Giving my kitten medicine

Hi all,
My almost 4 month old kitten has a cold. I took her to the vet and she gave me amoxicillin (I believe) and some eye drops for my kitten. She told me that if the cat is fighting me when I give her the medicine that I should wrap her in a towel so she can't swing at me.

So, I've done just that. But everyday it becomes more of a struggle as shes learned to start fighting when I get near her with the towel. It takes about 10 minutes to give her a tiny dose of 25mg. Lately, my girlfriend and I have to work together to do this. She holds the kitten's head and will pry open her mouth (I mean, pry -- the kitten will fight as much as she can with her head not to have that mouth open) as I hold the towel very tightly around the cat (she'll be kicking like crazy) and put the medicine in her mouth. The kitten doesn't stop crying when we're doing this. The eye drops aren't that much of a struggle because she will give up once she gets the liquid medicine (you can tell she doesn't like the taste).

I was just wondering if there were any other things I could do to get this kitten her medicine. I have to do this 3 times daily for the next month and it's only been 4 days. I feel really bad being so rough with the kitten to get her this medicine.

We had to give her medicine when she was younger as well, but it was a lot easier becuase she didn't have the strength to fight (and plus I think the other one smelled better than this one).

A few other questions I had was:
1) Will the cat resent me for this? I don't want her thinking I'm out to hurt her. She will play with me when I'm done doing this, but I'm not sure after a month's worth.
2) The towel I use is a pink towel. Will the cat associate pink with medicine? I don't want her running when my girlfriend comes in because she wears pink a lot.

Thanks,
Matt

I hope that's supposed to be .25mg and not 25mg, 25mg seems an awful lot for a baby cat.

You don't need to pry her mouth open, simply slide the dropper into the left side of her mouth to the back, behind the teeth, this will force her to open her own mouth

I have a kitten who came to me with multiple infections, her infections are now gone, but she's on other meds for life.
I always try to associate med time with something positive.
In my case, I med then give treats.
My baby still fights the meds, but not as much as she used to, she knows that as soon as it's over she will get something nice.

Cats don't see into the same color spectrum that we do (I believe they see everything in pastels?), regardless, they tend to associate with smells more than visuals.

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe it is .25mg. I can't tell if the dropper has a . or not, but the vet said something with "25"

We were able just to stick it in her mouth with the old medicine, but for this new medicine, she will be kicking us way (that's why we were told to use a towel), and she won't open her mouth when I try to stick it in there. She locks her jaw so tight and you can tell shes trying her hardest becasue we can hear her breathing really hard out of her nose. If we get the dropper in without holding her head still, she'll move because we squeeze.

When I get home I will try to stick it in the far back of her mouth. I had been using the middle part of her mouth before.

I had to chuckle when I had read this, even though there's probably nothing funny about it but it reminds me of our cat Furbie, she's an adult and she does the very same thing, clamps her mouth shut so tight that you can't can't anything in there.
I honestly don't know of any easy way to solve this problem, I actually dread having to give any of our babies medicine because no matter what we try, they Hate it.
We've resorted to putting their head in the sleeve of a heavy jacket so that just the head pokes through, they are all full grown with very sharp claws. We found the towel just didn't work because their kicking dislodged it before we could even get the medicine to them.
I feel for you, I really do. Good luck.

Thanks. Good idea with the jacket because half the problem is keeping the towel around her, I'm going to try that as well.

May I ask? What does your name stand for? Just asking because my brother's favorite movie is Major Payne... your name being MPayne... just had to ask.

I had to treat 4 cats twice day for a month with an antifungal for ringworm and trust me I ended up being able to do it by myself and trust me 3 of them did not like this!!!
I put the cat between my thighs while kneeling on the floor. Eyedropper already loaded. I pryed open the mouth and squeezed the dropper and them rubbed under the chin. Also giving treats afterwords migh work!! Bobber is about 8 lbs and all muscle due to her breed. She was always the worst one so sometimes we needed 2 people. Neil would hold her legs and I would do the medicine.

Have fun and they didn't resent this at all!!

Originally Posted by CJandBilly

May I ask? What does your name stand for? Just asking because my brother's favorite movie is Major Payne... your name being MPayne... just had to ask.

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Matt Payne I always get the Major Payne joke

I will try putting her between my legs as well. Last night and this morning she didn't fight that much. I'm not sure if she was tired or if she is finding out this is a lost battle for her. ;-)

Originally Posted by mpayne

Matt Payne

I always get the Major Payne joke

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Oh, okay. Just had to ask!

I put my kits between my legs to give them their medicine... maybe that could work for you?

I've been putting her between my legs and it seems to be working for the most part. Sometimes I still need the towel.

Keep the towel! What worked for us was putting our kitten between the legs, wrapped in a towel or sweatshirt, meds at the ready, one of us would rub a little bit of wet food sauce under his chin, and when he went to lick it off...PRESTO! In went the meds! Another trick we did when he was older was to put the meds on his paws, he had no choice but to lick it off. Good luck!