help me trick my cat

So my cat Eva has allergies. The doctor gave me a prescription for antihistamines and I thought I was really clever by crushing up her pills and mixing it into her wet food. At first she would eat it, but after awhile the cat who used to wake me up meowing like crazy for her wet food stopped eating it all together. I have to give her two pills a day and I don't want to have to shove them down her throat. She's a stray and I want to be as respectful as possible about this as she is still a new addition to the family. Can you give cats pills rectally? Is that weird? I just think she wouldn't have as much of a hard time with that. Any other tricks?

I asked my sister about this ( she's a vet tech one class away from vet herself) she said the best option would probably be to use a pill popper it does insert the pill into kitties mouth but it makes things very quick and if you give her a nice treat afterwords she'll start to associate the pill with treats otherwise they do make those pill pocket treat things (I've never used them so I don't know how well they would work) but if she won't eat her food with the pills in it she probably wouldn't eat a treat with it in either. you can get the pill popper from most vets and it does do the job a friend of mine uses one for her kitten who has daily meds and she gives it to him fast and he just goes on about his business like nothing happened I would definitely talk to your vet before giving anything rectally to you kitty though

Try pill pockets. It's what I use to give allergy meds. They are a life saver.

http://www.greenies.com/en_US/Produc...llpockets.aspx

Although I am not a vet, I don't think giving pills rectally would be as effective. Please check with your vet before trying that.

Pill pockets are great. Do NOT give pills rectally.

Amazon sells pill pockets at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...ockets&x=0&y=0 and many vet offices do as well.

Hi, is your cat used to eating wet food? Also if she does not resume eating after 24 hrs please take her to the vet, it could become life threatening.

Thanks for that pill pocket link!

I got the cat as a stray and I started feeding her wet food to treat her. I eventually took it away and kept her only on dry because wet was a pain in the ass and it stinks up my apartment. When we found out she had allergies though, I started bringing back the wet food because I thought it would be the least painful way to give her the medication. I didn't believe a cat could tell that there was a pill mixed into her wet food so I did an experiment. After about a week she didn't want to eat the medicated food anymore. So I gave her the wet food without the pill and she inhaled it. She's just a brat with a good nose. She's not sick... other than those damn allergies! Thanks everyone for the advice, will try pill pockets and if they don't work i'll go for the pill popper.

The other problem with crushing the pills is that many medications in pill form are designed to be released over time and by crushing the pill you're giving the cat the full dose all at once which could be a significant problem and potential risk.

You might ask your vet if this medication can be compounded into a salve. Then it can be rubbed on the ear and absorbed that way. A friend of mine (a dog breeder) told me that most animal medications can be compounded that way IF you can find a pharmacist who can do it. Check with your vet.

My first cat had a "nose" like yours, and it was impossible to put medication in her food, and that was before those treats that hide the pills. I learned to pill her, but I hated doing it, and, of course, she hated it even more.