getting your cat to take pills
 

My cat needs an antibiotic for the next two weeks. He used to love the Greenies' Pill Pockets so giving it to him was no problem Now he won't touch them. Arrrgh! It's a pretty big pill and I'd like to avoid the "pilling process" if I can find tricks that might work instead.

Any suggestions to make this easy?

Thanks.

We crush them, mix with water and use a syringe to squirt it down their throats.

Ive no serious advice but your post brought something I had read before, to mind lol

How To Give Your Cat A Pill

1. Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and apply gentle pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom and throw soggy pill away.

4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of 10.

5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.

6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for glueing later.

8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

9. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take taste away. Apply Band Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10. Retrieve cat from neighbour's shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus jab. Throw away T-shirt and fetch new one from bedroom.

12. Ring Fire Brigade to retrieve cat from tree across road. Apologise to neighbour who crashed into fence while swerving to miss cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

13. Tie cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14. Get spouse to drive you to Casualty, sit quietly while doctor stitches finger and forearm and removes remnants of pill from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.

15. Call RSPCA to collect cat and ring pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

Shygal
:rotfl:

Doc, its been a good long time since I had a house cat.
Last I remember, I had to wrap a pill in a good chunk of meat or cheese.
That only worked for a couple of days though & then it turned into a scenario like Shygal posted.

My only suggestion is see if you can grind it into powder form & mix it with tuna fish, hamburger, or cheese, or whatever they like to eat.

The stinkier the better, that way they won't notice the stinky medicine so much. 2 weeks is a long time though, & they will notice.

Good Luck!!!!

P.S. The next most dangerous thing to do is to give a cat a bath/shower
:rotfl:

This isn't avoiding pilling the cat but it does get it over with.

I coat the pill in mayonnaise. Grab the cat, push the pill in through the side if its mouth and down its throat. So far I've been lucky and it's been over and done with before the cat even knows what's happened.

YMMV lol

I must admit....I HATE giving cats pills. They get wise to most methods quickly and it seems that most pill giving episodes don't end well.

I have tried wrapping in a towel and then stuffing the pill down the cat's throat...and that works until the cat recognizes the towel and runs. I have tried making the pill a liquid and squirting in the mouth...and that is easier. I have tried putting the pill in a chunck of meat and that hasn't worked well for me as they are quite crafty at eating the meat and spitting the pill back out. What has worked the best for me is dissolving the pill in a tiny bit of water and then mixing with a really yummy wet food. I have a cat that gets meds daily and he gets a tiny bit of canned smelly cat food plus a small amount of jarred baby meats. He loves that mixture and he has been eating it for about a year now with no problems. If I leave out the baby meat it is hit and miss. But the baby food seems to do the trick. The only reason I mix with canned cat food is the cost of the baby meat.

Willow

Ask your vet about antibiotic injectable. It's a little more expensive than pills or liquid...but not too bad unless your cat is humongous. One shot and your done...lasts 2 weeks.
Getting medication into cat is a big issue with antibiotics. It's so important to give them every day until gone in order to work. Some people just get so sick of having to deal with it that I think they miss doses and/or give up and hope for the best. Then they are back at the vet and the problem is worse than ever.

Shygal, thanks for the laughs. At least I know I'm not alone in the challenge of giving a 14 pounder a pill every day. I'll try the crushed pill with tuna juice approach. That'll last as long as he enjoys the tuna -- and he does get tired of that, too, over time.

Sigh!

I always coat the pills in butter, then sneak up on the cat when it's sleeping.

One hint I will give.... never grab the cat when they are entering/exiting the litterbox to give them a pill. Some cats quickly see the connection (litterbox = pill) and they stop using the litterbox:bash:

My one cat, Lady, will eat anything I give her, so I can wrap a pill in some kind of meat and she'll scarf it down. Butch, on the other hand, is more suspicious. With her I have to crush the pill and mix with babyfood chicken or some canned cat food. Then she'll clean it right up.

Great suggestion. I've been a cat lover and owner for decades and never thought about that.

Thanks,

Willow101

Shygirl, I just told my neice about that and am glad you posted it so I don't have to look for it to send her. Although my version ended with How to give a dog a pill? Wrap it in bacon.

They sell a pill injector at the pet stores. http://www.jefferspet.com/ssc/produc...KFB&pf_id=1346 That will keep fingers out of harm's way. I usually grab by the scruff and pop the pill in. It helps to have two people, one to hold the scruff and back legs, steatching him out, the other to pop in the pill, hold the mouth closed and puff (blow) on the nose to make them swallow.

I think the tuna will work and maybe you can change with other smelly fishy cat food so he doesn't get bored with one food.

I use the pill poppers at work, they work very well. I scruff the cat and put the pill popper in the corner of the cats mouth and turn the pill popper toward the back of the cats throat and then shoot the pill as far back into the throat as I can.

They have these things you can get at walmart for pilling a cat. They look like a syringe but the end opens up to admit the pill. The idea is that you put the pill in, Stick it in the cats mouth with end aimed at throat and eject. What a wonderful thoery...they clearly never tried these on a persian....I swear persians with thier flatter faces have these toungues that can catch anything shooting into thier throat and spit it out. They also will not eat anything that even has a hint of medication in it- they can smell it from across the room (and they say dogs have the best sense of smell- whatever). I finally went to the steps posted above and decided after getting bit through a thumbnail and a fingernail (which got infected by the way) that until the cat lost a few teeth she would just have to get better on her own. Heaven did recover on her own with the small amount I managed to get into her and never got ill again- dying at the age of 13 in her sleep.

My sister taught me a trick for pilling a cat. You do the usual... force the mouth open and pop it far back. Then close the mouth and touch the nose. It triggers a swallowing reflex... and the pill is down there before the cat can spit it out. I can't remember if you were also supposed to massage the throat or if that was for her dogs... but the touch the nose trick was like magic. I'd never had to give a cat a pill before but I managed to do it quite easily.

I think the biggest problem is holding the cat with one hand and opening his mouth with the other, and then popping the pill in with the other, oh no, sorry, I only have two hands! By then, he is GONE!

I don't know if this will work with a cat but it can with a dog...Using whatever you wrap the pill in give them 1 or 2 without the pill then give them 1 with the pill then another without.

Shygal - too funny!

As for administering pills to kitties, we also find that crushing/opening capsule into something yummy that they usually don't get to have works great - Good Luck!

I have a cat who hates to take pills, I can't even catch her when she knows I'm going to try to give her a pill, so what I do is crush the pill up and mix it into some canned cat food. If that doesn't work for you, a vet told me this trick: crush the pill, mix it into a small amount of margerine or butter, and smear the butter on the cat's paw. The cat will lick it off.

Jan

However you do it, don't forget to call the American Red Cross to make sure they have enough of your blood type!

Here is what sort of worked: crush pill (some pills are so nasty tasting, you can't do this part) and put as much of it as you can get into a syringe. Then, draw the syringe in tuna/salmon juice. Let the pill dissolve and put it over catfood. I have to draw the syringe several times in order to get more than enough juice to "cover" the crushed pill. Like I said: sort of works.

jkmlad: LOL!! You're so right!