cats & pills: how to combine??

[aquilotta]

Help!

The vet has given me a fortnight's course of pills for my 8-month-old kitten. The pills are to help combat the diarrhoea that he's had for the last 5 days. However, Rascal is patently of a different opinion to that of the vet's.

My legs, arms, hand, and face prove it.

I have tried:

• coating the pill in butter and trying to get it down his gullet. I haven't even succeeded in opening his mouth


• wrapping him in a towel. Same result


• coating the pill in things he adores: marmite. Taramasalata. Cream cheese. Whiskas pouch. Mushy peas. Fish. Same result.


• crushing a pill and mixing it with his food. The single speck of powder that got into his mouth... he literally spent 5 minutes (that's a LONG time!!) foaming and frothing at the mouth to get rid of - long drools of white everywhere...

So I'm stuck. I live on my own, there's no-one here to hold him for me while I do the open mouth/drop it down throat trick: and meanwhile he continues to have a dodgy tummy.

He's usually a lovely, gentle kitten (apart from when he's playing and forgets to velvet paws) - but in THIS matter, we're at an impasse, and he's winning.

HELP!

[Eels]

Here's how I do it: Kneel down on the floor with the cat facing away from you (so if he reverses your knees stop him getting anywhere). If necessary, wrap a towel round him (or put him inside the leg of an old sweatshirt with his head sticking out the cuff). Then grasp his head with your fingers at the upper corners of his mouth, pushing his lips in over his teeth (left hand if you are right-handed). Pick up the tablet between finger and thumb of your other hand and use the free middle finger to prise the jaw open. Then put the tablet as far back into the mouth as possible, but very quickly. Close the mouth tight and use a syringe to squirt 2-3mls of water into the mouth (this makes them swallow better than anything else). Trickle more water if necessary until you have seen the cat swallow. This is 99% effective on most cats!

Really scratchy cats can sometimes be tableted by picking them up by the scruff and then using the same technique to open the mouth, but this depends lots on the cat and can be a bit harsh.

Ask your vet for a demo (it'll be a laugh if nothing else!). They should be able to supply a syringe. They might also have a 'pillpopper' for sale - this sort of fires the tablet down the throat. Last resort, ask them for liquid medication, although in my opinion that can be even worse!

[lankeela]

Here's the answer!

http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/pets/cat-pill.html

[annavc]

Nice one lankeela - that made me laugh out loud! We've all been there!

[gessoo]

One of our cats has to take tablets every day for life (since he was a kitten). He sits patiently whilst we do all the right things, never claws and looks very calm and collected, even doing all the swallowing motions. We know now that he waits until he thinks we are sure he has taken it, walks out the room and then takes great pleasure in spitting in out, We now hold him on our lap for at least two minutes after giving him the tablet so that we know he can't get up to his sly trick.

[aquilotta]

Yep, I think whoever wrote that linked article had foreseen Rascal.

*wail*

...

[EllyD]

I cook liver - quite lightly and crush the pills in a pestle and mortar. Mash them together and see if that goes down. I think the taste of the liver is so strong it masks the fact that it is "loaded", Good luck.

[aquilotta]

Thanks EllyD. Shall try that. Though given the fact that he was able to sniff it out through marmite, I have a horrid feeling that that won't do much good. But it's definitely worth a try! *wry grin*

[CT]

Saw once on the BBC show where experts give you tips on stuff. One lady, has an old, thick, woollen jumper. She put this on then picked up her cat. The cat would reach out its paws and dig its claws into the deep wool. Now since the cat doesn't want to fall down, and can't let go, she was free to administer the pills without fear of kitty's claws.

[gessoo]

I misread CT's answer and thought the old lady put a big woolly jumper on the cat!

However, somepeople do wrap their cats up tightly in a towel when administering pills, so putting them in a jumper might be a good idea.

[aquilotta]

Well, I'd tried the towel trick before I ever posted my question here - it was utterly useless - he's so silky that it's impossible to prevent him squirming his paws (and more to the point, his claws!) OUT, and his head IN.

The thick jumper might do the trick - it's certainly worth trying!!! and I shall investigate the charity shops for a suitably thick one to act as armour/claw catcher - but he's developing a nasty trick of swiping at my face when he really really REALLY doesn't want to do something (like opening his mouth for a tablet). And I haven't yet come across a suitably protective balaclava helmet...

FORTUNATELY on this occasion, after a week of trauma, his stomach appears to be slowly getting back to normal all by itself and despite the total lack of medication: so fingers crossed that it DOES clear up completely - but I reserve my shudders for the next time....

*sigh* And he's usually such a GENTLE cat!

[veritymoon]

have you asked your vet if the drug comes in a liquid from you could squirt down his mouth? that maybe also tricky to give but its worth asking.

could you take him to see the nurse every day and ask them to administer the tablet or sometimes depending on what type of drug hes on some can have long lasting injections.

[gessoo]

Veritymoon's suggestion is really good and it works so easily. You get a little syringe with the medicine just slip it in the mouth which is surprisingly easy as the mouth doesn't have to be open a great deal. Plunge the plunger and hey presto!

The cat may do a runner though when he sees the syringe coming the next time!!!!

[aquilotta]

Both Veritymoon and gessoo's suggestions are great. Unfortunately (you can guess what's coming, can't you!)... he gets his worming stuff as a liquid. Deliverable via a nice neat little syringe thing. Each course is administered over three days. Once a day for three days. Repeated every few months. Slip - into the mouth, squirt, all done. It doesn't even taste particularly horrible.So. Easy. Right?

Wrong. Arms worked the first day of the first time. The towel worked the second day of the first time...

Syringe? What? You thought I was asleep? Are you kidding?... At least with the worming paste, I now know to simply squirt it onto my finger and then smear THAT over the back of his paws and chin. That way at least MOST of it gets inside him (the bits that he cleans off when he's given up trying to shake it off). And you're right - in that instance, liquid is DEFINITELY easier than tablet form!

And the other suggestion - taking him to the vet's every day - was encouraging and brilliant until I recalled the fact that his vet only has the clinic on Tue, Thurs and Sat mornings between 9:00 and 10:30 a.m., and once you get there you usually have to wait three hours before you get seen... So while it may be necessary in future, I'm HOPING that this time it won't be.

The worst bit is that, as you've probably gathered, he's pretty bright. And his memory is excellent. He will remember that he has won this fight with the pills - and will redouble his efforts the next time, until and unless I finally get one down him. (Lankeela's wonderful, side-splitting and mirthfully eye-watering link is appropriate here.)

...!

[Eastender]

Some good answers on here, but this is what I do. Firstly dont touch the tablet with your fingers if poss, try a piece of marmite or cooked meat either chicken or a little piece of chicken roll, liver sausage etc. Get the tablet out of bottle on a table or whatever, touch the meat first with your fingers then you can place the tablet in the meat, roll it into the meat and then give it to the cat. Or you could ask the vet for a syringe case, mash the tablet into a eggcup with a spoonful of water draw the liquid up through the syringe hold the cat and squirt it into there mouth. I know its a pain but you should have some luck.

[aquilotta]

Thanks Eastender! I'll try that!!! P'raps that's where I was going wrong: I was definitely touching the pill first...

[gessoo]

Our cat who needs tablets every day is partially sighted so relies very heavily on his hearing. He actually hears when my husband picks up the tablet bottle and unscrews the lid, and slopes off and hides. (My husband is always the one to give him the tablets.) If I pick up the tablet bottle and unscrew the lid, he takes no notice! Canny things these pusscats!!!!