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I was going to suggest the Pill Pockets, but I see your cat doesn't go for them. My cat did when I had to give her meds earlier this month for a pretty intense dental extraction (5 teeth). Onsior went in her food, and Clavamox and Tramadol in the Pill Pockets (salmon flavored, which she went nuts for).
The tech at our vet's suggested Parmesan cheese if the Pill Pockets didn't work.
Cats are supreme predators by nature. You can take advantage of that to train them. This took us 2-3months to develop this routine. You must always be gentle and patient and consistent, never a tense voice, wild gesture, etc. Our big male Maine Coon was diagnosed with epilepsy about 2 years ago after a couple severe seizures. He has to have medication twice/day, every 12 hours, no skipping, no more than 30 minutes off each time. He’s strong and can be a handful if he’s alarmed and was never big on being picked up or held.
This is our routine now. My wife goes to the kitchen to prepare the pills (breaks them, puts them into small capsule, coats with butter and inserts into pill popper. When she starts that I say these words, “Bryer, time for your pill buddy.” He gets up from where ever he is and starts walking down the hallway to the front room. I follow about 2 yards behind him, telling him what a good boy he is. He jumps up on the bed there, I close the door (to keep the other cats from disturbing the routine) and he then flops over on his side, waiting for his first reward, a full body massage. After a couple of minutes of massage, by which time he’s purring loudly, my wife walks in, I pick him up and hold him while she opens his mouth and pops in the pill.
Now comes the other reward, after rubbing him briefly again and telling him how good he is..... pure freeze dried chicken muscle meat. He absolutely loves this stuff and it didn’t take him long to realize what he needs to do to get that treat. He gets 3-4 pieces. So, in his mind, he gets special attention (the other kitties have to sit outside)good rubbing, his favorite treat. What’s not to like?
Again, the keys are gentleness and affection, patience and consistency. If we are just a bit late, he will sometimes be sitting in the hall waiting expectantly for us.
The best of cat parents! What a great plan...the reward system works!!
Pet kitty. Wait a few seconds, then slowly grab into the scruff of his neck while at the same time, tilt his head back and throw the pill near his throat. The pill should be at a size that is easy to swallow. If in doubt, cut it in half and dose twice. Close his mouth while his head is still tilted up, blow air gently to his nose which should prompt him to lick his nose, swallowing the pill in the process.
Move fast and be done quickly.
If he moves faster than you or reacts after you grab him by the scruff, let him go and try the burrito method. Similar steps but starting with him being wrapped tightly by a towel.
If he spits out the pill, you did not place it far back enough in his mouth.
That is how I pill cats in the shelter and my own. You might end up scratched here and there but that is how it is owing cats.
Never ever dry pill a cat. You must always chase the pill with something wet.
For pilling, I advise this: use a dot of something soft and wet s/he likes. You can try yogurt, even a little soft butter or cream cheese, or even a little favorite wet food, but yogurt or soft butter works better. Make sure you have everything ready, in a bowl is good. Pill, and spoon with a little yogurt (or whatever)
Use the holding position. Kneel on the floor with your feet crossed behind you, hold kitty between your knees facing out. S/he will try to back away and will not be able to. Tell kitty in a calm voice what you are doing and why. Every time.
With cat in holding position (as described above), put a dot of the yogurt (or whatever) on kitty's mouth to keep her busy and to get the saliva flowing (so the pill doesn't stick).
While kitty is licking her mouth, hold pill in one hand, pry open mouth with other, poke pill in, toward side of mouth and as far back as you can.
You can let go of her mouth at this point, but keep a hand on her to keep her still while you get another bit of yogurt (or ...) on your finger and put a dot on her nose and mouth. She will lick off the yogurt and swallow, pill and all.
this can work with liquids too.
I make it sound easier than it is, at first. It does take practice. And you have to approach it with confidence, kitty will sense if you are hesitant. But once you master this method you'll be able to pill any cat, any time. I know I can!
Some pills (baytril for instance) are very bad tasting. For those it helps to put the pill into a plain empty gel capsule. Gel caps go down easier too. Check with vet or pharmacist before using capsules, as a capsule may affect the dissolving time and this may be an issue for some meds.
You can order empty gel caps on line.
ps, the wet treat on nose trick works with ear drops, eye care, anything really,even nail trims! the idea is, 1)she associates the nastiness with something good, and 2) she's so busy licking her nose she forgets about the other stuff.
Never ever dry pill a cat. You must always chase it with something wet.
One more suggestion for anyone reading who hasn't yet had to do this. Get your cat used to this holding position now. Just each day, for a while, and then after a few weeks drop it to once a week, put kitty in the kneeling holding position, pry open her mouth, then give her a treat. You can use this time for paw work too, handling the paws, to get kitty to accept nail trims.
This kind of training saves a lot of trouble later.
Last edited by catsmom21; 03-27-2018 at 02:44 PM..
Have you seen any videos about making a cat burrito? IME this is a good way to get annoyed cats to take pills or liquids- and my husband and I do a lot of medicating of cats at the cat shelter and at home. For pills, get them in a burrito and use a pill popper or do it the old fashioned way and then you can stroke under the chin until they swallow or lick their lips. Keep in mind stroking too much in the wrong spot can initiate a gag reflex which will be unpleasant for you and will not help the cat become accustomed to pilling so keep the stroking to just under the chin or sides of the mouth. Alternatively you can use a syringe filled with plain water and squirt just a little bit in the side of the mouth to initiate a swallow. Your vet will easily be able to show you this technique. The trick is to squirt just enough water in to make them want to swallow and it doesn't take much at all. Again, for this you'd really only have to squirt it in between the teeth on the side of the mouth so you don't even need to open the cat's mouth.
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I make it sound easier than it is, at first. It does take practice. And you have to approach it with confidence, kitty will sense if you are hesitant. But once you master this method you'll be able to pill any cat, any time. I know I can!
THIS. Be confident and matter of fact about pilling.
My husband is hesitant and our Benny knows it, and can slip away or avert his head just enough to make the pill not go down.
My cat won’t touch Pill Pockets (maybe I should give them to her more often when she isn’t needing a pill so that she doesn’t become suspicious). I’ve gotten her to take pills by hiding them in a piece of baked chicken, but fooling her into eating the pill by hiding it among several pieces of her favorite treats seemed to work best. I wish there were more varieties of treats that had the Pill Pocket shape.
My cat won’t touch Pill Pockets (maybe I should give them to her more often when she isn’t needing a pill so that she doesn’t become suspicious). I’ve gotten her to take pills by hiding them in a piece of baked chicken, but fooling her into eating the pill by hiding it among several pieces of her favorite treats seemed to work best. I wish there were more varieties of treats that had the Pill Pocket shape.
Try a little piece of raw meat. First experiment and see what she likes. Then cut a little slit in a piece of raw meat, stick the pill deep in and give it to the cat. If she's a suspicious type you can use a different kind each time.
Keep the piece small so she swallows it quickly before she knows what's up.
Try a little piece of raw meat. First experiment and see what she likes. Then cut a little slit in a piece of raw meat, stick the pill deep in and give it to the cat. If she's a suspicious type you can use a different kind each time.
Keep the piece small so she swallows it quickly before she knows what's up.
MANY thanks to all of you who have contributed to this thread. I've read and appreciate all of your posts. Unfortunately, none of the suggestions would work for Scamp. For starters, he's always been a tad 'highly strung' and, even though I believe that he's fond of me in his cat way, he even runs away from me at times, albeit only temporarily. He's done it for so long now (he's about 14) that I think he just does it from habit and not because he's scared.
There is NO particular food that he favors and, oftentimes, he won't eat at all - or at least very sparingly, for (it seems) days at a time. So, tempting him with ANY food that may contain medication would not work since he probably wouldn't eat it anyway. If there was a brand of food that I KNEW he would eat - even if it was more expensive than the norm - I would buy it. But, there is NO such food product. Much of what I put down for Scamp has to be tossed out or given to my other cat (Honey) who is the complete opposite of Scamp in every way.
As I mentioned in my initial post, if I managed to pick up Scamp and hold him for more than a few seconds he would struggle, claw his way out of my grasp and hit the floor. And, if I somehow managed to 'pill' him on one occasion (I HAVE tried it) he would turn and run whenever he saw me approaching him. And so, I would have to chase him, corner him, grab him and cause distress for both of us. The vet knows what a problem Scamp is in this regard, although he's been able to toss a pill down Scamp's throat with relative ease since, after all, he is a vet. But he only has to do it one time and not every day and Scamp doesn't know or trust him.
Right now Scamp is not on any medication other than his daily treats which are a form of medication. I actually highly recommend this VitaRapid product mentioned in my initial post for cats (or dogs) suffering from arthritis. They are, as the package states, Joint Care Daily Treats that are fast acting and contain Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM formula. I give him 7 or 8 of these daily as well as a couple of Feline Joint Support pills made by the same company ...Vetalogica. I just toss them into a dish and walk away. When I get back a couple of minutes later they're gone. The arthritis that Scamp had previously appears to be all but gone. Scamp does walk with a slightly awkward gait (barely noticeable) but he also recovered from a spinal injury a couple of years ago.
Anyway, Scamp has a lip problem called eosinophillic granuloma which is usually related to an underlying severe flea allergy (even a single bite can keep the reaction going). Some scarring is probably permanent, as appears to be the case with Scamp, but often there will be some improvement with control of this. The options for treatment are either completely eliminating the allergen (which is in flea saliva) or dampening down his immune response to it.
The vet told me that the best way to control the allergen would be to give Scamp the flea product Comfortis (Spinosad 270mg) every 2 weeks (this works because of an extremely rapid kill of any fleas that jump on him), but he is unlikely to eat the tablet. To dampen down his immune response Scamp would be looking at steroids. These can be given in a tablet, liquid or long acting injectible form. While the tablets or liquid are more effective, they would have to be given every 1-2 days. The long acting injection would have to be given once monthly. So, that would be a visit to the vet every month which I simply can't afford. This is not to mention that taking Scamp to the vet is yet again a rather stressful experience although he's pretty good once there and resumes life as always when we get back. It's the catching and the caging of Scamp and the car journey to the vet that, if the truth be known, stresses me probably more so than Scamp.
So, it's possible that steroids may have to be administered to Scamp some time in the future. And, unlike the pleasant taste of Meloxicam that Scamp used to take or his daily arthritis treats that he DOES eat without any problem, the steroids are nasty tasting and hiding them in some food product that he probably wouldn't eat anyway - with or without the pill - will be problematic. I must emphasize that I can't 'pill him' myself.
Anyway, I'll just have to wait and see what the future holds but, meanwhile, thanks again to you all for contributing your own favored remedies for 'pilling' your own furry bundles of joy!
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Agreed 100%! 
