Cat hurting its tongue after taking pills

Hi! So while back I was given a young american shorthair cat who was named Sleepy Joe by his former owners. I found out recently that he has bacteria in his digestive track causing him to poop blood as well as giving him diarrhea and the vet gave me three different pills as well as syrup to feed him twice a day for five days, but he simply won't have any of it. I've tried almost all the different methods I've found online, wrapping him up in a towel, placing him on a table, trying to hide it in his food, but he won't have any of it, so recently I've been diluting the pills and using a syringe to give them to him. I've made sure never to make the mixture over 1ml so it's easy for him to swallow, but afterword he does this thing where he rubs his tongue against the top of his teeth and begins to foam---something he'd do even when I gave him solid pills-- which I'm assuming is because they taste bad. Yesterday, however, he did the same thing when I gave him the medicine but I noticed some of the foam was a little red. Is there anything I can do to make the pills taste better for him? Or, for that matter, anything I can do to make him stop scratching me to pieces? I love him to bits, so scratches don't mean much to me, but it's hurting me to have him hate me after every dose, and he doesn't even want to accept food from me if I'm so much as standing near it.

HE REFUSED TUNA 'COS I WAS HOLDING IT, YOU GUYS! TUNA!!  I feel like a horrible parent. 

Hi @DustyTiger and welcoe to tTCS!

I would not liquify his pills, the absorption could be different, it could be very uncomfortable for him and the foaming is a clear indication of a very bad taste.  A lot of these medicines have a liquid form that is especially formulated along with flavors so its more palatable,  and compounding pharmacies can create special liquid versions if your med doesn't have that version naturally.  Please call your vet to discuss this as soon as possible. :-)

Hey, thanks for the welcome! I actually asked my vet about liquid versions of the pills and he said there was only one for the diarrhea, which is why that was the only one given to me as a syrup. Tbh, at the time, the vet tried to give Joe the first dose of medicine, but he was far too violent and only swallowed one pill then scratched him, ran away and started foaming again under the operating table. The doctor said that there wasn't really anything I could do about it aside from keep trying to give him his pills, either by crushing it and forcing him to drink all of them in water, or sneaking pills into his food.

Since neither of those are working to ease Joe's pain, however, I'm kinda at a loss. I still have to do this for three more days, and my arms are already all scratched up.

Wow ok that sounds rough.  Have you tried pill pockets, the hollow treats that you can hide pills in?

Sorry you and Sleepy Joe are going through this!

I've been lucky with Tim that he takes pretty much whatever I give him. And I can tuck capsules and coated tablets into his wet food and he gobbles everything up. But I wasn't as lucky with a previous cat, who needed a pill every single day of his life because he was hyperthyroid. We tried everything, and our solution ended up being very simple and one that worked with other cats:

I sit on the floor behind the cat. Sometimes I am actually sitting, other times squatting. Either way, it's important to be behind the cat so the cat backs into your body. You can use your legs to help hold the cat. Hold the cat with one hand and, using the other, simultaneously open the mouth from the side and pop in the pill. Then quickly close the cat's mouth so he can't spit out the pill. Because I really hate dry-pilling, I immediately offer wet food to further help the pill down.