Problems giving a pill

With 11 cats I feel like I am constantly at the vet for one problem after another, but I have NEVER yet had a problem giving pills until now.

Oreo has a bladder infection, and is on antibiotics. The vet wanted him on pills and not a shot because I guess the shot isn't as effective at treating bladder infections. I took him to the vet yesterday and so far I'm managed to get one pill in him, and I almost sent myself to the emergency room in the process.

I have a pill popper, which is usually my saving grace, but I can't get his mouth open! He clamps his mouth shut so tightly so he makes it impossible to even get the pill popper in. I managed to push the pill into the side of his mouth with my fingers last night, and I got bit and growled at in the process, then he spit the pill out. I literally sat on top of him at one point, so he couldn't move, and he bit me again drawing blood that time. I can't risk getting bit even worse than that. He's the sweetest cat ever, but I realized that this is the first time I've ever had to give him a pill, and apparently he stops being sweet when it comes to pills. I finally got him to swallow the pill by wrapping it in cheese. Then this morning, I tried the cheese again, and he didn't fall for it this time. I crushed up a pill and put it in a tiny bit of wet food that he loves, and he refused to eat it. I went out and bought pill pockets and he refused those too. I even tried to trick him by giving him normal treats and sneaking the pill pocket in, but as soon as I tried to give it to him, he sniffed it, and walked away. I thought that maybe he could still tell the pill was there because its sort of big, so I squished a second pill pocket around it and tried again. That time he started to eat it, but once it was in his mouth, he spit it out and before I could move another cat swooped in and ate it instead. And I was right there in the process of reaching towards it when the other cat ate it. She was ridiculously fast.

I've already called the vet to make sure that the cat who did eat the pill won't be harmed at all by it. But they also told me to keep trying with getting him to take it.

So does anyone have any ideas of how to get him to swallow this pill? Without sending me to the ER in the process? He bit me pretty hard yesterday, so I don't even want to know what will happen if he tries to bite harder. Or is this a lost cause and I should just call the vet back and beg for a shot instead?

The best treat for pilling IMO are Purina Whisker Lickin's (The soft ones). You can buy them in any pet store, or walmart - the flavors that work the best are the salmon or the chicken ones.
Get one of the heart-shaped or round treats, and flatten it on the palm of your hand. Put the pill inside then wrap the treat around and mold it into a pyramid shape.
You might have to cut the pill and do 2 treats. Feed a plain treat immediately after you feed the pill treat - put both on the floor, so if he bites into the pill, he doesn't get traumatized.

I have been pilling Gracie for 6 months 2x a day using these treats - never failed.

I had to use the paste form of wet food to mold around some pills before. But fortunately it was jsut 2 pills in each cat (2 cats) one time. The problem was that I could only do one at a time so the other was watching... Not fun!!

Originally Posted by Carolina

The best treat for pilling IMO are Purina Whisker Lickin's (The soft ones). You can buy them in any pet store, or walmart - the flavors that work the best are the salmon or the chicken ones.
Get one of the heart-shaped or round treats, and flatten it on the palm of your hand. Put the pill inside then wrap the treat around and mold it into a pyramid shape.
You might have to cut the pill and do 2 treats. Feed a plain treat immediately after you feed the pill treat - put both on the floor, so if he bites into the pill, he doesn't get traumatized.

I have been pilling Gracie for 6 months 2x a day using these treats - never failed.

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good suggestion and it does work. Do you scruff Oreo while using the pill plunger? I mean pick him up by the scruff and stick the plunger in at the same time. Scruffing them up
helps open their mouths a tiny bit. Not the best, but if the treats don't work, you could try this way. Pilling is not easy at all, especially with a cat who is determined not to take it. I have also heard of some people toweling the cat. Rolling it up tightly in a towel with just their head peeking out. I have never had luck with that approach at all. They get more stressed out by the toweling and squirm right out. Much luck with Oreo and hope he feels better soon

If vet oks crushing the pill what works for me is tuna juice water and the crushed pill. I add just enough to get the job done on small pills 3mls of juice works I add a little gracy to thicken it for some cats depending on if they are spitters or not.

Tried a pill gun-didn't like it at all and went back to doing it by hand for my gangs tapeworm treatments.

Well...I tried the Whisker Lickins and it almost went well. I cut the pill in half to make it smaller and gave him two treats with the pill in it. Plus "normal" treats like you recommended. I gave him one pill treat, followed by a normal one, and then another pill treat. He spit the second pill out. So he got half a dose and I'm about to try again with the half that he didn't get. He is by far, the worst cat I have ever pilled! I guess I have gotten really lucky with my other cats, because while its not easy to pill them, its also not this complicated, so I'm a little stunned that I'm having such a hard time! This is when I wish I could just talk to him and explain to him that the medicine will make him feel better, and he would understand. The Whisker Lickins definitely seemed to go better than the pill pockets though, so hopefully when I try again with this second half it will work.

He seems to fall for my tricks once, and then never again. I was thrilled when i finally figured out to wrap the pill in cheese last night because he ate it almost immediately. He didn't seem bothered at all, but when i tried the cheese this morning, he sniffed it and I swear he looked at me like he was thinking "Yeah right lady - you tricked me once. Never again." Thats the reaction I got when I tried to give him the second half of the pill tonight. This is really frustrating.

So If I can't pull off the treat trick again, then tomorrow I'm going to go buy some tuna and try the tuna water trick.

I tried scruffing him last night and I think it could work, but I need another person to help me and my husband isn't here right now. (of course it figures that he's scheduled to be back home exactly one day after Oreo's medicine will be finished). He still clamped his mouth shut when I held him up that way, but I think if someone else scruffed him for me, I could use both of my hands to pry his mouth open a little easier. But I couldn't get it in his mouth with just one free hand. I probably could have, if he wasn't determined to clamp his mouth shut. If the tuna water doesn't work, then I'm going to see if I can recruit a friend to help me scruff him.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd welcome any more if anyone has them!

ETA: My concern now is that if I dont get this medicine into him, he's just going to need another round of it in 2 weeks. He already missed one dose this morning, and potentially a half dose tonight (but I'm really hoping I can get that second half into him), plus my other cat ate the pill I had in the pill pocket earlier (which the vet seemed to find really amusing when I called earlier. But I promise it wasn't nearly as amusing to me!). So having one missed dose and one pill that will never get into him thanks to the other cat, I'm just hoping that he'll still recover normally and not require an additional two weeks of pills after this .

They can be so stubborn! One thing you could try is actually to crush the pill up in some gravy or tuna juice and feed it with a needleless syringe that you can get from the pharmacy. It is easier to get a syringe into the side of the mouth while scruffing him than a solid object. But once again, you may only be able to do it once! Just rotate the methods - perhaps you can confuse him enough! Good luck.

I had the same trouble with my kitty. I tried everything including recruting my daughter and son in law. One to hold her wrapped in a towel, one to open her mouth and one to pop the pill in. When I finally picked her up by the scruff it worked, but I had to be "armed and ready" with the pill popper. I found that holding her over a surface just close enough for her to bear a little weight on her hind legs but not enough for her to get traction. If hes heavy this may help. It sometimes requires prying the corner of the mouth open with the popper. Or just tickle the side of the mouth and he will open just enough to get it in there. GOOD LUCK. hope Oreo is better soon

Be careful crushing or breaking pills. You can affect the effectiveness of the medication. Some medications are enteric coated to avoid upsetting the stomach lining - or they are coated to be released for absorption in the intestine so the stomach acid doesn't just dissolve the medicine before it hits the bloodstream.

You can sometimes have a pharmacy that has a compounding pharmacist (not all do) make a liquid out of a pill. That may be your best and easiest option. I used to have pills compounded for my cat who couldn't take really big pills after having teeth extracted. They will also flavor them - I always choose the Tuna There is a fee - and the price for the meds will go up - but it's better than not getting the medication in and having to clear up another bladder infection and more trips to the vet IMHO.

Also - try a bit of olive oil on the pill - it will make it slip down the throat so they cant really spit it out. And if you Gently! hold a cats mouth closed and blow on their now they will always swallow. Nobody really knows why - they just do.

Keep following the pills with a chaser of water or another bit of food because cats have a nasty habit of getting pills caught in the throat which can lead to irritation.

Best of luck to you.

You can't always crush pills, for one some medications taste absolutely horrid and are difficult to mask, and others are intended for timed release with a special coating on them.

The pill pockets before a meal when they're real hungry is best. I've used the Greenies chicken pill pockets with great success before, but anything similar that has high palatability will work for most cats unless a very delicate eater. They are expensive though, so some also have success just using plain ol butter.

Since its right before the meal, you can then give some wet food and that will ensure that its not stuck and gets washed down.

Thanks everyone. I'm able to crush the pills. When I called the vet yesterday to tell her that another cat ate the pill pocket with the pill in it, she told me to try to crush it up in wet food (which I had already tried unsuccessfully). Plus, its a fairly large pill to begin with and he only gets half of one per dose...so its already cut up normally. So when I said that I gave him a half dose before, he actually got 1/4 of the entire pill.

As for the olive oil and blowing on his nose, that sounds like a great idea - if he would even open his mouth!! Thats the biggest problem I'm having - getting him to open his mouth. If I can get his mouth open, I think I can easily hold his mouth shut until he swallows, but getting it open in the first place is the problem. I'm truly amazed at how tightly he can keep his mouth clamped shut.

This morning went a little better than yesterday. I like the idea of rotating the methods that I'm trying, that someone suggested, so I think for now thats what I am going to do. I bought some tuna this morning and was going to just use the water, but I tried a tiny bit of the tuna itself, stuck the pill in the middle of it and he gobbled it up in a second! However, that was only a half dose, so when I tried the rest of the dose, he clamped his mouth shut again. So apparently he's figuring out that all these great treats I am giving him, have a pill in them because I can't get them to work twice in a row (and just for the record, I know tuna really isn't good for cats in the long run - this was a really, really small piece that I used). So for the second half of the dose, I gave a pill pocket to him, and today it worked. He spent a pretty long time sniffing it and licking it, so I was convinced that he wasn't going to eat it, but he did. So I had success getting a full dose into him this morning! Here's hoping that tonight's dose goes well too....

I just have to laugh at all of the little tricks we have to come up with for pilling kitties. For Pipsqueak, my nightmare piller, I first dab some of the omega 3 salmon oil I have on his nose, that gets him licking and opening his mouth, them I scruff and plunge immediately following. Of course, it doesn't work every time and he can thrash so fast and the pill goes flying out. But, I just chill him out and we try again. Other times, I will dab a little bit of butter on his nose to get him licking then I scruff and plunge . But he always knows what is coming. I have also put the salmon oil right on the pill and put it in the back of his throat so it slips down easier. The compounding pharmacies can prepare a liquid flavored antibiotic for you that tastes pretty good to most cats, except for Pipsqueak, of course . Good luck with Oreo and hope he is feeling better

Originally Posted by Brooklet425

With 11 cats I feel like I am constantly at the vet for one problem after another, but I have NEVER yet had a problem giving pills until now.

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Have you tried the Greenies Pill Pockets? You hide the pill inside and most cats gobble them right up.

You can read more about them here http://www.greenies.com/en_US/Produc...llpockets.aspx

I always use them when the pill shooter is not possible. I have 4 cats and they all behave differently. My senior cat will always eat a pill when a pill pocket is involved

Rotating methods does seem to work best. In addition to the Whiska Lickins, I've been using spray cheese, cat sticks treats, whipped cream, and liverwurst for cats (a little regular liverwurst would work, too.) Sometimes Jamie will just eat his heart pill (flavored), but he really likes holding out for a variety of yummy treats with it.

Wrap him up in a towel so he can't claw you, then pop his mouth open by putting pressure on the jaw "hinge". My sister's cat has super strength in holding his mouth shut too, so someone would have to try to pop the jaw open from the side at the same time another person grabbed his top and bottom jaw and tried to force it open.

I think someone else said this, but if you massage the throat it helps them swallow. And maybe put something on the pill to help it go down? When we were kids my dad always put grape jelly on ours lol.

Originally Posted by tabster

Wrap him up in a towel so he can't claw you, then pop his mouth open by putting pressure on the jaw "hinge". My sister's cat has super strength in holding his mouth shut too, so someone would have to try to pop the jaw open from the side at the same time another person grabbed his top and bottom jaw and tried to force it open.

I think someone else said this, but if you massage the throat it helps them swallow. And maybe put something on the pill to help it go down? When we were kids my dad always put grape jelly on ours lol.

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Sorry for the thread drift but I just had to add this to the towel comment - I had to wrap one of my cats in a warm towel in order to trim his nails. Worked like a charm. Now when I wrap him in the towel, he sticks out his paws for me to do the trimming. Of course a piece of Greenies after the deed is done always helps

I think something about the pressure of the towel soothes them. You know with dogs you can get them shirts/vests that are "anti anxiety" and it just the pressure is very soothing.