Urgent-cat medication

[Pineapplemonkey]

I am beside myself with worry about my moggy.

After a trip to the vet on Wednesday he has to take one pill a day and a syringe of liquid medicine. I have managed to get the pill in him two and a bit times. I tried crushing it into lick-e-lix, worked the first time, he refused the second time, he knows somehow, won’t go near the bowl. Tried it in food, again, he knows. Watched several YouTube vids on how to give pills whole, managed it once after a 20 minute fight and I suspect that was luck rather than skill, today I lost in the fight, crushed it in his favourite food tuna, again he won’t touch it. He’s got dental issues (hence the liquid painkiller) so I can only give him soft liquidy foods and he’s eating sooooo little, I think he’s afraid of the pain, he’s lost so much weight.

so does anyone have any fool proof tips for getting cats to take pills?

also, any food ideas to try and get calories into a reluctant cat who I’m sure is hungry but scared of actually eating

Hills prescription chicken flavour i/d wet food in cans is the softest pasty texture.

I would maybe try a stronger flavoured fish canned in oil, such as sardines or mackerel.

I'm no expert with pills but a pill popper helps a bit.

Sorry to hear you are struggling, sounds an absolute nightmare, hopefully some cat experts will be along in a minute who can advise you, if not I would phone the vets tomorrow and see if they can advise they must come across this problem a lot, I can’t imagine many cats are compliant! it must be incredibly stressful fighting with a cat to get medication into them and also unsustainable, an awful situation for you both. If you Google high calorie liquid cat foods there are a lot available that might help.

If he has dental pain, manhandling his mouth is going to be really sore. Does he have a dental scheduled? Call the vets tomorrow and discuss with them

He has dental surgery at the end of the month but he needs to put some weight on and improve his liver levels before they will do the surgery

No point hiding it in food, they always know. Having had several reluctant pill takers, soft and sweet just prolongues the stress.

Big girl pants on. Work firmly and fast.
Pick up cat, kneel on floor and place cats body between thighs, tail in head out, so it can't scrabble much.
Put palm on top of cats head with finger and thumb either side of muzzle to hold top jaw.
Gently and firmly lift head back, mouth will open
Pop pill in at back of throat with other hand
Don't let go - gently and firmly hold mouth shut till you feel the swallow
Stroke and release

All in under a minute when you get into the swing. Good idea to have that tuna on standby for straight afterwards.

Can you get a pill dispenser from the vet and maybe a vet nurse could show you how to use it? Sometimes the pills taste too strongly to be palatable.
Unless the vet had suggested crushing, I'd try and get it to swallow it.
I had one cat who was crazy for prawns and I would feed her several prawns to the point she was just swallowing and not chewing and then I would slip in the spiked prawn and there was a good chance it would be seen away.

There are special pill pates you can get that are very tasty and tempting

If you can get the syringe in his mouth without too much trouble, then crush the pill, mix with a small quantity of water and administer that way.

Easypill works for one of ours (not had to try it on the other yet). It’s a mouldable paste with a strong marmitey smell (and I assume taste). He won’t reliably eat actual food with a pill in, and I cannot do the thing with the jaw. To be sure with a bigger pill I would consider grinding it up and rolling it into the paste.

We use Easypill

I do the same as @WishIWasACavewoman it’s not nice, but the only way to get it in there sometimes!

I hope your cat is better soon.

Hello OP, I use Pill Pockets (Amazon sell them) and also treats sticks broken into section which I then split with my fingernail and press the pieces of the pills inside (I cut them up first with a pill cutter).

Sorry your cat is poorly.

I have a feisty one who hates medication and scares the vet. My tactic is

Just before feeding time. Get a bath towel and a thick calico shopping bag.

Throw towel over the cat and wrap as tightly as the struggle /claws allow.

Put cat in towel burrito into the bag legs first. Tightly wind the bag around cat leaving only head exposed. Make sure they can't get front paws out. The calico should protect you from
Claws.

Hold head from behind and put fingers into the jaw at the jaw joint to force mouth open. Drop the pilll in and immediately shut the mouth and hold it firmly shut whilst gently stroking the throat to stimulate swallowing.

Wait at least 2minutes to make sure it's gone down.

Put the bag on the floor and stand clear whilst your cat unbundled itself , spits abc glares and scarpers.

Sound brutal but it does work.

I'd go back to the vets and ask for injectable meds, saves the hassle on all sides. I have one with stomatitis who recently had a full mouth tooth extraction, there was no way he could tolerate tablets when his mouth was so sore.

Thanks everyone, have just ordered some Easypill and some cat food specially for sick cats, it’s worth a try. Will try and use your tips for prising his jaw open until it arrives!
I can’t believe how stressful this all is, not helped by the fact I’m going on holiday in a week and a half for a week, I am so so worried about leaving him. Fingers crossed that the Easypill works

Please don’t prise his painful jaws open!
speak to your vet and ask for injectable alternatives

the added stress of fighting with him is likely to stress him out and won’t help his liver or appetite.

Options are:

1. Wrap in largest towel you can possibly find. Do the jaw opening thing, then clamp cat's mouth shut for much longer than you think necessary - cat burrito method
2. Try hiding in food. Depending on how food motivated your cat is I've had success with: moulding a piece of Lidl cat stick around the pill then chucking it as cat as a treat, crumbling on to wet food, and amazingly just sticking a whole capsule in a very preferred food (in our case Canagan Herring) and capsule gets hoovered up in the excitement
3. Ask for liquid or injectable alternative. Sometimes doesn't exist but the vet doesn't necessarily offer unless you ask

I normally have to poke pills down my cat’s throat as I’ve tried pretty much everything else I can think of. My two girls are good at pill taking but my boy is terrible.

For increasing his calorie intake, I’ve used VetCal Pro Gel High Calorie Supplement (bought it from VioVet) with very good effect.

My late cat was on 8 pills a day. I used to put them
In a pull syringe, and give them in one go. She was very good about it. However she was a very placid Persian. A real cat may not be so compliant.

Harry has his medication in a small portion of Hills A/D food. Luckily we can crush the pills as and put the liquid in it at the same time.

I have used a paste successfully ( the little pots you buy for humans to spread on toast ) such as fish , shrimp , bloater or beef , sometimes chicken , depends on what your cat likes , strong smells / taste to disguise the tablet and make a little covered tablet ball of it , give a non loaded ball of the paste , tease him a bit to get him keen then give him the loaded one followed up by the third one not loaded , if you have other pets a bit of food competition helps as you need him to want to eat it rather than his rival
I find the same worked with a small amount of cheese or cocktail sausage ,
some are very good knowing that the treat is loaded and will avoid like it’s going to explode , if you don’t have any other pets to use as treat rivals does he try to eat or beg your food when you eat ? Let him think it’s your yummy treat and get it down that way ?
hope you get something that works from any of the answers here
I had a very old fussy cat on long term medication but also had two small greedy terrier friends so I would make it an exciting event they all joined in and Dcat was pretty deft at swallowing a fully loaded cocktail sausage in one go

Unfortunately (or fortunately maybe) I don’t have any other pets so no competition for him. He does keep walking up to his bowls and going right up close with his nose, pauses and then walks away . Every time I go in the kitchen he follows me and is begging me with his eyes to give him food (he’s never been vocal and he’s never begged for my food, I’ve always been able to put a plate down near him and he’s never pinched any, even as a kitten). I think the eating has improved very slightly, he’s definitely started chewing food more as opposed to just licking the jelly/gravy off and he’s wandering off at regular intervals to eat a few more mouthfuls. To be fair he’s always been a grazer rather than a bolter.

I’ve ordered some Easypill and some of the gel a previous poster suggested to boost his calories and nutrition as well as a selection of soft pate type food. Add to this the new bowls I bought (higher from the ground ones), every brand of wet food known to man (many of which he will not touch, don’t know why I’m surprised, he’s rejected many many less premium brands in the past!) and the vets bills (so far) I may need to remortgage imminently😬

But I’m still just his slave obviously so I am obligated to make this much effort for his well-being………..

I'm a veteran pill-giver too and I could have written this exactly as this poster describes. I pilled my feisty old girl several times a day for about 6 years using this precise technique. It's the straddling that make them know the game is up, and they have no choice but to comply. It does look a bit odd but hey! You've got to let them know who is boss.
if his mouth is sore, no amount of tasty, smelly fish is going to work to make him take it willingly. Though our cat sitter did have some success with "pill assist" treats (squishy mouldable pockets) but they are too expensive for everyday use for long term conditions (c.£10 for a pack of 45).

**To all those crushing or cutting up pills : Note that quite a few veterinary pills are designed to be slow release and shouldn't be crushed. Read the instruction sheet.

When I had an elderly cat who didn't eat, we changed her to pate-style food to stop the habit of licking the jelly and abandoning the food.

Other things that helped were raising the height of the bowl (we put it on a book), and sitting with her while she ate. In extreme circumstances I'd pretend to eat her food first which did seem to work.

If he is walking up to the bowl and not eating, my guess is he is nauseous - are the tablets anti-emetic? They should really help.