Tricks to giving Pills

My kitty is on medication -- I am supposed to give him a quarter of a pill twice a day.

I've given Dylan lots of pills throughout his life...but is is usually a one time thing for a trip and has never been something he liked, nor has it been an ongoing treatment.

Does anyone have any tricks or tips or otherwise about administering pills to a very cantancerous kitty.

I have used the towel wrapping method, and the sneak up on them method (but you really have to get the pill in there on the first try with that one). Also was told to blow in his nose once i do get the pill in his mouth and that will make him swallow it.

Can anyone tell me more about these pill gun things? Sounds complicated, yet also maybe worth a try since he will be on these pills and probably others for awhile. (Was diagnosed with Hepatic Lipidosis and also with onset of kidney problems--hasn't been confirmed but most likely early stage CRF.) So, needless to say, I need to learn all the tricks that there are to giving pills.

Thanks for advice.

Susan
Dylan's Mommy

Hi Susan<
The pill "gun" you are refering to isn't too complicated. It is just a long plastic stick with a plunger and a rubber end that holds the pill. It should be available at the vet for $5-$10 Place pill in rubber end, insert into cats mouth, push plunger, pill is in! If only it were that simple eh? The trick with pilling cats is to insert the pill into the back of the cats mouth as far as you can, ideally over the back of the tongue. This makes sure they swallow it on the first go- the stickier the pill gets the harder it is to get it back in the mouth. The "gun" makes getting it further back in the cats mouth easier.
If your cat has to go onto long-term meds it might be easier to get your vet to compound it into another form. At my clinic we offer flavored chews (just like cat treats!) and flavored liquids (tuna, chicken...). There are also transdermal creams available. These are smeared onto the inside of the cats ear- just remember to wear gloves!
Good luck! Hope your kitty gets better soon!

Thanks for the tips...I will ask vet about other options, as well as try a pill gun.

The pills Dylan takes are called Famotidine 10mg --again, given in 1/4 size twice a day.

The vet said this is some sort of antacid type med. since his kidney problem is causing some gas and slight swelling in his tummy.

Anyone have any experience with this med.?

Just found this thread...I too would suggest a pill gun.

They are extremely simple, and highly effective.

No bitten fingers, and no overly stressed kitty.

Spotz

I think how to give a cat a pill depends on both the cat and the size of the pill. With my oldest Isabelle I had no trouble giving her 2 tiny pills twice a day with just a towel. Ofcourse I had to wrap her up in a towel, turn her over and sit on her, pry her jaw open then drop the pills in just so, but it worked.

But the pill Zoey is getting right now is much bigger and she's quite skilled at folding her tongue, thrashing her head back and forth, and biting down, so I wasn't able to give her her pill by hand. This is where the Pill Gun has come tremendously in handy as it allows you to put the pill WAYYY back on their tongue without you having to shove your finger down there. It's made giving Zoey her pill so painless that she doesn't even fight me anymore about it. It takes 2 seconds. This thing has been a life saver and it only cost me $5.00! Best money ever spent! Unfortunately I don't think it would work so well with smaller pills as it's pretty flimsy. But there are several models available... There's a thread out here called Cat Medicine and Foaming (or something similar) where you can find a link to one that would work with smaller pills.

With both of my cats giving them pills got easier when I was more confident about doing it, less afraid of what they might do to me (ie scratch/bite). Once I was confident, it took less time to give the pill... the less time it takes to give the pill, the less your cat will fight you when you give it to them.
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Originally Posted by Monica's Six

I
But the pill Zoey is getting right now is much bigger and she's quite skilled at folding her tongue, thrashing her head back and forth, and biting down, so I wasn't able to give her her pill by hand. This is where the Pill Gun has come tremendously in handy as it allows you to put the pill WAYYY back on their tongue without you having to shove your finger down there. It's made giving Zoey her pill so painless that she doesn't even fight me anymore about it. It takes 2 seconds. This thing has been a life saver and it only cost me $5.00! Best money ever spent!
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Click to expand...

Zoey sounds just like Dylan. He too is amazingly skilled at thrusting his head in all directions, folding his tongue, making horrific noises of distress and ultimately hiding pill somewhere in his cheek only to spit out the second I let him go from towel!

Pill gun sounds like the way to go. I will call the vet in the morning to see if they sell one.

Well when I got Zoey her first anti-biotic pills she was ok with me giving her a pill... BUT... those pills made her extremely sick so I had to change to a liquid anti-biotic and that made everytime I gave her her medicine very traumatic... so when I convinced the Vet to prescribe her a different pill anti-biotic going back to giving her pills wasn't what she had in mind. But with the Pill Dispenser it's been painless for her and me!
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I've been able to get Rhiannon to take her antibiotics by putting them in some canned food. Her last pills were very tiny and I just placed them in the middle of a lump of canned food and gave it to her when she was hungry...she ate it and did'nt even notice the pill. Her new pills are larger so now I've been breaking them open and mixing them in with her canned food. I'll have to look into getting a pill gun incase this does'nt work one day with mixing it in with the food.

Some pills are dangerous if they dissolve while still in the throat. They can cause esophageal ulcers. My vet recommends following pills with a syringe of water. That also helps keep them from hiding the pill until they are just out of reach, then spitting it out. Becky

Sasha is on huge antibiotics which he takes when I toss them into the back of his mouth w/my fingers. He rejects the pill gun.....because he knows that he's getting a pat of butter on the pills from my hand, so he likes that, and they go down very easy, no fuss, no problem.

For long-term medications talk to your vet about a paste that can be placed on the cat's ear to absorb through the skin. Some medications are available that way.



Also this website might help:

http://pets.flavorx.com/

I can't get the hang of this pill gun to save my life! I have tried using it for the past three days (6 pills total tried) And each time, it seems more stressful and complicated. maybe it is the actual pill gun, maybe there are better ones out there than the one the vet sold me??


At any rate, I have ended up each time doing it by hand just to hurry up and stop stressing Dylan out.

Yesterday he held a pill in his mouth for almost 5 minutes (After pill gun insertion) to the point where I was CERTAIN he had swallowed it...and the second I let him go...bleh. He spit it right out on the floor as he was running away from me to hide.

This morning, no luck either. I had to take the rejected pill (which again I thought he swallowed) and hide it in his breakfast in a meatball covere in bonito flakes--just to make sure he would eat it. (and he did)..but mind you, he had already disolved most of it in his mouth trying to trick me into believing it had been swallowed.

There has got to be a better way. Suggestions or links to other pill guns, etc. would be more than appreciated at this point. I don't want to have to go to the vet again if I don't have to because he is only on this particular pill until the 12th. (Part of the difficulty in getting him to take these is that they are already broken in quarters so the nasty flavor is out there on the edges. ) I wish the vet would have given me a whole pill in smaller dose rather than pieces. (I tried putting a little butter coating on pill to slow down rate that it dissolves...but he still managed to spit it out--but it did stand up better than usual with the butter trick.)

This is my first time posting on this site. Although I am a long term "crazy cat lady" caring for a colony of 50+ feral cats for 13 years...giving a cat a pill still stumps me sometimes. Today I tried to give a pill to one of the older sick cats on daily medication, and everything went wrong. She threw up the pill and her breakfast. Since eating is less important to her, losing a meal is not good.

So, an internet search lead me here, thank heaven. I've read most of what everyone has written about giving pills....great advice, and some I never heard of, especially the Purina Whisker Lickin's soft treat. I will get that as soon as possible. In the meantime, I went to the grocery store like a crazy cat person determined to find something that had a sticky quality about it, so I could get the pill in without it tasting horribly to the cat.

I have used the piller with water, and I really like that. For this particular cat it works really well after wrapping her in a towel. Some of my cats do better just holding their head with one hand, and putting pill down into the back of the throat. 

Wish i could offer something new as a remedy. This giving cats a pill issue is always one of the most difficult aspects of caring for cats. If i could only convey that this is "for your good" somehow to them. It breaks my heart whenever it doesn't go well, or I screw it up somehow. I agree that having confidence makes the issue easier; but that can take a long time. And today I felt I had to learn all over again. So sad, to make a sick cat feel worse.

Thanks for being here. So glad to find you all.

Sally