I have a cat I had to give 4 different meds to multiple times a day. No matter what I did I couldn’t get him to take a pill, and he doesn’t really eat much wet food. So I took a can of tuna and squeezed out the juice, crushed the pills, mixed them in, and gave him tuna juice + medicine orally. He hated the syringes, but once he tasted the tuna he would usually sit still till it was done. It was a large pain to have to prepare everything 2 or 3 times a day and chase the cat down and slowly squeeze the plunger till it was gone, but it worked.
Ouch, and good luck! We were very, very fortunate with our beasties, they were amazingly docile about being pilled / dosed.
Though there was the time we dosed Dumbcat with a new antibiotic… that made him foam at the mouth. Poor beasty was huddled under the kitchen table, frothing, a picture of pure abject kitty misery.
He still came when it was time for his next dose (of a different med!!).
We’re very lucky so far - only one med every couple of months, and the cat eats it up with her wet food willingly. We tried squirting it down her throat, and that wasn’t working well, so we tried it on her food - she gobbled it up. Now we know - always try on food first. 
Once, for a 10 hour car trip, and on the advice of the vet, we gave children’s (liquid) Benadryl to our cats to sedate them. It didn’t really work because they didn’t get much of it. First it was hard to hold them still to give them the meds, then they were spitting it out, then it started to foam and lather. And it was slimy. And bright, violent pink. Never again.
That’s why I mastered the Kitty full-nelson a while ago.
start rubbing the belly, then when they relax a bit make your move. Starting from the middle of the belly make both your hand into the Vulcan sign. With each hand grab a set of legs near the shoulder. Thumb around one leg, Picky and ring around the other with the index and middle finger between. Slip. both hands to just below the knee and grab, Flipping them onto their side , and making sure you get the close hand middle finger under their chin. Then pull the back legs toward the front and grab all four calf-roping style in one hand rotating your pink to be under thier chin, and finish what you gotta finish with the other.
Well, I’ve been lucky. I’ve had to pill our cat three times a day for 13 years now, and he’s no problem. He tries to avoid me (but doesn’t hide, and comes right out because I do it before we feed him*), but never scratches or bites. He’ll also try to spit things out, but it’s easy enough to make sure he swallows.
I just put him on my lap on his back, open his mouth, and drop in the pill. He holds his legs stiff to try to keep my arm away, but my forearm is longer than his legs (and I’m stronger), so it doesn’t slow me up.
*He’ll walk away, then a minute later come back, spot me, and walk away. Repeat
I lost my beautiful Russian Blue, “Blue” (yeah, I know, I’m not very creative, name-wise) just over a year ago. We found out she was postive for FLV & when she took a turn for the worse, the vet prescribed some pills. As weak as Blue seemed to be at the time, she mustered up strength from somewhere. I could not control her, tried everything to get a pill down her, and I’m the one who ended up in tears.
She gave me Cat Scratch Fever which lasted longer than Blue. 
I don’t want to leave this on a downer, so I’ll mention that I adopted “Squirt” a few months later. My husband & I weren’t ready for a new commitment yet, but I’d stopped by PetsMart for a kitty fix twice, one month apart, and she called out to me both times. I couldn’t leave her.
My Squirt is a delight!
It’s getting easier. He’s not yelling, ‘They’re killing me!’ anymore. Now it’s more like, ‘Please, no! Do not want!’
19 more days to go…
You know that chicken broth in a box that you can open and keep in the fridge? Cats like it, even if it’s cold. And if it’s warmed up a bit, they like it even better.
I trim my kitties toenails. They don’t like it, but they know that they will get Halo chicken treats afterwards. I put the jar in front of them and start clipping while they gaze lovingly at the jar. As soon as I’m done, they get treats.
They don’t even blink when I push a pill down their throat because they know they I will open the jar after I’m done trying to kill them.
Freeze dried chicken. I tasted one once and it was like the bits of chicken flavored stuff you find in cup-of -soup before adding water.
I also tried dog kibble because I wanted to know why I couldn’t keep my 3 year old niece out of it.
Anyhow…good on you for keeping it up. Don’t stop when kitty acts like she’s feeling better. Just like a human, she needs to take them all.
Harvey’s a ‘he’. 
Roomie is an RN, so she’s diligent about finishing courses of medicine. And she’s had sick kitties before. She feels a bit ill-used this time, though. With the expensive tests, the vet bills have come to nearly $1,000. She only became an RN last Summer, so she’s just starting her career. She’s working on her BS, so she’s only working part-time while she studies. Good hourly rate, but not huge paychecks. The vet said he didn’t charge for something a couple of times, but in reality he did. I think what finally ticked her off though, was that after paying for all the expensive stuff the vet charged her a nine-dollar dispensing fee for the Orbax. She says she’s going to look for another vet.
We had a real bitch of a cat (which I loved so much and miss so much!), violent and aggressive when handled and certainly didn’t like receiving medication. Her vet file had a note that involved instructions to have a vet tech present, a blanket to wrap the cat in, a blind-fold/muzzle and leather gloves to cover the forearms while the still-struggling cat was pinned down. All this for a basic check up; it got worse for urine tests or blood draws. So, yeah, real bitch of a cat.
This cat had chronic kidney and bladder infections, requiring antibiotics. After one attempt at giving her pills (resulting in still-visible scars to my hands) we went out and bought Greenies Pill Pockets. Twice a day, every day, the bitch cat would beg for her treat, blissfully unaware that it contained medicine. Sadly, it didn’t save her life, but Greenies are the reason I still have all my fingers…and for that matter, both hands.
Thankfully, we never had to give her liquid medication. I don’t know what we would have done if we had to! :eek:
We had to rush a cat to the vet this morning, he was peeing blood. He didn’t want to get caught (this cat HATES to be picked up), he didn’t want to get stuffed into the carrier, he didn’t want to ride in the car, and he absolutely didn’t want to come out of the carrier at the vet’s. While he was there, he didn’t want his temp taken, and he didn’t want to get examined. One of the vet techs petted him, though, and he DID like that, a lot. He’s always wary around new people, but if he can get petted, well, then they are friends. Then he got a shot. And then he was happy to get back into his carrier. And he cried all the way home.
The GOOD news is that the shot is a one dose treatment. No pills. This cat doesn’t like to be caught, and we’ve had to give him two pills a day before. So, he’s Sulking Under The Bed, but he’ll get over it. On the car rides to and from the vet’s, though, he cried piteously.
Is this the baby your husband rescued from the no-account relative?
In either case, glad you saw he had a problem and were able to get it treated so quickly. UTIs are no fun. I’m lucky that my babies have (so far) never had one, and I hope they never do, but I have Heard Stories.
No, the one with the UTI is one I adopted from the Humane Society. He’s had UTIs before, and I wonder if this is why he was given up…he was a four year old boy when I got him, but still unneutered. He’s still Sulking Under The Bed, but I imagine that he’ll come out tomorrow.
The grey kitty from the no account relative has had absolutely NO health issues, other than removing her stitches after getting spayed. Apparently, they itched. She’s on Bill’s lap right now, snoozing. When he’s home, she hollers at him to sit down so she can get in his lap. She’s shown absolutely NO interest in going outside, though she does enjoy looking out the window. She’s lived Outside, and she LIKES having food and water and litterboxes available. Plus she likes humans.
I just completed a two week regimen of antibiotics with my very dificult cat. My vet gave me a plunger type thing - it’s about 7-8" long with a rubber receptor that holds the capsule. Also, after I ‘plunge’ the capsule I do a quick squirt of water with a syringe type thing that helps wash it down. This is the first time I’ve ever been able to give meds without major trauma. Trying to force a pill down his throat with my fingers used to get me scratched or bitten.
I totally sympathize with the OP. I once had a 27-pound cat who came down with a virus, causing diarrhea. The vet told me to squirt Kaopectate down his throat. I think I got more Kaopectate on the walls, floor and ceiling than into the cat.
Shadow has emerged from Under The Bed. He has allowed us both to pet him, but he’s made it clear that we are still not forgiven. Me, I’m just happy that we aren’t going to have to catch him and wrestle with him twice a day to get a pill down his throat.
Is he spending time following you from room to room, just so he can sit with his back to you so you can see how much he’s ignoring you and, of course, making sure you’re suffering from his disregard?
I read somewhere that the trick is to get the pill into the cat’s mouth (doesn’t matter how far, just in), get the mouth shut, and then blow in the cat’s face/nose. This apparently triggers a reflex that causes them to swallow. My cats don’t like getting pilled, either, and this trick has allowed me to reduce the trauma to about 15 seconds from open mouth to drop to floor.
The last time he had a UTI, we had to give him pills. And I made this LOLcat from one of ICHC’s photos. Looks just like him, right down to the ears flipped back. Since he didn’t get pills this time, he’s more willing to forgive us. He’s feeling LOTS better, and has initiated several wrestling matches with his little brother.
His previous owner named him Shadow, and since he knew and answered to the name, I couldn’t change it. I don’t know why they felt that Shadow was a good name for an orange kitty.