Have you ever had the experience of not knowing anything about something but recognizing the answer you've accidentally stumbled onto is the SOLUTION TO YOUR SITUATION? That's what happened when I found this video. I instantly knew this solution would work. Key to the success, in my opinion, is the infant (0-18 mo) size mask. Mid Dec 2020 we found out our family cat has asthma. Our vet asked if I'd like to try a donated inhaler & supplies from another client (unsuccessful in training their cat). I had no idea cats could have asthma let alone be given an inhaler as treatment. Wow! After 30 seconds of googling I found the above video & it hit me...I can do this. The answer to our cat's asthma was laid out step-by-step in the video. So, one day after finding out our cat has asthma I picked up the supplies, went home, laid them on our living room floor by our cat's bed & toys & left it all there. We did nothing with the inhaler supplies & let our cat discover them on her own. I knew I had her when she laid on them 😉 I did about a days worth of looking at the supplies, thinking about a plan to approach this for a 100% successful outcome & watching & re watching the video. After watching the video several times I knew the standard circular, opaque feline mask that comes with the feline inhaler chamber/spacer wasn't ideal & I needed an infant mask before I ever began the part of training where I'd be putting the mask on our cat's face. I decided this entire training process would have to be slow & carefully thought out & I needed to have all the right equipment before I began because cats don't like change & I didn't want to change any supplies once I began training. I used canned pumpkin in a dosing syringe as our cat's reward because our cat hates all cat treats. We owe our success to this video and our family is so grateful for the time you took into putting your video out there for it to fall in my lap. I've said it to you in my email and I'll say it again here for everyone to read...this video should be part of the education of every veterinary student in every veterinary school, no exceptions. I'm the one who does the inhaler with our cat & I purposely took my time & did it all in tiny baby steps. The first day our cat saw the inhaler supplies was 12/11/2020. The first day our cat got her first puff from the inhaler was 1/23/2021. Due to the pandemic, delivery of the infant mask was a little slow so I made sure our cat had the necessary injections from our vet to keep her breathing easy & normal until 1/23/21. I still can't believe it, a cat & an inhaler? Really? Everyday I'm still so surprised we're actually doing this & I thank our cat each time she comes running to do her inhaler. Yes, running to me. That's why I took my time with her training. Dragging a cat out from under a bed twice a day to force an inhaler on her was never an option. Because I use canned pumpkin as the reward, our cat knows what I mean when I announce it's "pumpkin time" & if I'm not already getting her inhaler ready, she'll come tell me "it's go time". Here are a few pictures to show you our success story:
Nichole Carroll
