Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello! I don't know how long a peice of chewing gum sitting in a cats' stomach can take to digest but as it is digested, Xylitol may be released into the patient's system for a certain amount of time and this, as you know, can be quite risky. This may explain why your vet wishes to give on-going treatment.
So how does the vet know how long to give the treatment for? Often, in the UK, they will consult a toxicology expert or database, in which is stored the known information about any particular toxin, along with information from new poisonings. This information is then used to give the best advice about how to treat future patients. There are also certain trusted books that are regularly updated.
I would always stand by the advice of these or similar expert sources and most vets will consult such a source when presented with a new toxicology case.
By all means, chat to your vet to persuade yourself that they are sure of their source, but if they are, then it is likely to be based on science so we would highly recommend following it.
If you search in the blog, you may find an article or two about giving pills to cats - it is nobody's favourite pastime, but there are one or two tricks to it.
Best of luck.
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