How to give medicine to a cat
Javier models a plastic E-collar and still manages to look good!
So your cat has been sick and needs to take medicine? No problem. Natasha’s cat Javier recently had surgery and now he needs to take antibiotics every day (twice). This has given me some first-hand experience in feeding pills to cats. You would thing that medicine for cats would come in smaller pills than the pills given to humans, but for some reason this is not the case. In fact, Javier (see above) needs to take one and a half pills to get the correct dose.
The first pill usually isn’t a huge problem if you have two people. One person has to restrain the cat and pry his mouth open (watch those fingers!) and the other person has to put the pill in his mouth and shoot water down his throat to get him to swallow it. Easy enough (ha). After the first pill, the cat has been warned. If you have to feed a second one, or God forbid a half-pill, this is where it gets tricky.
You can try to do what you did the first time, but the cat is usually a lot more resistant. Giving him some tuna between pills is one way to deal with it, but it’s not foolproof. Javier insisted on sticking out his tongue and spitting the half pill onto the floor. After a few minutes of doing this the pill started to dissolve and then he started salivating wildly in an attempt to get the horrible taste out of his mouth. We then put the remaining piece of the pill in his tuna, which he happily ate until he tasted the medicine again and then he wouldn’t stop licking his lips for several minutes as he attempted to get the taste out of his mouth.
Summary:
- Sneak up on the cat and get one pill in when it isn’t expecting it. Use lots of water and rub under the cat’s chin to get it to swallow.
- Give it some sort of food to distract it before trying again.
- Be persistent. At least be more persistent than the cat.
- Sometimes you can trick the cat by putting small bits of medicine in food if there is no other way to get it down.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
for Squiggy we just wrap his pills in turkey. He gobbles it down so fast that he never notices the pills. He had to take 2 pills 2x per day when he got doggy diarrhea (this happened twice - the little bugger has serious wheat issues), but it wasn’t so bad.
However, the second time he got sick, he was vomiting too, so we ended up having to give him a syringe of anti-nausea meds twice a day for a week and that was hell. He was only cooperative if we dangled chicken to coax him.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
I’ve never heard of the squirting water part…I used to just push the pill down with my finger. I’m an excellent pill/cat soloist. But…I also don’t know Javier.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
this is a humble addition to your list of helpful tips:
1. after you stick the pill in the cat’s mouth, if you (gently) touch or run his/her nose, the cat will be compelled to lick his/her nose–this movement of the tongue forces kitty to swallow, reducing the likelihood that the cat will spit out the pill
2. gently squeezing the cat’s cheeks to release the jaw muscle makes opening his/her mouth a little easier
3. My cat knows the sound of pill bottles being opened or of plastic medicine wrap being snipped open (such as from those anti-flea ampules) and he runs for cover whenever he hears this (not taking any chances, he runs even if humans are helping themselves to vitamins, tic tacs and what-not)–so, I find it helpful to get the pills out in a different room from wherever the cat is, or 45 minutes prior to dosing.
My cat, Willie, is not fooled by hiding pills in even the most delectable (raw) meat…
leading me to wonder, if we can make children’s medicine taste like fruity pebbles, why can’t they make cat pills taste like fresh kill??
Poor Javier..
October 15th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
maybe I have a dirty cat, but I’ve never seen him lick his nose before. he does respond well to having his throat pet, but only if he’s in the mood to be agreeable. poor javier indeed.