Advice Needed on Giving Pills

As some of you may know from my previous posts my cat Blue has been diagnosed with some sort of kidney malfunction that is making her loose protein through her urine. We're not sure what the exact cause is and won't until we do an ultrasound. We would like to get her feeling a little better before we stress her out with another vet trip just yet, and the vet agrees. Anyway he prescribed her Enacard and I have to give her half of a 5mg pill once a day. She, like most cats, doesn't like getting pills. And I really don't like giving them to her either. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a good method. I tried crushing it up and putting it in cream cheese but she was too smart for that, so I ended up just holding her down and making her swallow it. I really hate doing this, I feel like she thinks I'm trying to hurt her and doesn't understand why it needs to be done and it's killing me. I can crush up the pill and put it in wet food, but I don't like to give her wet food everyday, I usually only give her that once a week. I know they sell treats that are made to hold pills, has anyone tried those with any success. I don't want to buy them if they're not going to work. I need to figure out something since she is more than likely going to have to get half a pill everyday for the rest of her life. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

I know some people have had success with the pill pouches. They don't work for Tailer, though...he just spits them out.

My Harvey had to have pills daily, and he wouldn't touch the pill pouches either. I didn't have a problem pilling him, but DH was very uncomfortable with it and had a really hard time with him (and he had to do it when I was away on business trips). We ended up getting a "pill shooter" and he had a much easier time with that. (It's not as bad as it sounds...it's more like a big oral syringe than a gun. )

I gave Coco chicken flavored pill pockets and they worked well until she bit into a Baytril pill. She did love them at first though.

I have some good response to pill pockets. I have also used
cheddar cheese, wrapped around the pill. I also bought some
urinary tuna treat looking things, they are soft and again wrapped
around the pill to hide it, that kinda works good since the smell overwhelms
any pill smell. I also normally wet it , cause it is kinda dry and that
brings out the flavor and break off any excess.
You have to just cover the pill, put not oversize it cause
they bite it and happen to bite pill they will not eat it.
I can also Pill my cat pretty easy, just put on lap
upside down/ belly up, put pill back side mouth. I never can do it with the cat
on feet. I am waiting on my free sample of new greenie pill pockets to come.
I like to give them even when not pilling to see they will eat them.
I also bought the pill shooter but have not used it as yet.

Thanks for the advice everyone. The reason I'm skeptical about the pill pocket treats is because Blue is so small. She's only 5.5lbs right now, last year she was 7lbs, which is what made us bring her to the vet in the first place. But due to her small size she chews everything, even very small treats so I think once she bites into the treat the pill will come out and that will be the end of that. She isn't like my other "very large' cat who swallows everything whole. I just bought a Piller on ebay it was only around $5 total so I think that will work. I'm just concerend about her not trusting me anymore since I'm going to have to do this daily from now on. But I'm more concerned with her getting the medicine she needs.

You might want to talk to your vet about the possibility of a compounding pharmacist for this medication. Most meds can be made into a salve that's rubbed onto the ear and absorbed that way. I have never done this, but a friend of mine told me about this because she used it for her cat when he needed to be on pills long term.

Before he prescribed the medication he asked me if I could give her pills. I told him I could but would prefer it if the medication was in liquid form. He said it wasn't, I would think that if it were available in any other form he would have told me then. I will ask him when we go back next week though.

Well , I'm not sure how helpful this will be, and I bet you've tried this before but... I took some of the advice that's been given to me on my cat's thread and I've begun buttering the pill before giving her.

If I just put the pill infront of her she won't really care about it ( Not even SMELL it ), however I found out that with butter she would lick it. I thought it would be the smell coming from the butter... So I came up with a "plan", I dip the pill a little in the butter and then mix it with the food when she's really hungry. This method has proven useful and successful so far.

Hope that's of any help =/ Good vibes to your little kitty... Hope she does well

Thanks, I'll definately give that a try. After you dip it in the butter do you put it in dry or wet food?

the pill popper. It is on the dog area. Wonderful item to have in the pet's needs box. We have two. The larger one for large pills(found on the dog side of the pet store) and the smaller one my husband made years ago out of an old pen with it's spring.

Works for us

It seems to work better on wet food. Maybe it's the moisture

I sure hope it works, I know how tough it is to see our little precious things being forced into doing something... Especially when it is for their own sake, even if they might not know it.

Well I just tried an experiment with great success. This morning I tried the butter suggestion and that didn't work at all for me. She just sniffed it and looked up at me with that "can I have something else" look on her face. So I ended up just holding her down and making her take it again. But when we went to the vet the other day he noticed that she was very full of stool and I haven't really seen her have a bowel movement in a few days. He suggested I give her a Ducolax since it's pretty mild and won't hurt her. So I went to the store and bought some turkey cold cuts and wrapped the Ducolax in a small piece of it. She ate it right up with no problems at all, and the Ducolax pill is slightly bigger than the pill she needs to take daily. So I figure between that and the wet food that I give her once a week I think we'll be in good shape. I wish I had tried this before I ordered the piller but it was only $5 so it's not that big of a deal. I'll keep it in case my other cat ever needs a pill, he's a very picky eater so I don't think the turkey think would work. But thanks everyone for your suggestions.