medicating a strong stubborn cat

Hi everyone!  sorry for the long post but wanted to explain things...

I really need some advice, help, ideas on medicating a strong, stubborn 11 yr old male cat who refuses to take any medications.

I have to give him pepcid twice a day, for IBD.

I began by just trying to give him 1/8 tablet. He spit it out. Got a pill gun~~ still spit it out..

Then ordered #4 empty gel caps for the pill (tastes bitter) and used a pill gun with that. It worked for a little while. It was originally just when he needed it and once a day. So it was not too bad.

I give him a chaser of water from an infant medicine syringe, close his mouth, rub his neck and talk to him until I think he has swallowed it.. 8/10 times he fools me. I find him on the floor when I release him.

BTW, I sit with him between my knees, on the floor, so I can trap him. 

I have even tried it when he was groggy or sleeping, so I could surprise him. 

He hears the water and the noise in the kitchen and just knows what I am up to!!

Now, Artie needs to take it twice a day. He has now developed the habit of putting his tongue on the roof on his mouth so he can spit the capsule out very easy.

The Vet suggested trying a compounded liquid, in Chicken flavoring. I started that on Tuesday. Well, last night (Wed) he started something new.  I squirted the liquid in his mouth, side of mouth, anywhere I can get it in, I close him mouth, started rubbing his throat, felt him swallow something, and bent over kissing him while doing all the above. 

I released him, Artie runs like a bat out of heck. I go after him to see what he is doing. 

When I looked at him, he has spittle, large drool dripping from both sides of his mouth!! He is trying to spit it out! And he runs around the house like that!! 

Tonight, I tried to give him a chaser of water with it....no way,,,he ran away soo fast! I chased him down and tried to see if he spit it all out or got any. I trapped him and gave him a bit of water...

it is just him and me, living together. 

I need ideas, suggestions....he is so strong. I cannot burrito wrap him. I had someone else help me to try it once and it was impossible...and she had an impossible cat also--not as bad as Artie.

I do not want to put more stress into this...

sorry for the long post..

I hear ya.  I always wanted to punch the people who claimed they could pill any cat.  Amber was not an easily pill once it got to that point.  Despite routine and persistence and her weakness she still fought it very hard.

The thing was, I had 3 blissful years of giving twice daily methimazole in Pill Pockets!  That was easy, here have a treat, she never noticed.  Then finally after all that time something changed about the way she ingested them and it was all over.  I'm assuming you've tried these and had no luck, but if you haven't, it can't hurt to try it.  You never know.  But I tried them for a new cat who had never had them, and she wanted nothing to do with them, even empty.

After the Pill Pockets, I tried various things.  At times I had a little success with some other soft-ish treats.  (I painstakingly deconstructed a treat like Pounce and then re-formed it around a pill, and fed it with other bits of treat that had no pill.)  Other times I went for the pill gun and gel capsules.  That usually worked but it could take a few tries.  You do want the gel capsules; Pepcid is one of the strongest nasty taste meds.

One tip I used to some good advantage was to coat the capsule in butter.  The advantage is, it's slippery, easy to swallow.  The disadvantage is, it's slippery!   But when you get it in the pill gun you minimize that problem.  The other problem is it does slightly start to dissolve the capsule so if you take too many tries you'll probably have to do up a new capsule.

The other thing is chase the pill pop with a syringe of water.  Cat can avoid swallowing pill but if you get it in a reasonable spot and then also give a squirt of water then he'll have to swallow.  If you mess this up, then you may only get one or two shots before your capsule is melting, but it's still worth doing.  You just have to have it all ready and there beside you.  I'm trying to picture how I ever managed to pop a pill and get the water in there right away though and I'm drawing a blank.  It seems impossible thinking about it now!  But somehow I did this.

Having dealt with liquid meds I'd still much rather give pills even given the difficulty I've had with them.  I don't find the liquid to be an advantage, even compounded with flavors.

There is at least one online pet pharmacy that does some meds compounded directly into treats, rather expensive and I've never tried this.

Thanks 2bcat,

I did try the pill pockets...no luck. Artie is such a fussy eater...

Glad to know you felt the capsules are the better choice. That is what I was beginning to think. It seems as if the liquid would be easier, hypothetically; but in reality I do not think so...It involves me giving Artie the liquid, then chasing him around, trying to wipe his mouth of the drool before it hits the floor or carpet. Then I have spot wash the area the drool falls. Who knows what dose he is getting. 

But I have seen him improve with taking the liquid twice a day. He is not regurgitating...

He runs right to the food dish, probably to get the taste out of his mouth...

I will have to take a small drop of it to see what it tastes like...

Last week, I moved all the furniture out of the great room (laminate floors) and washed the floors.... I am going to have to do another good wash of the floors this week end because of all the sticky spots...   

kind of at my wits end....first step to find the easier way to medicate him. Next step is to try to change him from Fancy Feast (only food he will eat) to a novel protein. Tried that before to no avail.. now, he has to change....

sigh, the joys of being a cat guardian....

At least the pain meds wore off and I have my 'cat' back....I was missing him...

He is back to talking to me! Never thought I would miss that..He said good morning to me this morning and told me about his night..   

any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated..

Ideas for "hiding" pills? Some brainstorming by TCS members back when I was trying to get a difficult cat to take 7 pills a day.

There's something fairly new on the European market that generally works like a dream, especially for liquid meds or ground pills: liquid treats. The bad news is that they're only available in the U.S. on Amazon or ebay with extremely high shipping costs. Since they're pretty much the consistency of baby food, perhaps you could try that?

Try friskies whisker lickin's soft treats. I've tried everything as well and that works. Bury the pill in the treat and shape it to hid the pill it ends up looking like a little triangle and then put it in the middle of 2 or 3 normal treats. If the pill is bitter be careful to not touch the treat with the hand that touched the pill its a juggle but it can be done. The salmon flavored and chicken flavor has worked for me.

Thanks Guys,

Those liquid treats look interesting...but so expensive.

I tried warming the med to room temp this morning. I snuck it into Artie (with a water chaser) while I was brushing him. He really likes to be brushed while lying on his cat tree. He has come a long way with brushing. Or maybe he was scared. Long story for him..4 homes in 3 months...before his forever home with me.

Warming it seemed to work this morning. We will see tonight.

I think the pepcid is helping because he is eating good without regurging his food.  My floors are a mess from his drooling...

If not, I will try the the Whiskers Lickins treat trick...

Thanks again

I had a cat who was impossible to pill. I ended up with liquid meds as a better option for him. The trick (and it's not easy) is to aim the syringe to the back of the tongue and well back in the mouth. Hold cat gently but firmly and squeeze a little at a time in...half a ml at most. I've had plenty of practice worming awkward horses, and it was just a matter of scaling down

Instead of a water chaser, you could try thinning the med with water instead. Might make it go down better? It also helps to use the smallest syringe you can.

If you go back to pills, have you tried coating them in pate or something else of that consistency? Works fine until they work out how to suck and spit!

Smash the Pepcid up into a fine powder and hide it in some particularly appealing canned food. Or hide the entire pill in a glob of cream cheese or Cheese Whiz. Pushing it into a piece of roasted chicken has worked in the past, or frying up some ground beef.