To ask for help and advice. At wits end. Cat absolutely refuses to take medicine

[RunningFeisty]

My poor little cat has a tooth infection that has caused an abscess. Vet have given us antibiotics in tablet form but after a few days she got wise to us and managed to trick us into thinking she had swallowed it but would run off and spit it out

Today I contacted the vet again and they gave us an alternative medicine in a liquid format.

Except she won't take that either. She wretched and coughed and foamed at the mouth sicking it back up! I am at a total loss. She won't have it in any way. We have wrapped her in a towel, pried open her mouth. We've tried it mixed in food and treats. She won't even touch it if the tablet is in there or the liquid now it's that.

What do we do? I have spent a fortune already with vets and can't afford anything else!

Help!

You can ask for a long lasting injection.

My cat is bad at taking pills, I try and hide it in food, even crushing it up and mixing it in tuna. He is suspicious though and I think they can smell the pills.
I also sometimes grind up the pills, mix it in primula cheese and smear it on his front leg, he then seems compelled to lick/clean it off.

The vet had a tube thing that he used and that you could buy at the vets, I cant remember what it was called. You put it in the cat's mouth (not easy, I know), and it fires the pill to the back of the cat's throat. It looked a bit unpleasant to be honest and I usually find the smear and lick method tends to work.

We don't have any. I know I know. But even with insurance there's the excess.

We use a special pill dispenser (like a long, slim plastic syringe) - your vet will have one), coat the pill in butter, hold their head up, nudge the mouth open, then drop the pillin the back of their tongue. Hold mouth shut and stroke the throat for a minute. This triggers a swallow reflex. It takes a bit of practice, but it usually works. They'll struggle a bit, and hate you for half an hour, but then forget. A favourite treat afterwards helps too.

If this doesn't work, pay extra and get an injection.

I should say that we've tried all the other methods here, and none worked for our cats either. They will hold the pill ih their mouths for up to half an hour if you don't stroke their throats.

Blend up smelly fish and mix the liquid in that. The stronger the smell the better. If she won't eat it, spread it on her paws/anywhere she can lick and it should go down that way.

Baby food might work too, or meat/fish paste. Always give a bit of the untainted stuff before and after.

When I had to give my cat antibiotics, I put the each tablet in a tiny bit of Leberwurst (I am in Germany) that she was able to swallow whole. Paté is similar to Leberwurst; maybe you could try that? The important thing is that the tablet is wrapped in something your cat finds yummy and that it is so small that she won‘t chew on it but rather swallow it whole.

You have my sympathy, its so frustrating, especially when you just want them to take the damn medicine so they can get better.

One of our cats could be fooled by tablets wrapped in wafer thin turkey, or wrapped in a bit of rizzla and then strategically placed with a few treats (no idea how that worked but it did!).

Another one could only be forced to swallow them if I held her mouth open, dropped the tablet in and then held her mouth shut until she had swallowed a couple of times (once you have caught the cat and if necessary wrapped in a blanket to avoid losing too much skin). She was on anti-bs for two weeks, and three years later she still doesn't trust me to pick her up...

Hope one of the suggestions on here works for you :)

Is it liquid?

If so keep the cats mouth closed and insert the syringe into the back of the mouth through the side of the cheek. Hold head up and mouth closed until swallowed.

Failing that a firm scruff and squirting to the back of the mouth usually works.

Cat boilies.

Cheap packet of liver pate, roll blobs into two balls, pill in one.

Even my evil genius cat fell for that one.

Two options. One is to try and get a pill popper thing. Most vets have them now for worming tablets and make our jobs so much easier. Other option would be to discuss a long standing antibiotic injection although given it’s a tooth infection probably wouldn’t be too effective.

Another one I’ve just thought of is to ask the vets for a nurse to show you how to hold the cat and her then to take the tablet. I wasn’t able to show my family as was away and the nurse did it for free and all sorted!

Try putting the tablet into a quarter of a teaspoon of philadephia cheese, and mold it around the tablet. One of mine has been on steroids for around 2 months now, and he takes the tablet in philadephia no problem.

Alternatively see if the vet can give you antibiotics in injection form - the long lasting injection is relatively cheap (I say relatively - I mean for vets fees) at around £35-45? From memory anyway.

Or hi dden in marmite sandwich

My mum's friend used to mix the medication into a scrambled egg and it would get eaten sharpish.

Stroke their throat - they won't be able to resist swallowing. Our late cat needed daily tablets. Open mouth, drop tablet down throat, hold mouth shut, stroke throat until cat has swallowed several times.

I'm still finding tablets all round the house three months later.

We use a syringe ( think calpol ) put the syringe in side of mouth aim for under tongue and squeeze! That’s the only way our dog will take medicines. We hold a treat in front of him while we do it, that helps too!

Hide it in cheap pate? We've also been known to hide tablets in raw chicken, that's usually gone before they've realised it has anything hidden in it. Any sort of softish treat you can hide it in us worth trying.

Next time ask for the longlasting antibiotic injection, it's so much less stressful for everyone!

Not sure if this will work for the liquid but I used to crush the tablet to a powder and put it in a couple tablespoons of that cat safe milk stuff you can buy in the little bottles. On a saucer and scoffed in no time.

I have had cats all my life (am now in my 60's) and until I had my current female I have managed all different ways of giving them drugs.
Polly has proved impossible to treat, we tried a pill popper, lick-e-lix and that stuff that you can buy specially for wrapping round pills,
She is so strong willed and can manage to retch and regurgitate anything you manage to get down her.
After she managed to break out of a locked cat flap (so great was her rage) I consulted the vet and she had a slow acting anti B injection (she had a tooth abcess).
We were all a lot calmer!

Convenia is the long lasting injection and it has poor penetration and efficacy for dental infections which is likely why the vet has not prescribed it.

Antibiotic resistance due to misuse of antibiotics is a real issue as not all antibiotics work well for all infections. Convenia is expensive and not indicated in dental disease.
It’s likely that dental treatment/extraction may be necessary if there’s significant infection.

Mine has Smilla multivitamin paste. She’ll happily wolf down tablets crushed up and mixed into it- she eats it off a spoon. My old boy was an absolute demon with tablets- he’d store them for hours before spitting them out whole in front of me, but even he’d eat them crushed up in ice cream.

Depending on your schedule you could take hee into the vets and get one of the nurses to give her the tablets. Not ideal but am option if work is flexible

I got to be an expert at this. Woukd have to come at the cat from behind, open his mouth and hold his head right back and get it into the back of the throat at the top. Then shut his mouth, still holding his head upwards and rub his throat.
Good luck x

You need one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASOSMOS-Capsule-Injection-Medicine-Dispenser/dp/B07H87VC2L/ref=ascdff_B07H87VC2L/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309842998506&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4257159660791497996&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045909&hvtargid=pla-569141583796&psc=1

We had this recently. Assuming your tablets are OK to be crushed use the lik e lix previously mentioned. I then put a small pinch of catnip in it as was getting desperate by this point and he likes eating catnip.
If you have synulox antibiotics our vet said they are ok to be crushed.

Any helpful neighbours or friends? I feel for you, mine will not take tablets. Sometimes I can fool him with one mushed into strong cheese or pushed into a piece of chicken