Help disguising crushed up pill in her food

My girl Joon went in last Wednesday for dental work - deep cleaning and they ended up pulling 3 teeth. We also started her on her new Hills Prescription food z/d that will hopefully stop her 24/7 scratching. Luckily she loves the new food. I added hot water to the dry food to make it easier to eat after the dental work. Friday morning after I left for the weekend, husband reports she's sneezing. And thursday we'd noticed some scratching had returned (she'd had a steroid injection the week prior to help her transition to the new food and stop the current scratching). All weekend the snuffles and sneezing continued, so Monday morning I called the vet. They said to bring her right in. Now, they'd given her an antibiotic shot from the dental work so she doesn't have an infection, adn I knew that and relayed that - all clear discharges. But, bring her in.

The vet put her on a prescription antihistamine. She gave me little pills, said I could add them to her food. Joon is VERY tough to get a pill in, and very smart. Once I nab her one time she'll be faster and smarter next time. It's a huge battle.

Well as hungry as my piggy girl is, she's understandably not touching the moistened soft dry food that has pill mixed in. I've tried to dilute it by adding more food, they said only use a tablespoon so that you know she got all the pill at once.

Is there anything I can do with the food? Would something like sugar, help?

What about using a little  canned tuna? (the kind in spring water NOT brine) That's usually stinky enough to hide any pill. More ideas  here:[article="32724"]Pilling Cats Must Know Tips For Hiding Pills​[/article]  ;  [thread="99055"]Pilling The Unpillable​[/thread]  

Columbine said:

 
What about using a little  canned tuna? (the kind in spring water NOT brine) That's usually stinky enough to hide any pill. More ideas  here:[article="32724"]Pilling Cats Must Know Tips For Hiding Pills​[/article]  ;  [thread="99055"]Pilling The Unpillable​[/thread]  

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I'm not supposed to give her anything other than her prescription food, because of the food allergies. =/

Hmm...that does make it more difficult. Have you tried pilling her by hand or using a pill gun? I know its not easy, but I'v had more success that way with cats who are too picky/too clever to take the meds in food.

lasia221CT said:

 
I'm not supposed to give her anything other than her prescription food, because of the food allergies. =/

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I use a little plain Greek yogurt. I get the Fage brand and they really like it. I use this because they do like it and it's easy to see when it's on the food. I put a small dollop on the food, mix the powder in and give them the food. The yogurt mix gets eaten first and if they eat around it, I can see that they haven't eaten it. When I used to mix it into the food itself, it's hard to tell how much of it they have taken in since they rarely eat all their meals at once and the girls go back and forth between dishes. i don't want one eating both doses so I have to watch them until they eat the yogurt and then they can do what they want after that (they would anyway of course whether I liked it or not  )

Try Pill Pockets. There is an allergy formula: http://www.greenies.com/dogs/allergy-formula-pill-pockets.aspx It's actually for dogs (the cat one was discontinued) but you can give it to a cat. You just need a small amount of the Pill Pocket to completely  wrap around the pill to disguise the taste and smell.

Some people coat pills in butter, roll it around in powdered Parmesean cheese, and coat the whole thing in FortiFlora for good measure.

lasia221CT said:

 
I'm not supposed to give her anything other than her prescription food, because of the food allergies. =/

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A littl tuna water or Pill Pocket won't hurt, IMO. Talk to your vet if you have concerns. Also ask if the pill can be compounded into liquid form or if there is another allergy medicine that is already in liquid form that you could use.

Can you train her to take pills? Take a little regular food and put it on your finger, and then hold her just like you would if it were a pill you were giving her. Then place the food in her mouth, and follow with a treat (always!). I sometimes do this with my cat, just so if the day arrives he needs medicines, I can do it easier.


Another excellent alternative (all ideas from the vet tech my cat goes to) is to grind the pill up in a morter and pestle, then mix with some kind of acceptable liquid (even highly watered down cat food though she likes Fortiflora), then put it all into a syringe, the kind used to administer liquid antibiotics. Hopefully a small one. When my cat had diarrhea this is how I administered the Fortiflora.

I've also mixed meds with peanut butter or butter or yogurt, and put on the top of my cats paw. Cats can't stand stuff on their paw and will almost automatically lick the substance off, no matter how bad it tastes.

BTW, because you asked and nobody else mentioned, sugar does not help.  Cats can't actually taste sweet, amazingly enough.  Apparently when they enjoy some of the sweet things we offer (one of my old cats liked to lick my ice cream bowl) they are really going after the fat or something else.

You're going to need something stronger I think than the moistened dry food though to get a pill in.  If you haven't yet narrowed down what the food allergen might be, it may be tough to find a suitable food/treat item, but you often only need a small fraction of a Pill Pocket (esp if you get the dog version allergy formula mentioned above).  There are a few other soft treats you might try although probably not too many with limited and/or novel ingredients.

I certainly understand having a huge trouble with manual pilling.  I did my fair share of that after my one cat went off Pill Pockets (she took them fine for a few years, then started biting through and finding pills, and after a few times of that it was all over).  I used one of those pill popper wands but it still wasn't easy.  It did get slightly easier after just keeping at it for a while.  When I had to give her multiple things, I got small gelatin capsules that I could put several meds into at once and only have to pop the one capsule.  Coated the capsule in butter and then use the pill popper.

The mixing it into something that she'll lick off her paw might be a good try.  I've never personally tried that but I have heard of it before.

If everything else fails, you can see if the med can be compounded into a topical gel that can be rubbed onto the ear.  The main drawback of this is you need a compounding pharmacy to do this (typically online, not sure if any regular local compounding pharmacies do it) and it's usually comparatively expensive vs pills.  Also I'm not sure all meds are available this way, although if it is commonly used in pets it is probably available.

Since the pills are quite small, you can get a pill gun.  They are super super easy to use.  You can get one online, in pet stores and some vets even carry them.  You can watch a youtube video on how to use it.  Just be sure to give a small squirt of water after the pill to help it go down easier.

I have also purchased chicken flavored gelatin capsules.  I then can place the pill inside the gelatin capsule and hide it in the wet food.  This works really well if the pill has a bad taste to it.  You can purchase them online.  Some vets carry them too. I ordered them from here http://capsuledepot.com/