GIF-tube for cats.

I just wanted to share my experiences with this, in case it might help out anyone else here who hasn't heard of it.

My senior kitty, Cleo, is in starting to have kidney problems, and it's something that will be an issue for the rest of her life. Every 3 days she needs liquid from a lactate ringer bag, which is usually injected under the skin with a large and fairly painful needle. It took two of us to do it, and it was obviously painful and uncomfortable for the poor old gal, who struggled and often made it impossible to get all the liquids she needed into her.

Our vet said there was some new technology called a GIF-tube that may make things easier on all of us. Here's a link that describes/shows what it is probably better than I can. http://rutlandvet.com/giftube.html It was a quick surgery she recovered super fast from, and it is a godsend!

Instead of wrestling with her, we now just pet her while she gets her liquids! Faster, painless, easier... wow. It is SO worth it, and has improved our girl's quality of life vastly. She's playing, purring, and not dreading medicine time. SO worth it. She's got a few more healthy happy years in her, and so long as her quality of life is good we're gonna do everything we can for her. I'm so glad we did this, and if you have a chronically ill cat or dog who struggles with painful needles on a regular basis I highly recommend the GIF-tube.

Here's some pics of Cleo right after surgery. She always sits like that, it has nothing to do with the tube, lol. It looks odd, but she acts like it's not even there.







Anyway, didn't mean to make it sound like a commercial, I'm just excited because we no longer dread needle time!

Glad to hear she is doing well Sheree!! Its amazing what can be done these days!

So that is a permanent implant that will last up to one year, correct?

Pretty cat by the way, glad she's doing better.

She's gorgeous! There's no issues with her trying to get it out? That's wonderful that it's so much less invasive! Thanks for that info, I have a friend that has to inject theirs daily.
Wolfy

Thanks guys, it really is an amazing bit of technology! I highly recommend it, it's made both her and our lives much easier very quickly!

It was obviously itching her at first after surgery, we gave her lots of scritches. That's actually why she's shaved so low down her back, so she could have a place to help scratch herself, but now she pretty much acts like it's not there. It's too far up on her neck for her to do anything about and it moves with her, so she doesn't really feel anything or try to get it out. It can be replaced with minor surgery down the road too, after the year or so, so it's permanent but it's not if that makes sense.

We joke that she's our little bionic or inflatable kitty now. 18 years young, and still playing around like a kitten and purring her little brains out.