Pilling your cat.

How do you pill your cats? I try to grind the meds up in sardines and give it to them that way. It only works about half the time :/ any better ideas? It would almost be easier to give them shots I swear.

I've developed my own method, as I have a kitty that takes pills daily for liver support.

Kitty up on a table or counter, facing me so I can easily see into his mouth.

Pill in right hand, at the ready....

With my left hand, I cup the back of his head/neck (so that he can't lean back).

Using the thumb of my left hand, I gently pry his mouth open at the side (like you might with a horse).

When he opens his mouth, I pop the pill (from the right) into the back of his mouth... almost down the throat... very quickly, before he gets the tongue action going. 

I've used this method with my other cats as well, and after only a few times they have taken to it well enough not to fight it too much.

I don't bother to wrap well coated pills, but uncoated pills that may be very bitter or cause drooling get wrapped in a bit of chicken skin.

When I had to, I used pill pockets.

I have to give Lexie medication twice a day for her epilepsy and I swear I'm pulling my hair out faster than she is! Sometimes she eat it in a pill pocket but only after I throw it for her anywhere from 3 to 10 times. When that doesn't work, I put it in cheese or turkey lunch meat or anything else I can find that I think she might go for. I've tried putting in her food but she eats around it. When all else fails, I put it in her mouth and hold it closed until she swallows it telling her the whole time that if she'd just eat the pill pocket this whole thing could be avoided. I hate the stick it in her mouth method but she has to have it so I don't have a choice. I know some meds can be compounded into treats with flavors cats like. I agree that an injection could possibly be easier but my luck I stick myself and be asleep for the rest of the day!

Pillporcket only worked several days for us. I later had to gave Fenfen several pills and found this one is extremely easy.

Pill Gun

For pills that are small enough to swallow easily and don't taste bitter, I first put some half & half cream in a small syringe (like 3 cc or 5 cc) and then sit cat on my lap or a table or counter (depends on the cat's disposition).  I squirt a little of the half and half into her mouth from the side to wet the whistle and prepare her for something that tastes OK.  After she swallows the cream and licks her lips, I get pill in my right hand, syringe on counter, and tilt her head back a little with my left hand, open her mouth with my right forefinger and drop the pill so it falls towards the back of her throat (in the hole if I'm lucky) then grab the syringe and squirt more cream in from the side and as she swallows, down goes the pill coated in cream.  All done. 

If it's something with virtually no taste (like Clavamox) I crush the pill and mix it with the cream and give it as a liquid.

If it's something horribly bitter like metronidazole, I put it in a gelatin capsule (you can get them at pharmacies and probably online as well), then dip one end of the capsule into something soft & slippery like mayonnaise or yogurt -- then follow the same procedure except instead of dropping the pill into the mouth, where it will of course stick and turn sideways and get bitten into, I push the slippery end right into the back of the throat and then chase it immediately with the cream.  For that technique, some cats require being wrapped like a burrito in a towel but some are just fine.

I have one cat that has to take Plavix daily for a heart problem....it apparently tastes AWFUL.  Fortunately he only takes 1/4 of a tablet a day.  The ONLY way I have found to get it down him without major trauma for all involved is to use the empty gel caps--1/4 of his pill will actually fit into the small top of the #4 empty gel cap so I don't even have to use the whole thing...then I put just a little of canned food that he likes on top of the opening to cover the pill and then lightly wrap the gel cap in as little cat food as I can so it's a very small bite...then I hand feed it to him with a little more canned food in my hand....so far, he almost always gobbles up the gel cap before he notices anything "different."  He won't touch pill pockets with a 10 foot pole and since I have two cats that eat together, I don't want to try to put it in his bowl of food since I want to make SURE he really does get the pill.  The pill popper "works", but not without major trauma, struggles,  fighting it, and more stress to his heart than I think is wise