That the cooperative care bit. Mine have been trained to sit on a mat and accept the eye/drops or other treatment. It takes a while but they can leave the mat and I stop treatment. I ask again with a huge visual snack reward, then back onto the mat and continue. As they are more mature (yeah right) they know the deal nice treats and praise for a moments discomfort. They accept it calmly now. Thing is taking this approach has made it so much easier at the vets. They are not so stressed and they enjoy the fuss and cuddles at the vets.They know the deal now.
That's my goal. I don't see Trixie just growing out of these frequent infections, so I figure my best bet is to teach her how to accept it. By the end of the two weeks of post op checkups, I could just ask to see her belly, and she'd roll over. Which made it easy when they gave me the cleaning solution to be done 2x daily. I simply asked to see, she bared her belly, and I cleaned it for her.
Regarding the ears....she will sit quietly while I handle them. I can come in with a cotton cloth, and wipe them out. What she doesn't like is the liquids. come near her with a bottle or shringe, and she'll try to catch it in her teeth.
I've been working with her with the lid on...just gettng her to sit and let me put the bottle near her.. She will let it as far as her line of sight. When it goes near her ears, trust stops, and she's not into it.
I'm trying to undo her past experience of being held fast by the backup vet, and swabs done, and held fast, for drops, and held fast for ear shampoo. Her experiences with ear treatments involved a lot of holding her fast and forcing the treatments---which is why last 2x the vets said ear infections I paid to have her ear packed with a month long treatment. It's bad enough to have the VET hold her fast.....without having me do it at home twice a day too.
Ideally, Dr Firth picks the least invasive treatments. He'd have had me do Sulorlin 2x daily for 5 days followed with Surolin in the morning and Burrows in the evening for another 5. The cost is less than $100.
Instead, I paid for her to have her ear packed with treatment while in for her spay because the treatment was not something she could handle. I didnt catch the cost, in amongst the rest of the spay expenses....but last ear infection, the backup vet applied Clara, at a cost of nearly $200(plus cytology, plus a bunch of other things for a total of close to $700 and her ears were infected again a little over a month later
I'd love to get to where I can simply tell her what I want to do, do it, and reward her
