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My cat has a UTI. I have tried pilling her, putting the crushed up pill in her favorite food, mixed it with sugar water and tried giving it to her in a syringe and having my husband hold her while I give it to her. The little amount I am able to get down her throat, she will induce a bubbly vomit and spit it all up. She is impossible to give medication to. She is peeing all over the place with this UTI so I can't just not give her medication.
When trying to pill her, how are you holding her? No cat is impossible to medicate - it's all in the approach.
First things first -- before the process adjust your own state and use some psychology on yourself to wipe out feeling anxious about what you're going to do ... cats know what we're thinking and react to it! For me that's the hardest part of the process!
Second, and throughout different threads you'll see others describing this, sit on the floor on your knees with the cat back to you and between your thighs -- it's like a "squeeze cage" limiting the cat's movement. One hand goes under the chin to lift the head up, thumb goes into the mouth in the toothless space (between front teeth and molars) to open the mouth and to hold the tongue down. The other hand has the pill. You can't just drop it in - you have to place it far far far back in the throat so that the tongue can't bring it forward. Take your thumb out and hold the cat's mouth closed and tilted upward. Sometimes stroking the throat also helps if the cat is a good vomiter -- the reflux system doesn't work well when the stomach is vertically below the throat and mouth.
If you don't want to stick your fingers in there with the pill, use a pill popper (can be purchased at a pet store or through your vet).
Don't rush this whole process, but don't take your time either. Just 'attack' it with matter-of-fact and firm purpose.
I'm silly, but before I let my cats go I kiss them on the top of their noses and say a genuine "sorry!".
One product I've not personally tried, but I know others have success are pill pockets. If your cat isn't a "surgical" eater (meaning she doesn't eat around the pill hidden in the pocket), that might work. You could experiment with a pill-less pocket to see if she likes it as a treat, and then try another pocket with a pill.
Another option is to put the pill in a Pill Pocket (a soft type of treat with a hole to put the treat inside). What you can do is have three "treats." Give the first one and while she's eating it, show her the second one that has the second medication. Then give her the disguised pill and hold out the third (plain) treat. The hope is that she'll gobble up the medicated one once she sees another treat coming.
You can also ask your vet about getting the medication compounded into a different flavor or type.
My kitty did the bubbly mouth too. I find it cute. As long the pill got in, the bubbles doesn't necessarily mean she spit it out. It means she tried, by using her own saliva.
If you are not sure she spit it out, and you can't find the pill, assume it went down. Do not double dose.
If she did indeed spit it out, you can try the burrito method. Place kitty on middle of towel. Make sure you are behind the cat. Wrap both sides around her like a burrito. Make sure all paws are tucked inside. Wrap the towel around the neck a little tighter so her front paws can't get through. Using the same hand, gently hold her down, grabbing the back of her neck (the scruff). Lift her head up slightly. Using the other hand, go to the corner of her mouth, gently pry her mouth open and throw it on the back of her throat. Close mouth. Keep head tilted up. Rub her throat up and down. Blow gently on her nose to force her to use her swallow the pill. She should respond by a quick swallow and lick her nose. Have a syringe with a little tuna juice and squirt that in the back of her teeth or tongue to make sure the pill is not stuck in her throat. Not only that, it ends an unpleasant session in a positive way for the cat.
If you use the liquid meds, the burrito method is not needed. One hand grab her on the scruff, lift head, squirt meds at an angle and back of teeth or tongue. Do not squirt straight in the back of throat.
I would rub the pill with butter. Shake some salt on the butter. The salt causes the cat to salivate a lot and the butter makes the cat want to swallow and clean its mouth. You still have to jam the pill in there.
When trying to pill her, how are you holding her? No cat is impossible to medicate - it's all in the approach.
First things first -- before the process adjust your own state and use some psychology on yourself to wipe out feeling anxious about what you're going to do ... cats know what we're thinking and react to it! For me that's the hardest part of the process!
Second, and throughout different threads you'll see others describing this, sit on the floor on your knees with the cat back to you and between your thighs -- it's like a "squeeze cage" limiting the cat's movement. One hand goes under the chin to lift the head up, thumb goes into the mouth in the toothless space (between front teeth and molars) to open the mouth and to hold the tongue down. The other hand has the pill. You can't just drop it in - you have to place it far far far back in the throat so that the tongue can't bring it forward. Take your thumb out and hold the cat's mouth closed and tilted upward. Sometimes stroking the throat also helps if the cat is a good vomiter -- the reflux system doesn't work well when the stomach is vertically below the throat and mouth.
If you don't want to stick your fingers in there with the pill, use a pill popper (can be purchased at a pet store or through your vet).
Don't rush this whole process, but don't take your time either. Just 'attack' it with matter-of-fact and firm purpose.
I'm silly, but before I let my cats go I kiss them on the top of their noses and say a genuine "sorry!".
One product I've not personally tried, but I know others have success are pill pockets. If your cat isn't a "surgical" eater (meaning she doesn't eat around the pill hidden in the pocket), that might work. You could experiment with a pill-less pocket to see if she likes it as a treat, and then try another pocket with a pill.
This is the exact technique that I use, except I do the mouth-opening thing a little different. I 'scruff' the back of the neck & pull the head back, then insert the pill popper or syringe into the side of the mouth & apply the meds. If you are alone & don't have that extra pair of hands, this method allows you to immobilize the cat, while leaving both hands free that you have to have to give the meds.
On a side note, I've treated UTI's & my vet always prescribes liquids (Clavamox or Clindimycin), which IMO are easier to give than pills. Whenever my vet prescribes pills for my girls, I always ask if there is a liquid alternative. Sometimes there may be, and some vets tend to overlook the fact that pilling a cat at home is totally different than it is in their office with all the experienced extra hands available. Never hurts to ask.
I have a similar issue and have had success with pill pockets. Greenies is one brand that makes treats with holes for pills. Otherwise I have backed him into the corner of the couch so he can't escape, tilted his head back, and opened his mouth and dropped the pill in. Then I keep his mouth closed for a few seconds so to be sure he swallows it. Not the most pleasant experience, but better than them being sick!
Some medications that aren't so bitter CAN be hidden in food--with lots of "seasonings" to further disguise it. We're currently hiding Zeniquin (ABX) crushed and mixed in food, but I had to resort to putting it in a small teaspoonful of Hill's Science a/d along with a sprinkle of Forti-flora and crushed dried chicken treats. The a/d seems smelly enough to be a good base (she had started walking away from her regular food with the meds in it), then after she eats that, I give her the regular food. Maggie won't do pill pockets even when they're empty. She's quite picky.
We tried liquids. Once. I was never sure enough got inside her.
For the really bitter meds (that make them froth and foam), we had to resort to breaking it into pieces and putting in a small empty gelcap (#4) and using a pill shooter (from amazon, the kind where you can draw up a tiny amount of water inside the syringe portion to help the pill go down easier once you do get it inside the mouth). The key to that is making sure the gelcap is FULL so that the plunger strikes a firm surface, otherwise, the capsule gets caved-in when the plunger hits it and it goes nowhere. I use crushed treat or something to help fill out the capsule after the medicine is inside it). If you do this method, always have several capsules ready to use at once because you might not be successful and need to keep trying. Once a capsule gets wet, it gets sticky and then starts to dissolve, and you need another one to work with. Some days the capsule went down on first try, on other days it would take several tries and sometimes we wasted up to 5 capsules (I always tried to reuse the contents, placing into a new gelcap for later use).
With the capsule method, we learned that once the pill is inside (doesn't pop right back out) and far enough back in her mouth (and has been slickened up with the water that follows it), it was best to let the kitty go and just start praising it and offering it a treat. We learned the hard way that holding the mouth shut and/or keeping hold of kitty and stroking its throat usually resulted in a capsule held in place long enough that it started to dissolve....leading to the frothing and foaming, etc. Since the capsule itself has no flavor, if left alone and no longer being forced, it was easier for the kitty to simply swallow it. AND, if it wasn't going to go down anyway, best for it to come right back out BEFORE the taste that starts the foaming (because it's harder to get the cat to do it all over again).
As for catching kitty to give the meds (we had to do it twice a day, so she learned quickly the signs to be wary of)--emptying your mind so they can't read your trepidation and dread is the best thing. I would mentally count backwards from 300 by 3s. This kept my mind occupied, and kitty couldn't read a thing. I could walk right up to her, and she wouldn't run away from me. Too bad I couldn't keep my mind empty DURING the pilling, ha. For us, it was always a 2-person job.
Thankfully, I didn't have to administer the pills alone, although I did try it--once. It was not successful (with this kitty), so I didn't try again because I didn't have to. I also tried doing it by hand. It didn't work for me either, but the pill popper had arrived, so I instantly started using it (then ordered a backup).
I watched lots of youtube videos on pilling a cat. You'll find a way! Just tell the kitty that it's going in, one way or another.
I hired a vet tech from the vet office to come to my home and help me. My animals are my kids to me. I wasn.t working at the time and would run him down to the vet for assistance. Ask for help from a local vet, maybe?
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