The answer to pill giving!!!!

I just have to promote this! This past March Beauty was officially diagnosed with arthritis. The vet gave her pills and Fiancee told me that she won't take them.

We tried everything with the pills. mushing it up with water and feeding via syringe (or whatever you call that squirt tube); mushing it up and placing in wet food, and forcing it down her throat.

NOTHING WORKED.

So we gave up. Fiancee doesn't want to spend more money for creams and such.

Then today I was in Petco and saw this.

I paid the $11 at Petco (wait a tick I just paid double ).

Anyhoo, it WORKS. I popped the Rx dosage into the little pocket, plugged it up and fed it to her. She ate and did not spit it up once!

The ingredients are not fantastic for those of you who are watching what your cat eats. Yes, there is wheat gluten and if I could have found something more natural I would have bought that instead. Of course I will be watching her because of the wheat gluten...but just wanted to pass this info along!

i'm glad you've had success with those! i've NEVER been able to get a kitty to take one of them- even our shelter cats turn their noses up at them. It does work WONDERS on dogs though- they make them for dogs too Also- "Flavor Dough" - they make one for cats and one for dogs- is like a little puddy flavored treat you put over pills- those work well on dogs at our shelter /and my own pups- but i can't get cats to eat it so i usually just pill them the old fashioned way or crush up the pill and mix it in their food. Your kitties sound sooooo good!!

Oh I just use a pill popper. They work easily and no problems. You pop into the far back of their mouths and it goes down when you rub their throats. I have rarely ever had a cat cough one back up.

i have used that before also, and seemed to work great,

I've been using these Pill Pockets over the past week for the first time, and my cat gobbles them down. One of my other kitties comes running too when I take them out and begs for them!

My finicky cat ate the pill pockets for about 5 days. I think she got tipped off when I accidentally crushed part of the pill when I cut it in half and she could taste the medicine on the outside even though I tried my best to mash all the powder inside. Since then she has been very difficult to pill but I just got a prescription from my vet and got it filled at a compouding pharmacy where they made the medication into a liquid suspension for me. I am hoping that the liquid will be easier to administer since she is very good at keeping her teeth tightly clenched. However, today being my first time using a syringe, I had no control and the whole one 1ml squirted all over her mouth, inside and out, and startled the both of us. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Oberon didn't like them for long, either. After two weeks, he was refusing them. I was giving him 1/2 tablet twice a day - maybe that's why he could taste it? Because it was cut in half?

He won't eat them still even without a pill in them - both the chicken and salmon. Guess it's time for a pill popper like Jen.

Originally Posted by teetee

...However, today being my first time using a syringe, I had no control and the whole one 1ml squirted all over her mouth, inside and out, and startled the both of us. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

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Sorry, just saw this part... have you tried letting her lick it? Some cats like the taste and will let you feed it to them and don't have to force it. Good luck!

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

Sorry, just saw this part... have you tried letting her lick it? Some cats like the taste and will let you feed it to them and don't have to force it. Good luck!

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That's is a good idea. I just remembered that the pharmacy was able to add a chicken flavor to the medication... tomorrow I will try to get her to lick it but with her not eating much lately, she may not do it on her own.

My other idea was to give her half of the dose at a time so that there's not so much liquid squirting out.

Bob didn't like them for long either. I switched to putting the pill between two or three moist cat treats. That did the trick, and it's much cheaper. He even ate the pill last night when it fell out!

Originally Posted by Bob'sMom

He even ate the pill last night when it fell out!

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I've had that happen too, except for me it was the wrong cat eating the pill.

I hate giving liquids. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Did I mention that I don't like liquid meds? LOL

Pill shooters are the way to go if the pill pockets don't work. I like the ones with the soft rubbery fingers on the end, not the kind with the hard plastic end. I give Beandip a pill with one of these every day and he's very cooperative.

When you can avoid the hassle, I would definitely use the pockets or the flavor-doh (I haven't found that locally yet). Precious takes her heart medicine twice a day every day in a pill pocket...no problems and we've been doing that for 6 months. Beandip has a pill he gets in a pocket too.

For big pills, I make the pieces smaller and feed multiple treats. Junior is funny, he purposely bites into the center to see if he can taste the pill. If the piece is pretty small, he goes on and eats everything. If there's too much "pill taste" then he spits it out and looks at me like "get me another one and do it right this time, please!". LOL

Edit ...don't feel too bad about the price. I think they're still worth it for $11. That's the price at our Petco too. Petsmart is $10, so is the vet. The lowest price I've found locally was $6.