediatric Inhaler. When my cat (who's since passed away) was diagnosed w/ asthma, I was lucky that I had had someone, (yrs prior) donate the feline one, so I had it on hand. No-one sells the feline one in a brick & mortar store, you have to buy it online, & that's rediculous, because you NEED it THEN...not to have to wait for it! It would be nice if the E.R. Vets & the G.P.'s knew of this information, so you could get a pediatric one right away! I can also clearly see the the shape is different than the feline one, and the Pediatric one is absolutely a much better anatomical fit. The feline one is completely round, and such an inferior design. Luckily my boy, (rest his soul... that's him, Kit, in my pic) he was So Amazingly good without even any slow habituation. He also had other chronic health issues, and he was on so many Holistic protocols...but he was just such a good boy, & was THE Most compliant cat Ever! He was so easy going. He's my Sweet Angel now. I miss him so!!! 😔
Thank you! Trying to build by courage to start this with my cat.
Thank you! I have a foster cat with asthma so this will be very helpful
Excellent video and audio! Thank you! I have an asthmatic foster cat who I must train to accept the mask. Great suggestions.
Yay. This is AWESOME. We just got told my kitty had asthma too and I thought of putting food in the mask to create positive association....great minds! VERY happy to see this content. And, I hadn't thought about the hissing t=sounds so this was great to know in advance - you saved some nervousness for my own cats experience. 10/10. Go Samson the super star!
Thank you very much. This has been so helpful
Thank you so much for this information, my kitty needs Flovent and I don’t want to scare my cat, I really appreciate your video
Great video! After a couple traumatizing attempts (for both me and my cat) at using the inhaler with the cat spacer that I bought, I am going to have to start from square one to get him acclimated to it again. Where did you get the peds spacer and mask in the video? Could you share a link if you have one?
THANK YOU for posting this. I have been trying so hard with my cat but struggling. I tried this tonight and he did so well. Just bought a peds spacer instead of the aerokat too!
How's it going after 2 months? I just started and I'm freaking out trying to get him used to it
This video is wonderful! and very helpful! Thank you for sharing this with us!
So helpful! Thank you! My cat was just diagnosed with asthma so I’m starting this process.
My cat just got her inhaler today and it didn't go well at all. I wish my vet would have warned me and given me some guidance before I traumatized her with it today. Hopefully I can follow these methods to train her, but I fear that maybe now she is already too afraid of it
I really hope it worked out. I know it's not really helpful for this specific situation anymore, but it is always, always, ALWAYS worth checking to see if there are instructional videos from the manufacturer for whatever you're using. The makers of the AeroKat have a whole series of videos on training your cat to use an inhaler spacer. There are a lot of helpful details that you just can't fit in a 4 minute overview. And unfortunately the missing parts are details that might be helpful for a cat that's more fearful. I don't think there was any explanation of why the "muzzle" cue was being given or how to use it. It's also important to wipe their faces clean after treatment to prevent any irritation from the residue, particularly to the eyes, which brings me to my biggest concern here:
The mask should never extend over their eyes during treatment because the medicine can get in their eyes that way.
So a pediatric mask may only be preferable if you have one of those poor flat-faced kitties and you cannot get a good seal with the cat-specific mask. I've seen vets advise against using pediatric products because the masks are improperly sized/shaped for most cats and the flow indicators are not sensitive enough to reliably respond to the smaller capacity of a cat's lungs. So if your cat's breathing is too shallow to see well, you may not be able to count how many breaths they've taken And they might not get enough medicine. (My understanding is that the standard prescription is 7-10 breaths 2× daily. At the very least, that's what my cat's been prescribed and the impression I got from her vet.)
I only have her rescue inhaler right now but I've been trying to find out how to get her started because she came to us as a pregnant stray and has not enjoyed being handled for medication. We have some oral steroids to manage symptoms while her maintenance inhalers are in transit. I'm going to train her kitten (5 months old) to take treats from the mask so she knows it's safe. He's probably at increased risk to get asthma too, so having him comfortable with the mask early isn't a bad idea either. I hope it never matters for him though.
Vets only want your money
You are amazing Ingrid. My cats miss you.
Oh my gosh, he’s a cutie!
my caterpillar (himalayan) and i watched this and i think it helped her, but now i know i should give her lickses afterwards too
I think you’re are more smart way to do. ❤
My first attempts with giving Wiggles the inhaler have been quite frustrating for me. Tomorrow we start your suggestions! I am praying we get to some sort of agreement on this!
Excellent video, thank you so much!
Thank you am going to have to learn this now
He's so good!
Just starting this journey! We are doing the syringe feeding now...and playing with food...have to get the mask popped onto his nose for a few seconds now! Thanks for the video!
Excellent instructions, thank you! Working on the mask-treat steps now. I really want a mask like the one you have, but cannot find anything like it. Some have the general shape but are far too big. Would you please share that model? I still have time to return my aerokat.
Super helpful thank you! The mask that I have is too small for my cat to put her face and lick the treat. Can you put a link or brand for the spacer that you are using?? Please I can’t find much on Amazon only masks for 1-5 years old not for infants. Thank you so much !
My cat has never liked anything as much as this kitty did. Can you tell me exactly what he s eating so I can use the sand stuff? Or do we cut down in this food intake they regularly have so when its offered she s acting as if she s starving, both the dry brand and especially the soft food you were using to feed her through the inhaler. Thank you so much in advance:)
I believe the wet food in the syringe that Samson is enjoying is :
Hills Prescription Diet "urgent care" a/d.
Hills a/d canned food is for supplemental feeding only; it is a nutritionally dense food that is pork & byproduct-based and can be fed to cats, dogs, or any carnivore, I assume ;) It is intended for recovery care or getting a finicky kitty to eat. It's supposedly highly palatable. The consistency is very smooth, somewhere between baby food and regular pate cat food. I have fed it to many kittens and cats over the past 18 years, many times by syringe. I always keep many sizes of syringes and a few cans of a/d because you never know! You do need a rx from your vet and the food is not cheap or nutritionally complete for the main diet.
The idea to feed "nectar of the cat gods" through a syringe through the mask is 🌟BRILLIANT🌟 we have been using tiny pieces of freeze-dried chicken breast and pill pockets, but if we had known that trick, I bet my 16+ year old DLH, Miata, would have made more progress in fewer sessions.
Remember to always keep it a positive and yummy bonding experience!
Thank you so much for this video!
I just got a cat inhaler for mine, will start this week on your recommendations, thank you!
Samson is soooo cute!!!!
I just found out that my cat might have asthma and the prospect of masking him just seemed way too much. He doesn't like anyone touching his head at all. Thanks for the tips.
He might have pain related to his teeth if he doesn't like his head being touched. Did the vet ever do a dental x-ray on him? FORL is really common in cats, you can't see it just by looking at the teeth and it causes a lot of pain that goes unnoticed
Sampson is so handsome ❤
I had a question... we're started giving our cat her inhaler 5 days now around 730pm. We need to change her treatment time to 4am. The vet recommended once a day. Not sure if we should skip today's treatment to start in the morning? She is also diabetic and we gave injection time at 4am/pm. Also I believe it's the cat litter that causes this asthma.
I have a cat that reacts to food in a desperate panic like she's never going to see food again (abandoned on an acreage by her family as a kitten). She paws at me and nibbles at fingers trying to get treats. Any tips on how to get her used to the mask when she will do literally anything to get a treat?
One of my cats was diagnosed with asthma today. I put the inhaler next to his favourite blanket to let him get used to it. His favourite treat is freeze dried minnows. I'll do this trick to get him used to the mask.
Really helpful!
Many thanks!
how many times a day do you do each session per day?
What brand is that muzzle piece?
I wanted to know the same thing but I seen that there is no response. :(
Do you recommend Pediatric Inhaler rather than AeroKat? If so can you share a link to purchasing Pediatric mask for Inhaler?
As recommended by the various feline asthma forums, we got a Flixotide 125 micrograms inhaler for our kitty, along with an Aerokat. The Flixotide came from Northwest Pharmacy and has what appears to be Turkish writing on the box. I shake the metal cartridge (which is housed in an orange plastic casing). Then, I place it into the end of the Aerokat. Then, I place the mask side of the Aerokat on the cat's face, push down for one puff, and let him breathe. My questions: Has anyone else ordered this generic of Flovent from Northwest Pharmacy lately? I'm wondering if they sent a legitimate product because there seems to be no discernable smell to it... i.e., I can't tell whether the cat is getting what he needs.
Samson is certainly well fed!
What’s the brand of the mask you are using?
What if you have a cat that don't eat treats? Whats a lickable human food that is taste for cats?
Thank you!!!🙏😻
How’s he doing?
My god that’s a cute cat 🥰
How much is inhaler?
Did ANYONE find out where they got this mask?
My cat has seasonal allergies since a small kitten. Getting this done at the vet is very expensive. He's now 14 and we have this under control. I did not know that this could be done at home.
If your vet prescribed an inhaler and never told you that you could administer the inhaler at home, but just kept charging you money to do it at the office, then maybe it's time for a new vet.
My cat is so skittish he runs away at the first sign of you wanting to come near like that.
My girl isn't a fan of treats or wet food. I tried putting some dry food in the mask but she absolutely will not go near it. Any suggestions?
Sadly this method doesn’t work with my cat. He is on a very strict diet - only Royal Canin Anallergenic food due to a severe allergy to meat proteins. Unsurprisingly he also has asthma. We are just starting on the inhalant journey. He isn’t at all excited about his anallergenic food (who would be?). Any suggestions for cats who can’t have treats?
Arrêtez cette marque de croquettes et cela ira mieux
My cat has severe asthma and is gradually weaning off prednisolone. She sometimes had wheezing when eating food and stress or excitement on pred. She wad having respiratory distress multiple times a week before the pred. I got flovent and the aerokat device and I'm having a hard time getting her used to it. It has been a week, I know not long but I am worried she is not getting enough of her medicine. She will have wheezing fits from me trying to use the mask gently by holding my hand behind her head and placing the mask on her face. She even peed from being scared or stressed. She refuses to eat any type of treats i have tried for years to see if she would like different types, I even tried canned tuna which my other cat goes crazy for. She will turn her nose up at anything besides her dry food but will not eat the dry food unless it is in her bowl and she is famished.. I dont know what to do for her i dont want to rely on pred because she was having GI upset from it. Any help is appreciated!
@Daniel Vanzin no unfortunately. I had to go back to pred .75 twice a day. She still has asthma attacks daily but no respiratory distress which is good but keeping her on pred is not ideal due to its side affects with long term use. She tolerated the aerokat a few times but those were rare occasions. She is still having wheezing and near attacks when i try to give her flovent with the chamber and hides under the bed.
@Daniel Vanzin thank you, I'll try to keep it a little farther from her face but im worried she won't get enough medicine
Ava Lt, maybe some of our story will help you.
Our cat was on prednisolone for months, while we figured out how to get him to take his inhaler. The first ideas we encountered, at the vet and online, just weren't working.
What has worked for us is Temptations treats. These are sold at supermarkets and come in two kinds of package: a resealable pouch (like a zip-top bag) and a tall, clear plastic box.
The box costs less per treat than the pouches, but it has three problems. The first problem with the box is that, once you tear away the clear plastic seal, which is under the lid, the container doesn't seal anymore: there's a little 'door' in the lid, and when it's closed you can look right through the gap at the corner of the door. If you buy the box of Temptations, immediately transfer them to an airtight bag, to help them stay fresh (appetizing!). The second problem with the box of treats is that it's rigid: as you use up more and more treats, ever more space in the box is empty space, where air, even with the lid closed, makes the treats go stale-and, again, the solution is to move them all to an airtight bag right away. The third problem with the box of treats is that it contains so many: even if you move them all to an airtight bag, by the time you've used them all up in inhaler training and inhaler administration, you will have opened the bag so many times that the ones toward the end will be significantly less fresh than the first ones you took out, when the package was new. So things may work better if you buy the small pouch of Temptations instead.
Open the pouch just long enough to remove the treats you will use in one session of training or administration, and immediately close the pouch. Squeeze the air out, fold the empty portion flat over the part filled with treats, and zip it shut. When you store it, keep the flat, empty part under the rest, to inhibit leaks.
It may be a good idea to associate the treats exclusively with the inhaler. If your cat knows she can hold out and get treats at some other time, without all this inhaler silliness that humans bring along, she may resist the inhaler part of the deal more than she would if accepting it were the only way to get treats.
I get out about nine treats and put them in a little white glass bowl with me while I kneel on the floor. The bowl is there for five reasons: to keep the treats together, to make them easy for our cat to see (dark treats in white bowl on dark floor), to keep them off the floor, to give me a hard surface against which to break the treats in half, and to take the crumbs that result from the breaking.
Then I break one treat in half, put half of it in the lip that runs around the rim of the inhaler mask, and put the other half on the floor and hold the whole inhaler affair (mask attached to chamber (spacer) attached to inhaler; let's call this trio "the apparatus") near the treat that's on the floor. This is before I've done a puff; this is to reduce the chance of wasting puffs: if he eats the treat on the floor and then eats the one in the mask, it's likely (but not certain) that he'll continue to go after more treats, when I put them in the mask after quickly doing a puff. Sometimes he doesn't want to play the inhaler game, and there's no point in spending money on puffs that he ends up not taking.
There are three reasons to break the treat in half. One is that it exposes the inside, which is more enticing than just the outside. The other is that the smaller, half pieces work better at getting him to dig his face in to the mask in a way that means he gets the drug: a whole treat, not broken in half, is too easy for him to remove from the mask quickly. The third reason is that, once he has gotten it from the mask, it takes him less time to eat, so be puts his face back into the mask (for the next treat) sooner. The drug in an inhaler is a very lightweight powder: it is a powder, not a gas (just the propellant is a gas), and it does eventually settle, so we want our cat to inhale with his face in the mask as many times as we can get him to, as soon after doing the puff as possible.
(A note on buying inhalers. Living in the United States, we've found that the cheapest way to get fluticazone inhalers for our cat is to order them from Northwest Pharmacy, which is based in Canada and focuses on mailing prescription drugs to people in the United States. If your cat has insurance, maybe you have a cheaper option.)
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If he refuses these first two half-treats, we try again later. (Hunger helps.) If he takes them, then I break another one in half, do the first puff, and put the treat in the rim (or put it in the rim and then do the puff). I always make a point of letting him watch what I do with the treats. (Sometimes he goes after a treat in the mask, can't get it out, and stops trying. When this happens, often it's because the treat has moved to an area that he can't reach. When that's the case, I tilt the apparatus down and gently shake it, so that the treat falls back down into the rim. He often thinks there's still no treat there after that, and doesn't bother to put his face in, so I just pretend to get another piece from the bowl and pretend to put it in the mask; the mimed movements do the trick.)
While he's digging his face in the mask for this treat, I may start breaking another one in half. In the past, I would break all the treats for that session before I even got down on the floor with him, and this was fine. Later, he became a less reliable inhaler-taker (more on that in a moment), and so I started breaking only one treat at a time, because I didn't want to break each treat until I had a good sign that he would be willing to go after it in his inhaler mask right then.
While his face is in the mask, I keep a close eye on the little flap, at the mask end of the chamber, that indicates air movement. I always make sure this side of the chamber is turned upward, not facing the floor, so that I can see it. When the little flapper valve moves, it means the cat is inhaling the contents of the chamber. If the valve isn't moving, he's getting little or nothing from the chamber, regardless of how much air he may be inhaling from elsewhere.
At the beginning of each inhaler session, make sure the apparatus is free of treat crumbs. It should be, if you shook it out at the end of the previous session. Also at the beginning, before you do any puffs and treats, you can put the mask over you own mouth and inhale, to make sure that the little flap moves. Sometimes it gets stuck; your powerful, human inhalation can unstick it, so that it's sure to move when your cat inhales with her face far enough in the mask.
Anyway, you'll have to experiment with both the height of the apparatus (above whatever surface your cat sits on for taking her inhaler) and the angle that you hold it at, so that she puts her face far enough in, and at a good angle, so that there are moments when her face is pressed well into the mask and her inhalations are pulling air (and medicine) from the chamber. Cats breathe a lot when they eat-so, if your cat is pursuing a treat with her face in the mask and you don't see the flap moving, it probably means she isn't sealing her face against the mask. Try other angles and heights, and you should be able to find a combination where many of her breaths are opening the flapper valve as far as it goes, a full 90 degrees.
When I give our cat his inhaler, we usually do it on the kitchen floor, next to a stack of two heavy boxes. The stack of boxes has two benefits. One is that the top edge of the bottom box is a good height to hold the apparatus at, so that our cat makes good facial contact with the mask: the box makes it easy to remember exactly how high to hold it; we just go for the top edge of the bottom box, rather than try to guess what height. And the stack of boxes is heavy enough that I can hold the apparatus in one hand, pressing it against the stack of boxes, to keep it stable despite the pushing movements from our cat as he seeks the treats, while I use my other hand to break the next treat in half. The stability really helps: think about how it would be for you: would it be easier to lick food (without using your hands) from a bowl that was glued to a wall, or from a bowl that was hanging on a rope that wouldn't hold still?
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Anyway, when he's had about eight half treats from the mask after the first puff, I shake the inhaler again and do the second puff, and then we do about eight more half treats. Really, I keep it up as long as possible, because I want him to get as much from the puffs as possible; but he usually stops after about this many half treats, probably because of the 'whisker fatigue' that comes from putting his face in the mask. (When I see a TH-cam video, such as this one, in which the mask is only on the cat's face for three or four seconds, and the cat inhales only three or four times, I don't know what to think. Our vet said that one dose should be a puff, fifteen inhalations, a second puff, and fifteen more inhalations.)
Whenever I do a puff, I
- take the inhaler out of the chamber
- shake the inhaler vigorously
- put it back in the chamber
- put my thumb down into the mask, completely covering the hole where the mask connects to chamber
- do the inhaler puff
- gently remove my hand
- present the apparatus to our cat.
I have big hands. If your thumb is too small to cover that hole, then another option is to use the palm of your hand to cover the big, open end of the inhaler mask. Press firmly enough to seal you palm against the mask, but don't press so much that you deform the mask: if you compress the mask, then the first thing that will happen when you remove your hand and the mask springs back into its normal shape is that some of the content of the chamber (the expensive drug you've just put into it) will be sucked out and wasted. That's also why you should remove your hand *gently*. Another option is to use a flat area of your arm, your leg, or your belly, to cover the open end of the mask: again, don't deform it, and do move gently.
At the end of the session, wash the mask gently with your fingers, warm water, and mild dish soap. Unscented soap may be better, because scented ones may be unpleasant to your cat.
Speaking of treating the mask gently: Early on, our cat tried to use his hand to get a treat from the mask, and made a small tear in the silicone. This got bigger as the months went on, until finally we had to buy a replacement mask. The replacement actually has a better design than the first mask, but anyway I want to warn you against letting you cat tear the mask with her claws.
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How do. A. Person get one. Help
Can you use human asthma inhaler medication for your cat`s asthma?
No, the dose is too high
I need to train our boy Skiddy but how do you place the food in the syringe please? Please send a message on WhatsApp or Fbk messenger. Thanks.
Get a wide neck syringe it’s easy.
Hey can I ask what food is in the syringe? I can’t get any food to come out of a syringe freely and don’t want to keep giving him those bad for him treats . Anyone come up with a solution for a healthy treat ?
Take some kibble out of their regular meal and use them as treats. That way they do not increase food intake and stay healthy
I thought she mentioned Hill's ID.
@@lj7167
Hills A/D.
I'm gonna try meat baby food~~
Maybe mush normal cat food with a spoon and add some water to it. Then suck it up in the syringe.
awesome thank you. wish me luck lol
Nothing makes me more angry than videos like this. I could do this for 3 weeks and my cat will still run when any type of pressure is put on her to keep the mask on. They always use docile cats. So terribly unhelpful for us with cats who aren't mannequins.
Well I'm sure someone found it helpfull
Doesn't work. All these God damned methods assume cats will actually want to do something for treats. My cat does NOT care. No vet has ever fucking helped me .
I wonder if you starved this cat before filming.
That was probably the dumbest thing you could have said.
Cats don't get asthma they get allergies. Don't do this, to your cat.
wrong, the x rays clearly show asthma, I have both bad allergies and asthma. allergies don't make you wheeze. When my cats having an episode, it looks like a violent hairball, but they are horse and coughing. My other cat has allergies his eyes weep a lot, he sees the vet, and it's allergies, nothing else, and he doesn't do this.
I wish my cat just had allergies. Unfortunately, he had X-rays done that showed bronchial patterns in his lungs, which is associated with asthma.