How to do the impossible? (i.e. how to get my cat to eat a pill)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, one of my cats is sick - her gums are infected.

We got her from the street a year ago, and she was a few years old by then, so her teeth were never in perfect condition. Before we took her in, she spent a few months at the animal shelter, as she had kittens to raise, so she was looked over by a vet a few times, got her shots and all that.

For a year her appetite could be described as, well, ravenous. She would eat everything she was given, and she had to be locked up when any meat was being handled in the kitchen, sandwiches could not be left unattended, and my boyfriend had to bravely protect my dinner once, when I got up to answer the phone.

For the last few days she was eating a bit less, but cats do sometimes, so we were just watching for any signs of something more serious. But yesterday she practically didn’t eat anything at all and was drooling up a little puddle — oh-oh, think we.

So today we got a packet of pills from the vet, and we are to give her two every day for two weeks. Then we’ll see if she should have any dental work done, which in this case means removing some, and cleaning them up a bit.

We tried to give her the pill. Wrap her up tightly in a towel, tilt her head back, open mouth and plop the pill back as far as possible and close mouth shut. Right, she spit the little pill out as soon as we let go of her, and we were not quick to let her go. We tried this four times, with some variations in how we held her, at what angle, with maybe some cat food on the pill (we were told it’s very bitter, but how the vet knew…), massaging her neck to stimulatethe swallowing reflex and so on. We are left with a very irritated cat with a bigger drooling problem and a slightly damp pill.

So I turn to the present and past cat owners of the SDMB to please offer some advice on what else we can try. (Her sore gums can be adding to the problem as putting a finger in the wrong place causes pain, which could end with me or my mum losing fingers).

We want her to get the pill in as soon as possible, as she should really not be going without food, or hurting gums, for too long.

2

Use a cat pill dispenser: Petco: Pet Supplies, Pet Food, & Pet Products

Basically, put the pill in the end of the device, stick the pill down into the cats mouth near the back of the throat and release the pill. Clamp the cat’s mouth shut with your hand. They will swallow the pill.

3

You are absolutely correct in that she needs to eat, soon. Cats not eating can be deadly, as they can develop hepadic lepidosis.

I have had good luck with crushing pills up with a pill crusher (like this) and mixing it with canned food.

Pilling a cat the way you describe takes work. So many times I’ve been convinced it went down the hatch but then I find the pill on the floor a little later! :eek:

4

This is how we do it, but the person holding the cat has to also try to hold the jaws open.

The second person plops the pill in the back of the mouth, sticks a fiinger in the mouth, and pushes the pill into the throat.

The cat has no choice but to swallow the pill.

5

Pill pockets work great for our kitty when the ol’ hide it in the wet food trick doesn’t work.

6

Google on how pill cat and a number of sites come up, including these three.

And of course this. :smiley:

7

My Luna, the Connoisseur of Treats, recommends Greenies chicken-flavored Pill Pockets. She begged for pills and purred when she got them when we wrapped them in those. We were able to get them at the vet’s. If your vet doesn’t carry them, try someplace like Petco or Petsmart.

8

My husband is excellent at pilling cats - I’m terrible at it. I grind the pill in a mortar & pestle, and mix the powder with some meat baby food or flaked up tuna.

9

We tried it in a treat, but she’s just not eating. She just licks the sauce from the cat food and won’t eat anything more solid than gravy.

What worked for now was powdering it, mixing it with a few drops of olive oil and placing it on her nose. The instinct to lick her nose was to strong to overcome, which was not the case with the instinct to lick her paw clean. Apparently she would rather walk around with a grubby paw than lick the pill off.

As for her not eating anything, we hope she’ll come around tomorrow, but for now she’s licking the jelly/sauce off of cat food, and we also got her some cat milk, so she’d get some nutrients in her.

I’ll drop by the local pet store to see what sort of torture instruments they carry for such an occasion. :slight_smile:

Thank you for all the advice.

10

The way my vet taught me to do it works great on our less than cooperative feline overlady.

Get one of those needle-less syringes and fill it with a few ccs of water. Hold the cat, seated, with one arm wrapped around it so your hand is on the back of the head, head tilted up. Slip the pill behind the fang and give it a bit of a push. When the cat opens its mouth, gently squirt the syringe into the back of the throat. Out of 24 pills we had to give her over the course of treatment only one didn’t go down on the first attempt.

Good luck.

11

When you stick the pill down the throat, instead of massaging the neck, just lightly blow on her face. For some reason, this seems to work in getting the cat to swallow.

12

Interesting. Cats are… strange creatures.

I’ll have to try this just to see the magic work. :slight_smile:

13

I had a cat once that needed pills twice a day for a couple years, before succumbing to whatever it was that ailed him. I got REALLY good at pilling cats.

The trick is to get the pill past the hump in the tongue (I don’t know a better way to describe it). Basically, when you force the jaws open and stick your finger in, the tongue kind of goes up in a hump. If you get the pill past that hump, it’s very difficult for the cat to spit it out.

14

If you can crush the pill (not all pills can be crushed) it’s easy. Just mix the pill with something sticky and put it on the cat’s paw. Cats will lick the sticky substance off their paws ASAP.

15

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting putting ground up pill in cat food. That generally doesnt work unless you cat is quite easy to dose. (“Meat baby food” was not a cutesy nickname for cat food) I mean meat baby food for humans. It is paste made from ground up meal and broth, about a billion times for delicious than cat food, with a paste texture.

16

If you blow in her face after, it forces her to swallow…

17

Definitely going to try that.

At firs I thought: what are meat babies? Then I thought you maybe meant kitten food, as it’s often softer. :slight_smile:

But I’ll pick up a Gerber dinner for my cat tomorrow.

18

You might also call your Vet and mention that you are having a real problem getting the cat to swallow a pill, given that she’s not eating and has sore gums which make it hurt to force-feed her a pill. Most common feline medications come in a liquid form too, and most people find it easier to get a liquid into reluctant cat. So ask your vet – the pills are doing no good if you can’t get her to eat them!

19

One of my cats need a daily pill. I use to pill her by just pushing it down her throat, and was pretty good at it. We went away for a week and our (also cat-owning) neighbor watched them - she said she knew how to pill cats.

When I got back, the poor cat was so traumatized that it was impossible to pill her (she took a big chunk out of my finger when I tried). I guess neighbor wasn’t as good as she thought.

Now, I crush the pill in a pill crusher, mix it with about 1.5 cc of water, suck it up into a medicine syringe and can easily flip the cat over for 3 seconds and squirt it down her throat - works like a charm. She gets some petromalt a sa treat afterward and doesn’t complain too much.

mm

20

Personally I have not found that to be the case, but every human cat pair is different I guess. A poster recently had luck with a transdermal dosing system (a lotion you rub into the ear), I didn’t know that existed till then but apparently it is becoming more popular.

Info sheet on transdermal medications for cats