Help giving tablets

[cestlavie]

Hi all,

Our little tabby cat (8) is just going into remission from feline lymphoma... hoorah! Not sure it'll stay that way, but it's all looking a damn sight better than it was about two months ago when it was first diagnosed.

Anyways, she's not needing to go into the vet twice a week for chemo but she is still needing to take steroid tablets every other day. Unfortunately, she's remarkably hard to get tablets down - even the veterinary hospital struggles to do it with two (highly trained) nurses doing it. It's a little like sticking your hand into a high speed blender and even if you get it into her mouth, she spits it out a few seconds later.

Normally would crush up and give in favourite food, but she's still off her food with the effects of chemo which means she's only nibbling at food here and there (even her favourite stuff). Plus, given she's lost a lot of weight during chemo, I don't want to be messing around with her food too much per se.

Sooo... any smart ideas on how to get tablets into a nervous (read, dangerously psychotic) cat who won't take them in their food?

Thanks a lot!

You could ask your vet for a pill popper which is like a syringe. It has a handle at one end and tweezers at the other end which you lift the tablet with. You have to open your cat's mouth though and basically pop the pill down the back of the throat so it cannot spit it out and then hold your cat's mouth shut. The vet actually gave it to me as our cat had to stay there and they found it difficult getting tablets into him so they used this. Our cat hates getting tablets too and this was the only way but I have to say that after about the 4th time he started to flee and hide whenever he saw me coming. Hope this helps.

Thanks mykiddies.

Have got one of those (actually on to third now). It did help a bit at first but she still manages to spit them out... assuming of course that she has clawed the pill popper away first. Feisty little thing she is..

That's too bad. I resorted to mixing his tablets into a little bundle of mushy tuna and mayo as I felt guilty with the pill popper and he gobbled up in one go. Surely though if you put the pill popper right back you are shooting right down the throat. Other than those two things there aint anything much else! I hope she gets better soon and starts eating. My poor wee man had an infection and we thought that was it but he's now healthy again. Our other cat also 14 then took ill and were told she might have tumor on her tongue and to bring back in a fortnight. We have not been able to take her up with the snow but she has picked up and her mouth seems fine now - fingers crossed.

I use marmite to give tablets to my cats. I just get a bit and over the tablet in it and put it as far to the back of the mouth and then rub their throat and they swallow.

You have my sympathy! My cat (totally neurotic, psychotic, attention seeking and spoilt!) has to have a pill forever more - we are 8 months down the line. At one stage it felt like we pretty much owned P@H, had so much stuff and whatever you try they go off it after a day or two!!

Can you tempt her with tuna, juice from tuna in water, crush the pill in that with a few tuna flakes.

If she likes any "human food" wrap it in a tiny bit of meat, cheese, whatever.

P@H does some treats that are healthy - 95% real meat, they are small, round tubes, soft enough to put the pill in and then roll into a small ball... mines loves these at the moment and I can normally get it down him then give him his dinner. Oh and I have him on kitten food mixed with adult food to build him up as he too lost loads of weight.

As a totally last resort have sort of stabbed it in a bit of the food he will eat (if wet totally disgusting!) and then coaxed to eat!

Good luck, tea tree oil is brilliant on the war wounds!!

pills in yoghurt always works with my impossible old bastard of a cat...

One of mine loves bananas . Fortunately I haven't had to give her tablets yet, but would try that if I did (she gets one small piece every so often)

With the other one, it's a case of grab the scruff, hold him on the floor and throw it down the back of his throat, then hold his mouth shut til he swallows it. He's a greedy beggar though, so is used to it as he gets in the rubbish and gives himself tummy upsets! (He's also going through registration as a therapy cat, so is very mild of temprament)

Hi,
Our cat has cardiomyopathy and is under the care of a specialist at the university. He is currently on 4 different tablets, and a potassium supplement - some twice a day! The cat we have to give these tablets to was once like something out of the exorcist (head spinning etc etc) with fangs at the ready! Wormers were done by the vets after he bit clean through my nail and finger! He is now excellent at his meds because I crush them up in to crab pate (sandwich filler type - john west stuff originally!) which is the right consistency to mix all the dry crushed tablet powder into, and then still be moist enough to administer if he won't clean the plate himself! I wipe it into the corner of his mouth which avoids being bitten! Tablet crushers can be bought from any pharmacy for a couple of pounds, and have been a life saver - quite literally as they gave him 3 months to live in April 2008 - thankfully he is still with us!
Please contact me if I can help at all,
tiggly xx
p.s have a good christmas!

Prednisolone comes as a soluble form excellent for those whirling blender cats - completely undetectable in tuna.