Cat won’t take pill (sotalol)

[BoofyBoo]

We have a 7-year old cat we adopted 3 years ago who we adore. He collapsed a few weeks ago and then again as his meds were not right.

We’ve been taking him to a specialist clinic and he’s now stabilised on the right meds. Unfortunately that’s 3-4 tablets twice a day including sotalol to slow his heart rate. Thats one of two critical pills that if he doesn’t take his condition will quickly worsen.

He’s a big strong cat (tabby, 6-7kg) and very resistant to taking pills. We’ve tried all other methods - holding him in a towel (he’s too resistant), pill pockets, liver paste etc and recently he’s been enjoying it in a ball of cheddar cheese so we thought we’d cracked it. But now he won’t eat the cheese. My husband got him to eat it in some cooked chicken last night but now he won’t eat that - he eats the chicken and leaves the soggy tablet.

He takes his other pills broken up in crushed Dreamies or lickelicks but the sotalol seems to have an unpleasant taste. We also need to be sure he’s had all of it and it apparently can’t be crushed or it isn’t effective.

We are desperate! He’s such a lovely boy and is enjoying life again at the moment - we understand we won’t have him for more than 6-12 months but we don’t want to see him go simply because he won’t take a pill. The vets say he takes them from their nurses but they are obviously trained.

Has anyone had a similar situation or has anyone got other ideas?

Sorry for the long post - I wanted to get everything down to avoid suggestions we have already tried.

Sorry typed a whole reply having failed to spot the bit where you can’t crush the drug in question.
I’m afraid the only other solution I’ve found is two people, motorbike gloves, a towel and a pill pusher.
This means they can’t hurt you, the gloves have plated knuckles so you can keep a firm grip and not get bitten or scratched but at that stage if it’s old age and not ill health medication you start to wonder why you’re doing it. Sorry, hope you find a solution, they’re stubborn buggers when they don’t want to take something.

He may feel strong but he’s not stronger than two adult humans - you just need to be prepared and be firm. One person burritos the cat firmly in a towel or blanket and pins them in between their thighs. Other person has the pill ready in one hand - force open mouth, pill inside, then rub throat to get the cat to swallow.

It’s not nice (I’ve had to do it on a very angry 9kg cat before) but it’s necessary.

You need one of these to put it right at back of mouth, then hold mouth shut and massage throat. They will swallow. I have to wrap one of mine in a towel first, she will (and has!!) scratched and bitten if given the opportunity!!

I tried every pill pocket, paste, pill givers with our cat and was on the point of giving up but I found pill putty worked reliably for ours. We had to break the tablet into smaller pieces and also give 3 bits so a chunk without a pill, then one with a bit of the tablet in the middle, then one without. It took a while but the combination worked and we got through an extended course of meds twice a day. You might have already tried this make but you mentioned pill pockets so I thought it was worth a mention 😃
https://www.acoombs.co.uk/products/easypill-cat-putty?variant=41045604368445&country=GB&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&srsltid=AfmBOooXTpm2knWtBOatsVK6CZpxknPTWhnMyM4BqSYbvXKImPBHFTWBw2o

Have you tried marmite? My cats take pills if they're crushed up into marmite. It's so strong I think it masks the bitter taste quite well.

Hi , that seems difficult for you . Our boy cat is on a lot of medication but thankfully for us , he is very easygoing and we don’t have a problem giving him his pills and liquid medication now . It was difficult at first and we tried all the pill pockets , paste etc but they usually only work once if at all .

. We did find at the beginning that he would spit the pills out and we would get in a panic when we discovered one stuck to the carpet .
Firstly I would check with your vet / Google if that medication is available in liquid form and if so trial that out . Our liquid medication is tuna flavour ( thyroid ) .
Our cats go mad for tuna , have you tried disguising the pill in that ? I would check with the vet if tuna is ok for him to eat .
If none of these work , I think you will just have to try and give him the pill orally . Would it help if two of you were able to do it . One holding the cat , I would use a large bath towel / throw / blanket to restrain him and wrap him up in this . You have to make sure his paws don’t come out or you can get a nasty scratch . The other person will then just have to prise his mouth open and angle him so you are putting the pill at the very back of his throat so he has to swallow . The vets / Amazon may also have a pill popper ? ( not sure what it is called ) . It is a long plastic stick that you insert the pill onto the end and put this in the cats mouth . Whether this works may depend on the size of the pill .

It is trial and error , and if you find something that works for your cat , you get more practised/ quicker at this . It is obviously better if it is done as quickly as possible and the less stress for you and your cat . Good luck

My dh was on sotolol it can be crushed for humans.

I had problems giving cortisone to a cat. When I told my vet about it, she gave me chicken-flavored cortisone and that worked well. Maybe there is something similar for sotolol?

Thanks so much for the replies, really appreciate them.
We have been told we can’t crush the pill and there is no alternative form for the sotalol unfortunately. He’s also on furosemide (sp?) which has a coating to make it more palatable so can’t see why they can’t do that for sotalol too since it’s life saving 🤷‍♀️.
My husband managed to force it down him today without any treats. We have agreed we’ll just need to keep doing that until we and he get used to it (for the rest of his life however long that might be). I do have some of the syringes I bought at first so we may have to try those too. We didn’t want to resort to this as feel like more stress when he shouldn’t get stressed - but he’s giving us no option. We’d just hate for him to die because we couldn’t get his pills down him when otherwise for now he is doing well.
Once again thank you, also good to feel less alone in this and hear others’ experiences - and still welcome any further tips as I’m sure we’ll continue to struggle!

Have you tried Royal Canin pill assist? It’s expensive but we found it worked with our cat where other pill pockets didn’t. it’s like a mouldable paste that you squish around the pill.

Best way we found was pop pill into mouth followed by a little squirt of water from a pipette
nose lick = swallowed

It is horrible when they get so stressed - I had one of mine needing ear drops for a week (three times a day!) and he was so stressed he pooed himself 😬

Sotalol does comes in a liquid form too, but I can't find much info about it from the UK. Sorry, that doesn't help, but I assume you've ask the vet about it?

I know this sounds obvious, but can you get it in liquid form which may be easier to disguise in food. Or, could he have a monthly injection? I expect you've explored these options though.

There’s more than one brand of sotalol, can they try a different pharmaceutical brand?

That sounds enormously stressful all round. As there is no alternative form of solatol available, I would be pushing hard for an alternative cardiac drug to solatol altogether, one that is required less regularly, and e.g. coated so it doesn't taste bad and won't put him off finding it in a piece of chicken or a favourite treat. I've added a greasing of butter to tabets before shoving them in butter as an extra layer of bitter-taste avoidance. This situation is a quality of life issue for the cat and you.

This is the only thing that’s worked, for 3-4 weeks now (though we have marmite and a few other things stored away as back ups) so I wanted to say thanks so much! He’ll still sometimes only eat it with crushed Dreamies sprinkled on top 😁 but so much less stress. They are expensive but worth every penny.

Came here to recommend Giver Cat. It’s brilliant. Cat gets a treat and gets their pill. Win all round.