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I saw one video showing a vet giving a cat a pill. He said that you should spit in the cat's mouth after giving the pill, and he demonstrated doing so. I found it positively disgusting to even think of doing this, and I can't imagine a cat putting up with your spitting into its mouth!
That vet might have spit into my cat's mouth once, but I guarantee you he would never do it again. Not to my cat, anyway. Whether or not it's harmful to the cat isn't the point. It shows me a lack of caring & respect for the animal, and it's guardian.
Besides, holding the mouth shut and gently stroking the throat or blowing on the nose will work just as well.
I probably would, except for the fact that it makes me cry when I see animals in pain or distress.
But over the years, I have learned how to do a lot of procedures to take care of my cats. Including giving pills and liquid medication, putting drops and ointments in their eyes, giving subcutaneous injections, treating wounds, and lancing and draining abscesses.
For several months, I have been giving Little Guy (who's really a Big Guy) Idoxuridine three times a day in both eyes, Terramycin three times a day in both eyes, Peralube twice a day in his left eye, and 1 mm of Famciclovir twice a day.
He was losing his sight from corneal ulcers and had about 30% vision. Our regular vet thought he needed surgery and sent us to an animal ophthalmologist. She used several kinds of scopes and dyes and decided to try medication instead of surgery. At his last appointment, he had 70% vision. He doesn't have to go back until the end of September, but has to continue his meds until then.
He doesn't like taking all that stuff, but he doesn't fight or resist. The hardest part is catching him to do it. He knows the schedule and runs away and hides to try and avoid it. But I can eventually catch him and give him his medication. After we are finished, I pet and rub him and call him a "Good Boy".
Then I realized that in Cat Years he's about 65 or 70. I still pet and rub him, but now I call him a "Good Kitty."
She is our smallest and oldest cat. She weighs 7 lbs and is about 13 years old. Most of them weigh around 13-15 lbs and are 11 years old. She worked on a grape ranch in the Rodent Patrol Division. The farmers lost their cat and adopted her. When they retired they bought a house on the coast and a house in Arizona and became SnowBirds. Dribbles didn't like the moving around so they asked us to keep her while they spent the winter in Arizona. That was about six years ago and she has been part of the family ever since.
She has always been healthy, but a couple of weeks ago she had inflamed Anal Glands. Expressing those is a nasty, stinky job so I was glad to pay the vet $24.00 to do it. They sent us home with 10 antibiotic capsules in case she had an infection. I asked if they could give her an antibiotic shot or liquid medication, but they said that those capsules were all they had that reach down to the Anal Glands.
I thought it would be easy like it usually is, but I was wrong.
She clamped her mouth shut and I couldn't get it open. I tried all the tricks I knew like using butter or cat food. None of that worked. I finally got her mouth open, shot a little water in there, put the capsule in, shot a little more water and stroked her throat. She spit the capsule out. Since it was a capsule I only got a couple of chances before it turned to mush.
I couldn't get her to take it. If I tried to use my fingers to push it in she would bite me.
I ended up swearing like a sailor and bleeding like a stuck hog. But I finally got her to swallow it.
That was day one. I had nine more to go. I didn't get any better. I tried my pill syringe. It has a soft tip so you don't hurt the back of her mouth if you put it in too far. She could still spit it out.
I eventually had to put her in a restraint bag, tip her back, force it down with the pill syringe, shoot some water in and hold her mouth shut so she didn't spit it out. I eventually got the 10 capsules down, but it took me 14 capsules to do it.
Luckily she had a short memory, and in a about an hour after each torture session she forgot all about the manhandling and waterboarding and was in my lap purring like a Harley Davidson.
That vet might have spit into my cat's mouth once, but I guarantee you he would never do it again. Not to my cat, anyway. Whether or not it's harmful to the cat isn't the point. It shows me a lack of caring & respect for the animal, and it's guardian.
Absolutely! I couldn't believe it was a vet who was encouraging this. To me, it was really almost abusive.
When Chewy was still with us, the Vet had him on some medicine that we had to give every day for a week. My son and I would wrap Chewy in a towel so he couldn't move or scratch us, and we would have to wrestle with him to get it done.
Finally, the last 3 days, I took him to the vet and they somehow got it done in about 15 seconds ! I was in awe. Here we were , two grown men, and a cat was beating us.
I saw one video showing a vet giving a cat a pill. He said that you should spit in the cat's mouth after giving the pill, and he demonstrated doing so. I found it positively disgusting to even think of doing this, and I can't imagine a cat putting up with your spitting into its mouth!
What? That is gross!
I always following a pilling with a few treats afterward.
She is our smallest and oldest cat. She weighs 7 lbs and is about 13 years old. Most of them weigh around 13-15 lbs and are 11 years old. She worked on a grape ranch in the Rodent Patrol Division. The farmers lost their cat and adopted her. When they retired they bought a house on the coast and a house in Arizona and became SnowBirds. Dribbles didn't like the moving around so they asked us to keep her while they spent the winter in Arizona. That was about six years ago and she has been part of the family ever since.
She has always been healthy, but a couple of weeks ago she had inflamed Anal Glands. Expressing those is a nasty, stinky job so I was glad to pay the vet $24.00 to do it. They sent us home with 10 antibiotic capsules in case she had an infection. I asked if they could give her an antibiotic shot or liquid medication, but they said that those capsules were all they had that reach down to the Anal Glands.
I thought it would be easy like it usually is, but I was wrong.
She clamped her mouth shut and I couldn't get it open. I tried all the tricks I knew like using butter or cat food. None of that worked. I finally got her mouth open, shot a little water in there, put the capsule in, shot a little more water and stroked her throat. She spit the capsule out. Since it was a capsule I only got a couple of chances before it turned to mush.
I couldn't get her to take it. If I tried to use my fingers to push it in she would bite me.
I ended up swearing like a sailor and bleeding like a stuck hog. But I finally got her to swallow it.
That was day one. I had nine more to go. I didn't get any better. I tried my pill syringe. It has a soft tip so you don't hurt the back of her mouth if you put it in too far. She could still spit it out.
I eventually had to put her in a restraint bag, tip her back, force it down with the pill syringe, shoot some water in and hold her mouth shut so she didn't spit it out. I eventually got the 10 capsules down, but it took me 14 capsules to do it.
Luckily she had a short memory, and in a about an hour after each torture session she forgot all about the manhandling and waterboarding and was in my lap purring like a Harley Davidson.
I've been a caregiver to both humans and animals, and sometimes I think treating animals is the more difficult of the two. I can relate to nearly everything you've described, and just want to say "good job". I've had 1 or 2 cats that were pretty good about taking meds, but most of them were a real problem.
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I was in awe. Here we were , two grown men, and a cat was beating us. 
