How to pill a cat, need tips.

[catdaddy007]

I have quite a story to tell you. Rosie has to take these little antibiotics pills every 8 hours for a kidney infection. Tried pill pockets. She won't eat them. Tried sticking them in butter. She licked the butter and left the pill. I had to use the pill popper to force it down. She was upset. The next 3 times I successfully pilled her by wrapping the pill in lunch meat. She snatched it from my hand and swallowed the pill. I thought I had a solution but this morning she ate the lunch meat and spit out the pill 5 times. She therefore ate too much lunch meat, enough for breakfast without swallowing the pill. I had to use the pill popper again and she was so upset she went inside a box to hide. I saw a YouTube video about mixing a pill with dry kibble in your hand until it smells the same and then letting the cat eat the kibble along with the pill. Seems too easy to be true but I'll try it tonight. If that fails I'll stick it in a piece of cheese. I'm also considering buying some cream cheese to spread on the lunch meat so the pill sticks. So much creativity and trial and error required to get my kitty to swallow pills preferably stress-free. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

I had this problem with my anemic cat who needs Dexemethasone. She would fight trying to open her mouth and it was really tough going for a while. I gave it some thought, and I bought some moist treats (Purina Luv chicken, comes in a little yellow pouch), and I take a knife and make a slit in a treat. Then I push the pill into it, which causes it to break up a bit; I keep squishing and forming the treat around the pill with my fingertips, only using about half of the treat so it's not too big for one mouthful ( I don't want her to chew it and find the pill, I want her to swallow it whole). When it's in a fairly compact, small shape, I just put it on the floor and she eats it without hesitation! If it's a bit too dry to hold its shape, I will dip my finger in a tiny bit of cat food to add moisture. Hope this helps.

 

[kittylove14]

idk if it's been said but a piller or a long plastic pointy thing with rubber tip for the pill can be used. you tilt the head back put the pill in the rubber tip go in from the side back teeth which makes them open up and then back of tongue pop the trigger and make sure the cat swallows. i did pill my cat who was not easily handleabls this way and he did ok just had to check the swallow after. he spit a couple out if i missed the pill going all the way back. liquid is expensive but if it's crushable then you can make your own liquid. it may be easier just to use the piller and they're like $4.
edit: sorry -you tried this. i'd try the liquid! rough go of it hope it goes better.

 

[meowmmy_aprile]

I had said in an earlier reply that I use broth mixed with the crushed pills. 

Right now I have a kitty on 2 tabs of clavimox, 1 pred and 2 1/2 ccs of Panacur. She takes the Panacur once a day and the clavimox 2xs a day. She has respiratory issues so any stress makes her cough and get winded. To avoid stressing her by grabbing her 2 xs a day I have been crushing all of her pills with a meat hammer. I mix the 2 1/2 ccs of Panacur and the crushed pills with 1 teaspoon of tuna or chicken and a couple of tablespoons or chicken broth or tuna juice. I heat it up for 10 seconds let it cool a bit and mix everything in. She has been on this for 5 days now. Every morning and evening now she comes and gets me for her treat (meds) she eats every last drop and I can't imagine 2 1/2 ccs of Panacur tastes real well. I would usually take the meds to a compounding pharmacy and have them compounded which is about $30 to do. The pharmacy told me it would take 24 hours to do the compound and since she was having issues breathing I did not want to wait that long to start her meds so I figured I'd go ahead and try giving them to her like above and if it didn't work then I'd have them compounded. It worked like a charm. I saved myself $30 and she is not stressed being caught to have all kinds of things thrown down her throat. I don't have to spend 30 mins chasing her around because she knows what is coming and she actually looks forward to med time. Now I'm not sure how happy she will be once her med time is over and she no longer gets her morning and nightly snack. I am sure there will be a lot of tapping and running to the kitchen for treat time lol.

 

[donutte]

This is what I've done with Maple, and it works (and actually has gotten better over time).

First find out if you cat likes pill pockets by themselves. If they do, great. If not, find something they do like.

Get some gel caps. I think I have size 3, but it really depends on the pills. I take the pill, put it in the smaller side of the gel cap (ditch the other side because it's not needed), then put it in the pill pocket (or whatever you end up using).

Maple gets this presented to her on a dish. When I first started doing it, it was surrounded by temptations treats, and had a treat squished on top of the pill pocket. At some point, I was able to remove not only the surrounding treats, but also the one squished on top of the pill pocket. She still gets treats afterwards, and she wants those treats, so she'll eat the pill pocket (since that's a pre-requisite to her getting the treats).

I'd tried everything with her, and was SO thankful it worked. Yes, there are times she ends up dropping the pill in the gelcap and won't eat it (sometimes she does). In that case, I have to put it in another pill pocket. That's only happened a few times though.