Best way to give syringe medicine for especially difficult cat?

Babypinkweeb

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I have to give liquid medicine predosed into syringes for my cat twice a day. He hates being held and is not very touchy overall. All the guides I find online are probably for docile cats who you can just grab and they will open their mouth.

I wrap him fully with a towel just exposing his head, and then gently press the syringe to the side back of his mouth, coaxing him to open his mouth. The problem is when he opens he really quickly starts to resist, either biting the syringe or using his tongue to try to push the medicine out. The whole squeezing the side of the cats jaw to open mouth has never ever worked for him. I don't want him to end up spitting out all medication while hating me each day. my fingers are also getting scrapped and bitten during the process so it's not fun. Are there any tips for giving medicine to my especially stubborn boy?
 

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Is it a med that can be mixed with a bit of 'juice' from canned tuna or chicken in water? There are also nutritional pastes or lickable treats that it could be mixed with that he might be willing to lap up? Salmon or other fish oil?
 
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Babypinkweeb

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Is it a med that can be mixed with a bit of 'juice' from canned tuna or chicken in water? There are also nutritional pastes or lickable treats that it could be mixed with that he might be willing to lap up? Salmon or other fish oil?
I'm not sure if that's allowed since I was given the medication in dosed syringes. If adding it to food will make it easier I can definitely do it. It's metronidazole. He loves his lickable treats.
 

FeebysOwner

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I'm not sure if that's allowed since I was given the medication in dosed syringes. If adding it to food will make it easier I can definitely do it. It's metronidazole. He loves his lickable treats.
Metro can be given with food, so just try squeezing a syringe of it into one of the treats he likes, mix it, and see what happens. It's worth a try.

I did that with a syringe med that Feeby had to take that made her foam at the mouth, but I added it to just a bit of tuna juice and she lapped it up with no problem. I have used lickable treats with other meds for her - thankfully the same result.
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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I have to give liquid medicine predosed into syringes for my cat twice a day. He hates being held and is not very touchy overall. All the guides I find online are probably for docile cats who you can just grab and they will open their mouth.

I wrap him fully with a towel just exposing his head, and then gently press the syringe to the side back of his mouth, coaxing him to open his mouth. The problem is when he opens he really quickly starts to resist, either biting the syringe or using his tongue to try to push the medicine out. The whole squeezing the side of the cats jaw to open mouth has never ever worked for him. I don't want him to end up spitting out all medication while hating me each day. my fingers are also getting scrapped and bitten during the process so it's not fun. Are there any tips for giving medicine to my especially stubborn boy?
Metronidazole tastes really bad to cats; many cats end up reacting quite dramatically to it being administered to them. I had to give some to my last cat, and we found that using pills, to tuck into pill pockets or the like, worked out much better than using liquid doses. Could you contact your vet, tell them of your difficulties in giving the liquid med, and maybe they can offer you a prescription for tablets which you could try?
 

TardisDance

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I wonder if you can get a flavored version of the metronidazole? I recently had my new cat Kirby on this to treat giardia. The vet gave it as a liquid with chicken flavoring. I mixed it into Fancy Feast pates and he ate it no problem.
 
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Babypinkweeb

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Thanks everyone for the advice! I don't have a car right now so I didn't want to spend another $40 just to pick up a pill version of the medicine. Thankfully I manage to find a way to give him the meds that is relatively low stress. (I believe the version I got is flavored already but he still hates it and foams up/tries to spit it out if I inject it directly)

He didn't take when I mixed it with the wet treat on a plate. But I found what works is putting a bit of the mixture on my finger, covering it generously with the wet treat, and then letting him lick it off seem to work. Once he shows distaste I will top off with a new dollop of wet treat and mix it a bit and he will eat it. It's a slow and pretty messy process but he didn't spit it everywhere nor was he stressed about it. The medicine seem to be helping his poop already so hopefully it will be resolved permanently soon.
 

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I'm glad you found something that worked for you! I found that with our one cat a different medication we could mix with wet food and he ate it just fine but when they put him on metro he would NOT touch the food. We had to scruff him to give him the metro, which opened his mouth enough to get it squirted in though he occasionally managed to spit some of it out. Initially we did the burrito with scruffing but after a couple days we stopped needing the blanket.
 

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I was going to say almost the same thing that the vet in the video, above, says.

You don't squirt the medicine into the front of the mouth. Squirt in in, sort of, from the side. It's kind of the same place where a human would put in a pinch of tobacco. (Not to say that I condone chewing tobacco but we've all seen the typical redneck character in movies and TV shows taking a chaw. That's what I'm referring to. ;) )

Hold your cat's head and put the tip of the syringe into the corner of the mouth, pointing at a backward angle, about 45º. Squirt the medicine in at a consistent pace. The cat will instinctively lick with the tongue and the medicine will go down almost automatically.

I had to give my first cat, K.C., medicine from a syringe and that's what the vet taught me.

It took a few times to get the hang of it but, once I did, the medicine went down with a minimum of fussing.
 
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Babypinkweeb

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I'm glad you found something that worked for you! I found that with our one cat a different medication we could mix with wet food and he ate it just fine but when they put him on metro he would NOT touch the food. We had to scruff him to give him the metro, which opened his mouth enough to get it squirted in though he occasionally managed to spit some of it out. Initially we did the burrito with scruffing but after a couple days we stopped needing the blanket.
Sadly this boy is dry food only so mixing with wet is no go. Getting him to eat wet is almost as difficult as getting him his metro! At this point I'd rather make sure he ingests his meds fully, since he is very very stubborn about spitting it back out with other methods I've tried.

I was going to say almost the same thing that the vet in the video, above, says.

You don't squirt the medicine into the front of the mouth. Squirt in in, sort of, from the side. It's kind of the same place where a human would put in a pinch of tobacco. (Not to say that I condone chewing tobacco but we've all seen the typical redneck character in movies and TV shows taking a chaw. That's what I'm referring to. ;) )

Hold your cat's head and put the tip of the syringe into the corner of the mouth, pointing at a backward angle, about 45º. Squirt the medicine in at a consistent pace. The cat will instinctively lick with the tongue and the medicine will go down almost automatically.

I had to give my first cat, K.C., medicine from a syringe and that's what the vet taught me.

It took a few times to get the hang of it but, once I did, the medicine went down with a minimum of fussing.
Haha this is what I mean by online guides being good for well behaved cats! My other cat is quite nice and lets me do stuff with minor vocal complaints and mostly stays still if I try to hold him a little bit. But Boogie is a very big spicy boy who is extremely stubborn even when burrito'd. Heck he's the type who needs to take sedatives to go to the vet! If I can get him to even lie still like the video and let me hold his head I wouldn't be posting here!
 

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I'm glad you found something that worked for you! I found that with our one cat a different medication we could mix with wet food and he ate it just fine but when they put him on metro he would NOT touch the food. We had to scruff him to give him the metro, which opened his mouth enough to get it squirted in though he occasionally managed to spit some of it out. Initially we did the burrito with scruffing but after a couple days we stopped needing the blanket.
I'm curious why you didn't insist on tablet form that the cat would not have to taste. I am back from the vet, and I forgot to ask if it was available in pill form. We got liquid. My cat spit out some of the first dose. It irks me that I wasn't asked. In my opinion, some vet offices send home what they have the most of. It's happened before.
 
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