How do you get a cat to take her pills?

Whenever I have to give a pill to my cats I hold them close to my side with one arm and use that hand to open it's mouth. Then with the other hand, pop the pill into it's mouth. Close and keeping the head up, massage it's throat and the pill goes down. I dont crush pills because of the following:

How to Give a Cat a Pill

Getting a pet cat to eat a pill can be nearly impossible. Here are some tricks suggested by vets to make it easier.

StepsCrushing the Pill Method

Crush the pill into a very fine powder.

Mix it with a few drops of salad oil.

Smear the mixture with your finger on the cat's flank. Being the fastidious creature that it is, it will lick the whole mess off its fur.

Be SURE to check with your vet first. Some pills are intended to digested slowly, and the crushing method would give your cat a too concentrated dose too quickly.

Hiding the Pill Method

Hide the pill in a bite of a special food that the cat rarely or never gets. Be sure to ask the vet about incompatible foods before doing this. Cream cheese works best, but you could also try baby food. Acclimate the cat to the treat by giving it some of the food without the pill. Let the cat eat the food with the pill in it out of their dish or from your finger. Because the cat is excited about the treat, the cat usually never knows they ate a pill. If the cat won't take the pill whole, try crushing.

Make sure to ask the vet whether the pill is safe to be given when it's crushed BEFORE trying this.

Place the pill on a metal spoon

Place another metal spoon on top of the pill and press down.

Crush the pill and leave the powder in a neat pile inside of the spoon.

There are also pill splitters and pill crushers available commercially at stores that carry pet supplies.

Mix the powder with a small amount of cat food, treat or other liquid. The liquid from a can of wet cat food works well.

Wrap the Cat Method

Fill a syringe (without the needle) with a few milliliters of water. Have that ready

Wrap your cat carefully, like a burrito, in a towel to provide a sense of security and keep you from getting scratched.

Open the cat's jaws by pressing thumb and forefinger on the jaw hinges.

Hold the head back with one hand and throw the fragment of pill down the throat with the other.

Point the end of the syringe into the back of the cat's throat and inject a bit of water.

Kittens are not strong enough to object and will grow used to it easily.

Hold the cat's mouth closed and stroke or massage its neck (this encourages the cat to swallow) until you are sure the pill went down (if you were able to get the fragment down the throat deeply enough, the cat will swallow the pill immediately).

It is almost certain the cat has swallowed the pill if he/she starts to lick its' nose.

You should NEVER dry-pill a cat. Erosive esophagitis can be extremely painful and damaging. ALWAYS give water immediately after giving the cat a pill. The last two steps are not necessary if you give water after pilling a cat.

On a Chair Method

Get a chair with a backrest.

Fill a syringe (without the needle) with a few milliliters of water. Have that ready

Pick your cat up and scruff your cat (i.e. gently grip the skin on the back of the neck).

Facing the back of the chair (with the seat facing away from you), lower your cat until her front paws can rest on the top of the backrest of the chair while keeping her scruffed.

Make sure your cat's hind legs are dangling and not resting on the chair.

Due to the angle your cat is dangling while being scruffed (with front paws resting on the top of the backrest), she should be looking up with her mouth slightly open.

Take the pill and push it down her throat, behind her tongue. Because of the angle your cat is at, she will automatically swallow the pill. This step will take some practice, but after a few times, you should have it down.

Point the end of the syringe into the back of the cat's throat and inject a bit of water.

Tips

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS give water immediately after pilling a cat. Not only will this guarantee that the cat has swallowed the pill, it will save the cat a lot of pain and discomfort.

Train a cat from the time it is a kitten to take pills. If a little fragment of a Kitzyme tablet (or similar) is given as a pill, then followed-up by the real thing or a treat, the cat becomes used to pills.

Coat the pill in a small amount of margarine -- this covers the taste of the pill and helps it to slip down without any problems.

Always praise your cat and give lots of hugs/kisses afterwards. Treats afterwards help too.

Putting the pill in cream cheese is the easiest, because the pill stays in the cheese. Most cats love cream cheese but aren't allowed to have it. Once the cat gets the cream cheese in his or her mouth, it's sticky and makes the pills difficult to spit out.

Tuna also works well, as cats love tuna. Bits of chicken or beef also work well.

Cutting a slit in some cheese and inserting the pill works

Some cats love peanut butter. Like cream cheese, it is sticky and hard to get out of their mouths. Be sure to use only a very small amount because too much peanut butter can choke.

Vets also will give you a free narrow plastic and rubber pill dispenser to put the pill in the back of the cat's mouth. It makes getting the pill in easier if the cat refuses to eat.

Vets can also provide empty (and needle-less) syringes in which you can administer crushed up pills in a small amount (.5 ml) of water.

If any of these didn't work, mix the pill with cream cheese and put the mixture on the cat's front leg. He will instantly lick it and therefore consume his medication.

If there are other cats around, make sure they are not allowed to eat this treat before, during, or after the intended cat. You may need a separate bowl of baby food for the other cats so no rivalries arise.

If you are putting the pill down its mouth instead of feeding it to him/her watch the cat after you put the pill in its mouth, occasionally the cat will spit it back up.

For any more questions please consult your local veterinarian.

Warnings

Know how to properly scruff a cat. Improper scruffage will result in choking your cat. If your cat is not used to being scruffed (i.e. your cat is not a kitten any more and you never did it while it was still a kitten/acquired it later), it may become scared and panic or regard the scruffing as a type of punishment. You don't want that, because your cat will lose its trust in you. Only introduce the habit of scruffing your cat if it is still a kitten and can associate scruffing with a sense of "home" or "being protected".

Don't crush pills that are designed to be 'time release'.

Be careful to avoid getting the medicine down their wind pipe instead of down to their stomachs. When using a syringe, squirting only half the solution at one time helps.

Watch out that your cat doesn't just lick the cream cheese or treat from around the pill and leave the pill on the floor, or spit it out later.

MANY cats are lactose intolerant and giving them cream cheese/regular cheese can make them sick.

There are multiple ways.

Some will allow you to fool them by hiding the pill in a treat (fold it in a slice of meat (beef) for instance.)

You can also get a "pill-gun" from your vet or pet store, which enables you to shoot the pill into the back of the mouth.

You could also hold her between your knees on the floor, applying gentle pressure while "sitting on her", slightly lift the head, open her mouth with the indexfinger and thumb of one hand and throw the pill in the back of the mouth with the other, then gently close the mouth and rub her throat to induce swallowing.

You could also wrap her in a towel, al 4 feet covered, and do the same.

I wouldn't recommend solving the pill in water, as some or a lot might spill when she's resisting you, and you can't check whether she got the correct dose.

Same goes for making it into a powder and mixing it with food; if she doesn't take in all, your efforts might be useless.

Good luck.

You can get a thing from the vets called a pill giver - it is a bit like a syringe and you sit the cat down and use this to put the pill right at the back of it's throat. They cost about £2 ( $4 or so) and are totally worth it, I have a lot of cats and it makes life a lot easier !)

http://www.falklandvets.co.uk/factsheets/pillGiver...

Don't crush the pills cause that can mess up the medicine inside. Try squishing the pill into a piece of cheese. Usually cats love it. Or, buy some cat treats and push the pill inside those. She'll never know her pill is hidden inside!

You can do it the regular way: with a plastic syringe in which you have dissolved the pill and mixed it with water, towards the back of the mouth the cat has no teeth, there's a small place where you can administrate the pills.

Or, you can make the pill powder (crush it with a spoon) and you can mix it with wet food.

Good luck,

Dia

Hiding it in the food often dosen't work, they will smell/ taste it and leave the food alone. We hold the cat's mouth open with his head back, and drop it in, then hold him until he swallows it. Make sure it goes right down into his throat, or he may spit it out. Luckily, our cat dosen't freak out, hopefully yours is the same. If you have to hide it in the food, crush it up and put the powder in some water packed tuna and mix it alot of the excess juice into it. Good luck!

I have to give my cat pills all the time (he has arthritis) and what I do is crush the pill in to little tiny pieces. Then, I mix it in with his favorite food. So that I am sure he eats it, I put him in my room for an hour with the food. Good Luck!!

I make my vet give me medication in liquid form. It is too difficult and stressful to try to give either on of my cats a pill. Besides, they have claws and I don't have a death wish.

Normally I make dust the pills and mix with milk and open his mouth and with a tea spoon or something more small, I push the mix and cover his nose for make him drink.

put thumb and forefinger on jaw hinge area, squeeze & when she opens throw pill to very back of throat or put pill in food.