How to make keep your cat from hating you when it has to be on a pill long term!

I just got word from my vet that my kitty will most likely have to be on a medication long term to help her digestive system work properly.  It comes in pill form, and they warned me (and i noticed first hand!) that it can taste bad if you don't get it down fast enough, and they can start drooling.  My kitty has been off it for a little over a week, and has started to trust me again I guess you could say.  Is there a way to make giving her the pill a not so traumatic experience?  I don't want to see her cower again anytime I go near her!!  I felt so bad!  I would feel even worse if I don't give her the medication, I am sure her tummy doesn't feel the greatest.  Shoving it down her throat is the only way I know it is possible to give, because as I said earlier, it is very bitter and she will taste it in her food.  I also do not have anyone to help me give her the pill, so I will always be the bad guy.

Thanks for any advice!! 

I have 2 kitties on long term pills twice a day, once gets two or three pills each time.  I lessen the bitterness of the pills by using the Chicken flavored pill pockets for dogs, I take just enough to cover the pill.  That helps get the pills down easier.  I have one kitty who HATES taking medicine.  I put her on her back open her mouth as quick as I can and drop the pills down her throat.  She is tricky to get meds into.  The other one I just open his mouth and stuff his pills in his throat.   Of course I coat them.  Some pills can be made into chewable chews by a compounding pharmacist.

cprcheetah said:

 
I have 2 kitties on long term pills twice a day, once gets two or three pills each time.  I lessen the bitterness of the pills by using the Chicken flavored pill pockets for dogs, I take just enough to cover the pill.  That helps get the pills down easier.  I have one kitty who HATES taking medicine.  I put her on her back open her mouth as quick as I can and drop the pills down her throat.  She is tricky to get meds into.  The other one I just open his mouth and stuff his pills in his throat.   Of course I coat them.  Some pills can be made into chewable chews by a compounding pharmacist.

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 Pill pockets really do work. Sterling takes long term pills daily and both the Salmon and Chicken flavored Greenies feline pill pockets work- otherwise he absolutely hates taking the pills with no flavor cover-up. The best way to get the pill down her throat as fast as possible is just to open her mouth, slightly, but still enough so that the (coated) pill can go in, and drop it straight in so it goes down her throat.

Best of luck. 

Pill pockets have no hold over my cats.  Pill pockets wrapped with ham does.  But if they really chew up the pill pocket/hamballs, they will taste the pills.  This concoction works about 75% of the time for me.

I pill my cats every other day.  I cut or crush the pills and place them in gelatin capsules.  I bought a bag of 1,000 of #4 size from Amazon.  The capsules neutralizes the taste of the pill.  I add the capsule to a snack-size serving of Friskies canned food (not their regular canned food but they love it--kitty crack) and 8-10 kibbles mixed with a tiny amount of water.  Along the way, the cats usually lap up the capsule as they inhale the food.   I watch them eat to make sure they 'eat' the capsule.

Occasionally we have process failure as they chew up the capsule and taste the pill.  They will spit it out.  I then pill them by hand.  

Pill pockets work on some cats, but not all. If its permissable to crush the pill into a powder and add this to wet food or to a capsule as tdonline mentioned, I would suggest trying this.

cprcheetah has a good suggestion--look for a compounding pharmacist.
Check with the vet to see if the pill can be formulated into a liquid or flavored tab.
You're not asking the vet whether he/she can do it, only whether if formulated into a liquid, the medication is just as effective. (Some pills are time-released so can't be compounded into a liquid.)
If the medication is just as effective, check around for a compounding pharmacy. They are often, but not always, independently owned.
Then ask for a prescription from your vet and take it there.
A couple of caveats: if the medication is also for humans, then this procedure is simplified. If the medication is for animals only, your pharmacist may be prohibited by state law from filling a Rx script for an animal. And the pharmacist may need verbal/written approval from your vet to compound the medication.
Like you, I do not have anyone to help me pill Ritz. And Ritz hates being pilled. Just hates it. So for whatever medication Ritz has to take (mainly for UTIs), I make sure it can be compounded. My local grocery store can compound some medication like Prozac (bubblegum flavor!) although it can take them longer to get in the medication. My independently run pharmacist compounds bitter medication flavored with chicken/tuna.
Good luck!

I had to pill a cat daily for a month or so not too long ago. He's kind of a goof so I didn't worry too much about him, but I also didn't want to make him scared of me. What I did for him was get his favorite treats, and I'd give him a few, then pop the pill in his mouth real quick, then give him a few more treats. He loved his special treat time .

I have no idea what a pill pocket is!
I'm going to say something stupid now. You do stroke the cat's throat so he/she swallow automatically don't you?
You can get special things that you put the pill into one end and with the other end shoot it down poor kitty's throat. They have these in England. I think.
Any help?
My daughter, on advice of her vet, starves get cat and then sticks the pill in a little pate and she, the cat not my daughter, gobbles the pill up. But I'm talking about a pill every so often so it won't work for you all.
Sorry.

This is a pill pocket
You put a pill in the pocket, make sure the pocket covers the pill completely, and offer it to your cat, hoping she'll eat it like she would any other treat.
At least, that's how they are suppose to work in theory!

They have pill guns at some of the pet stores here that you put the pill into and it does as Stewball said "shoot it down their throat" and it is over in a second and they never taste a thing.   http://www.chewy.com/dog/nutri-vet-...m_content=hg&gclid=CK_647Os2bwCFRQV7AodpTgAhg

That is only an example of one type.  If you Google "Feline pill gun" it gives a whole array of them at different sites.

Awesome ideas guys!!  Sadly i tried pill pocket with little miss prissy pants before, she looked at it, looked at me, looked back at it, gagged and walked away... gave the bag to a fellow cat lover haha.  As for mixing the pill in with her food, I tried that with her beef flavored pro-biotic, if it was crushed, she wouldn't eat anything that smelled like it, if i just threw it in covered in food (it was chewable) the little snot ate around it, even putting it in her mouth, sucking the food off, and leaving it somewhere for me to step on it!

I was told during the first round of her treatment that it could be compounded, I may try that.  Any ideas on how much it costs?  Still settling into a new job and home after a lay off, so trying to save where I can.  However, if it helps her to not hate me....  I might also invest in one of those pill guns.  I can usually get it down her throat easily, but when I don't, she def does NOT like the taste.  Poor baby.  Oh, and while my kitty loves the treats, well, she doesn't get them, because her tummy wobbles too much (she is fat haha) I try to save them for very bad situations, like when her bum was sore from an anal glad extraction, and I had to, um.. wipe her after her trips to the bathroom.  That did not feel good, and I don't blame her, so she got some treats then. 

Oh yeah, when you say you coat the pills, what do you mean by that?  Do you just put a thin coat of the pill pocket on the treat then shove it down their throat?  Won't they choke on that?  I dunno how kitties throats work haha, I am def not a vet!  If that is what you do though, I can attempt that, in case she doesn't get it down right away, it won't taste as bad.

If you have other ideas, throw them my way, she has one more day before I can get the meds (Vet was closed today, and I work late tomorrow so she has a bit of a relaxation time hehe)

Thanks again!!! 

Very best of luck with finding a workable solution .. There will be costs associated with compounding medications, and it may get pricey depending on where you have this done. If this were me I would invest in a good mortar and pestle which would be cheaper in the long run, and do the compounding yourself.

It could be that you may end up having to go the traditional route in giving the medication by dropping the pill to the back of the throat and then gently stroke around the throat to get her to swallow. That said, the pill guns might make this a whole lot easier. Use some different treats like sardines, or freeze-dried meat that would different from those that you give for other situations, and give one after each pill for a job well done. You will just want to factor the daily treats into her calories if you are watching her weight. scheduled feeding.

Here are a couple of videos, one on how to pill a cat by hand : , and how to pill a cat using a pill gun :

Compounding is somewhat more expensive--see if the vet will write a generic version of the drug (if available). I have pet insurance and the insurer always covered the cost of medication--including pill pockets (which sadly didn't work).

(1) always taste anything you are going to put in your cat's mouth! 

(2) if it's bitter, it will make them drool, so there are ways you can avoid letting the medication touch the cat's mucous membranes.

In my experience, trying pill pockets doesn't work with bitter pills.  Your medication may be metronidazole, which is a great medication but the bitterest pill you can imagine.  It is also available in liquid form but tht tastes awful also.

Being in rescue, we pass out a lot of bitter pills.  I have bought supplies of gelatin capsules in various sizes (it must hold all the pill's medication).  I crush the pill using a glass mortar & pestle (you can buy them at some pharmacies) and then put the powder into a folded piece of paper, and I then use that to channel the medicine into the opened capsule and close it.   (I fill a bunch of the capsules at one time).  Be sure to clean off every last bit of excess powder from the capsule using a kleenex or paper towel so there will be no bitter powder at all on the outside.

I put about 3 to 5 cc. of cream in a syringe and a pat of butter on a plate with the syringe.  Then I burrito (towel wrap) the cat and sit him on my lap.  I squirt a little cream into his mouth and let him swallow it.  He likes it.  It removes any fear of what I am putting into his mouth also.  Then I dunk the end of the pill into the butter using my right hand and gently open his mouth with my left hand and slip the buttered pill down his gullet and quickly chase it with more cream.  He swallows and down goes the pill.  After a few times, he realizes it's not a bad thing and there is no struggle.

IMPORTANT:  Be sure to put the pill far enough back in his throat that it MUST go down, because if he bites into it, there's the bitter and the problem.  You can even practice ahead of time by filling the pills with something like powdered sugar that DOESN"T taste bad if he bites it.  Once you have mastered the technique, you are good to go.  After awhile you won't even need to wrap him in a towel because he won't be fighting you.

A lot of interesting ideas here.

I've had to pill one of my cats twice daily for the last 8 years. 

We have a routine now... he jumps up onto the dresser, where I have a good view of his mouth.  I cradle the back of his neck with one hand and use the thumb to press on the side of his mouth. I say "open", he opens.  The other hand pops the pill as far back into his mouth as I can get it.  He swallows.  Then I give him lovies and foodies.

I've actually used the same technique with my other cats to varying degrees of success.  Repetition seems to help.  They get to know what to expect, and will realize that quicker is better.  If I have something bitter, I will wrap it in a bit of chicken skin (we feed raw), or a bit of cheese or ham might work as well. 

The ultimate goal is to get the pill as far back as possible, so the only option they have is to swallow it.

It's literally the same way I was taught to take pills as a child.

I know the capsules, unless they have a lot of moisture, are hard to swallow.  Think about when you had to take them yourself.  They stick.  I usually pop one in my mouth while I'm getting Tippy ready for his dose and when we're both ready, take it out of my mouth and pop it down his mouth.  Seems to work.