How do you give your kitty's medicine?

crys12065

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For those of you who give your cats pills with other kitties in the house...

Sebastian has been on Thyroxin for about 3 months and I have to give him a pill twice a day. Up until now i have been crushing and mixing it with wet food morning and night. Well now that the kitten is here I am having problems getting them to eat their own food.

Obviously the kitten can not have his pill but they like to go to each others bowls. I keep trying to seperate them but i also do not want them to think they can not share with each other!

I do not want to seperate them during feeding time either because i have heard that helps them bond...or am I off my rocker?? LOL

Should I just give him the pill by hand twice a day?

But he needs to take these for the rest of his life and that seems mean to shove a pill down his throat twice a day.

How do you guys give your kitty's pills?
 

cande

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I do it by hand three times daily, heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s used to it, I call him and he comes. I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t think is a mean way to do it, I think its the best and fastest technique.
 

jen

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Oh it is much easier to just pop it right down their throat with a pill popper. You can probably get one from the pet store or from a vet. It isn't mean at all. You just scruff the cat and open their mouth with pill popper and stick it in pretty far and pop it in there. Then (while still scruffing the cat) rub the neck/throat area immediately after popping the pill in to coax the cat to swallow.

It is reall easy and the most effective and easiesst way to do it. 2 seconds and its done and you dont have to worry about the cat not eating the food or not eating all of it and wondering if he got enough of the pill.
 

lunasmom

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Shucks...I haven't had the fun of popping pills yet.

Just the liquids...but for that I corner luna between my legs while kneeling over her. She can't back out and my head is in front of her so she doesn't run off.

She's pretty good about taking meds though.
 

lookingglass

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I've only had to give 8-Bit pills for a little while. He will come over I gently open his mouth and pop the pill right in. We then go about our day.
 

sarahp

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I have the kitty on a table, under my arm against my body, and using that same arm/hand, hold the head, and tilt it up and open the cats mouth by squeezing the sides where the mouth opens (not too rough). With the other hand pop it down the back of their throat. The trick is to get the pill as far back as possible.

It can help having one person holding the cat, and one popping the pill, but I found that since my husband was inexperienced at it, it was just easier for me to do it on my own.
 

peachytoday

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For Redford I take a pinch of a pill pocket and wrap the pill in that. Then I take a pounce treat and split it in half with a serrated knift. Then I sandwich the pill pocket w/pill inside between the two halves. Then I take more pounce and put some in front of Cassidy, Inca and Zander. While they are busy I put the Pounce pill pocket in front of Redford. Pill gone!

It took over a month to perfect this system. But Redford fought the pill every night and started to run from me so the manual method was just not working for me. The pill pocket is one of the greatest things.

Tricia
 

zazi

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i find the best thng to do is to always "Medicate" your cats....
By this i mean just make it a regular habit of popping something yummy into their mouth then when it comes to pill time they won't fuss so much....

the only thing is that if you have to medicate them for a week then you need to keep up with the treats in between the meds....
 

dawnscritterz

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This cat may just be different but the cat I'm treating at the vet is very difficult now to pill. At first he wasn't bad, but his neck is still sore and he's just tired of being messed with so he is nearly impossible to pill, even with a piller. I started giving him liquid Clavamox and also added Feline Duralactin, liquid. While he would fight the syringe, he never spit the medicine out, so I tried an experiment. I took a small bowl and poured the Duralactin dose in it and offered it to him. He lapped it up like it was milk!
So the next time, I put the clavamox drops in the bowl first, and then mixed in the duralactin, and voila
he lapped it up too.

Now getting the Otomax in his ears, or ear cleaner, is another story, he swats the tube out of my hand or scratches me when he swipes at me. Otherwise he is a very good kitty and he'll roll over for a tummy rub.

Dawn

P.S. we haven't had much luck with pill pockets for cats at our clinic, none of them seem to like them.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Crys12065

Should I just give him the pill by hand twice a day?

But he needs to take these for the rest of his life and that seems mean to shove a pill down his throat twice a day.

How do you guys give your kitty's pills?
i'd have to do that, because i have 2 that eat wet & 2 that eat only dry. currently, Pixel is the only one i have to do anything to, & that's only occasionally. but when i do, i manually pill her [or 'gel' her - her herpes med is in gel form] mostly because she won't eat wet - or treats, or cheese... & i haven't ever tried pill pockets - i figured she'd turn up her nose at them, too. you might ask if you can have the pill compounded into a tasty liquid - i think dawnofsierra's Sierra has her blood pressure meds done this way.
 

distol

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what i do is put the cat between my knees, while kneeling on the ground, wrap a towel around their chest so they can't paw at me when i'm forcing the pill down, open their mouth with one hand and stuff the pill down with the other. easy squeezy. works first time, every time. (except for Sunny. she's the only cat i know that can actually projectile spit a pill!)

you want to try something hard....force feed a chinchilla medicine! fun for all!
 

anjya

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Liverwurst!

Not totally sure if ive spelled that right. I have a cat with asthma and she gets a cortizone pill every other day.. Nothing worked until i discovered that she will do anything for a lick of liverwurst (a people food, meat paste) We have it here in Sweden as a common sandwich spread (leverpastej as it is called here). Anyway a tiny bit of that wrapped around the pill (plus a little without pill for my other jealous baby) and Gulp, gone! Fantastic!

Tipper and Proffy's mum, Anjya
 
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