Please give me tips on giving him medicine!

I took my cat Hammie to the Vet Saturday for "butt problems". He had bloody runs & some issues with his anal sacs. Turns out -- his anal sacs were NOT infected, but they expressed them for him (I guess to clean them out???) and they ran a barrage of tests on my boy.

Well he has no parasites and his bum seems fine; however the stool sample & such had 'black' blood in it, and the doc says Hammie has had an upper intestinal infection for quite some time. Turns out -- the black 'beads' and such we always saw on his butt was not poo but instead it was blood, dried. I swear I never noticed any bloody poo in the boxes before, it was just recent.

Anyways he's on Amoxil (liquid form) and this pill that is cut in half and dissolves in water easily. The Amoxil isn't the big deal - he seems to like it! But the PILL is the problem! I can't shoot this thing back into his mouth, I tried that and he gagged and then puked and actually foamed. I think the pill dissolved in his mouth and it was so awful he barfed.

So the Vet says, dissolve it in water & THEN shoot it using the liquid dropper. So I do that; he STILL spits it out. So, I tasted the medicine myself. YUCK. I mean it tastes like pure rubbing alcohol, no wonder Hammie doesn't like it.

I tried mixing it with sugar & milk to dissolve it. This morning he did the same thing... spit it out all over the place.

I wrap him in a thick towel like the nurse says, however --- Hammie is a big strong cat and well, my neck, stomach and arms have scratches from giving him meds only 4 times this weekend. He busts free from that towel like it's thin air.

I need tips and I need them fast. I want his infection to be gone and his butt to be better. I need tips on administering the yucky-tasting stuff???

This stuff is so awful I don't know what to mix it with. Milk & sugar certainly didn't work.

ThankX! (p.s. - we have 10 days to go on this stuff, twice a day)
Stephanie

Poor Hammie!

Lion went through that with one of the pills he had to take for his pancreatitis. It was almost as if he was saying" No way is anything that awful tasting passing my lips".

See if the vet can providethe medication in a liquid form. Sometimes, if it is a formulation that is also used for people they have liquid doses for children.

The problem is that the pill dissolves and crumbles in moisture, and since you are having to give him part of a pill it crumbles more easily. Something that I have found helps with pills, although you have to move fast on it, is to put it in something else that tastes much stronger, such as tonic lax - just a dab - or butter - again just a dab - and then quickly put it to the back of the throat and hold the head up while stroking the throat. They don't taste the pill and if they do taste anything it is something tasty. The butter actually helps the pill slide down better so I use that more often.

Also, I give my cats medicine by kneeling on the floor with my feet crossed at the ankles and then bracing the cat between my thighs and body and using a towel around the chest and lower legs to hold the paws down while I use one hand to open the jaw and the other to give the medicine. They can still be quick in getting their paws up to stop you, but usually by that time the medicine is in.

Good luck with Hammie. I hope he starts being better with taking his medication.

Kathryn

Hi Stephanie. U said u cant shoot the pill into his mouth, is this by hand? I also have trouble getting my cats to take pills and used to get covered in scratches until the vet gave us one of those pill pusher thingies. where u put a pill in the end and press a syringe that fires it into the back of his mouth. It really works for my cats, and its so quick an easy, the cat doesnt notice its taken anything. if you hav already tried this then sorry, thats the limit of my knowledge on getting pills into cats.

This may seem mean but it works... come up from behind the cat on the floor press on jaw with firm but gentle pressure from both sides and pop

I had the worst with Jasmin. She had a bug that caused her and others to have the runs so when it came to giving it to her she foamed it up. I had to wrap her in a towl good and tight andpretty much shoot it in and hold her mouth shut and rub her throat. Her and Trish hated me for that. others freaked and ran from me so I got them in the morning. I would fil the (sorry cant spell it) syrng and get them while they sleep, they are so groggy when I wake em up they just take it. That was 8 cats in one day. some were still caged since I barely got them.

Ashley

Ask your vet for empty gel capsules of the appropriate size to hold the half pill dose you need to give...these can then be given with a pill gun...then there will be NO taste of the pill. It does need to be an appropriate size for your cat to easily swallow, and my vet has put pills into gel caps for me before, so I'd call and ask.

I think I had a breakthrough this morning.

Hammie just loves the Amoxicillan and believe it or not -- the bugger can TELL the difference between one dropper & the next (The 'bad' one, he starts freaking). He takes the amox no problem, but doc says not to mix the two, so anyways...

This morning I busted open a capsule of Vitamin E... ya know those clear geltabs that you ingest? Well I use them mixed in with udder cream after a shower, it's great for your skin.

So my garbage-digging loverboy Hammie goes digging through the garbage after watching me pitch the shell of the gelcap... and he takes the gelcap in his mouth and EATS IT. It was gross to listen to and I am hoping Vitamin E is safe for cats.

If he's doing fine when I get home I think I will encase the yucky white pill in the vitamin E capsule shell and use the pill-shooter. I have a pill shooter --- doc gave me one but the thought of shooting a pill back there while he is open-piped (what if it goes down his lungs, not his belly???)... made me scared. Anyways I'm hoping if I wrap the pill in the capsule which he seemed to love munching this morning, it'll go down easier and maybe he won't taste it!

He's feeling a whole lot better, I think the shots they gave him made him sick, because he sat still for many hours Saturday night. Hammie only sits still at nighttime while he's plastered on my leg asleep. Normally he's Tarzan running wild. Well last night he was all loving and sweet so he's not too ticked about me giving him meds!

Please see my note to you above your note this morning...it would be better to use a plain empty capsule if you get them from your vet, imo.

Those pill pushers are a godsend!! But if you have a strong cat it can still take 2 people to give the pills.

I have recently had to begin giving Dori steroid pills for her asthma. Do you have anyone who can help you with the pills? My bf and I have come up with a fairly easy way to get her to take them.
I hold her in my arms like you would hold a baby in my right arm, but not back to far because she hates that As I am holding her there I use my left hand to hold her back feet and my right hand (my right arm is around her) to hold hold her front paws. My bf then uses one hand to gently squeeze the sides of her mouth and the other hand to drop the pill in. He then rubs her throat until she swallows. I learned here on the site that you know they have swallowed because they lick their nose (Thanks Stephanie!)

Another trick that I used once for dissolved pills was to mix them with the gravy from a stinky canned cat food that they like. I syringe or dropper it when I administer it. It sometimes overpowers the smell of the medicine.

I have to give a large pill to one of mine when his herpes virus flairs up. It doesn't taste bad but he HATES it. I kneel on the floor with my ankles intertwined, put the cat between my legs with his head pointing outward, cup my hand over his head with my fingers on either side of his mouth, pull open his mouth, insert pill gun and plunge the pill. This is immediately followed by a favorite treat to take his mind off the pill. It the cat tries to wiggle free, he will wiggle backwards into your intertwined ankles and can't move left or right because of your legs.

Did you try just crushing it in some stinky food... that is what I am doing for both of my little men right now... neither of them seem to mind... I do it first thing in the am when they are really hungry.....