So, Real Difficulty Giving Cat A Pill, He Foams And Then Vomits.

I need to give my cat a pill and today was really difficult.

It's tiny, we wrapped him in a towel, put in his mouth but never got it fully in, he started foaming like crazy, it was dissolving, we kind of just rubbed it on his lips (what we could salvage of it) and then when he got down he proceeded to vomit up his lunch, (I think it was a gag reflex from taste of pill), walked away and then went to eat some more. So obviously he didn't get any of the pill.

Advice?

I have a call into vet to see if meds can be compounded.

I hope this Article about tips for pilling a cat are helpful for you:
Pilling Cats: Must-know Tips For Hiding Pills

I have better luck with liquid meds/syringe and always request that instead of a pill. Best of luck!

Try Pill Pockets. Most pet stores sell these.

PILL POCKETS Treats for Cats: PILL POCKETS™ Treats | GREENIES

You can also try these tips:

Pilling Cats: Must-know Tips For Hiding Pills
How We Give Our Pill Hating Cat A Pill
The Best Pill-taking Secret I Know...

I put my cat in the bathroom,shut the door,put her in the sink, gently scruff her neck back so its tilted, put the pill in as far as you can, quickly close her mouth and wait to make sure she swallowed it. It helps to blow on her nose and move your finger down her throat If you still have trouble, one of the vets techs can do it or sometimes assistants are trained

Thanks guys. I feel so awful that he vomited. He didn't even swallow the pill, I think he just vomited from the taste and the stress of us trying to pill him.
He ate again a little while ago, he looked like he may vomit again, but then got up and is now sleeping comfortably with his brother.

I think I'm going to hold food for the rest of the night to give things a chance to settle. Maybe his throat is irritated. This cat also vomits when he eats too fast.

The vet has called in a prescription so that we can just rub on his ears.

Some pills have a nasty bitter taste to cats. Hiding the pill in a Pill Pocket or compounding it into a different form makes it a lot easier to get the medicine into the cat. Apply a transdermal medicine to the cat's ear with a gloved hand or a q-tip. That way you aren't absorbing the medicine through your skin.

LTS3 said:

Some pills have a nasty bitter taste to cats. Hiding the pill in a Pill Pocket or compounding it into a different form makes it a lot easier to get the medicine into the cat. Apply a transdermal medicine to the cat's ear with a gloved hand or a q-tip. That way you aren't absorbing the medicine through your skin.

Click to expand...

Good idea, I'm going to go get some q-tips.

I am giving mine a tiny little crumb of an appetite stimulant. If it’s small enough, you might be able to bury it in a small piece of butter and get her to swallow that instead following the pilling instructions above. Hopefully she won’t notice the pill at all.

Or brown cow cheese. Cats love that. It's good mixed in scrambled eggs. Yummy! That would only work on my cat Coco. She will swallow one big bite without chewing

Mingo is impossible to pill. Even the vet couldn't do it, so I crushed the pill with a small mortar and pestle and mixed in his food, which he ate. If he had refused to eat it, I would have put some catnip on it.

Which medicine is it? Does it happen to be Metronidazole brand name Flagyl. That sounds like the reaction that all cats have to it. My IBD cat was on it a couple of times. The vet would actually cut them up in little pieces and put them in gel caps for me so he couldn't taste it.

If it is Flagyl, which I just had to use with one of my cats briefly, it tastes awful and they do react. My dog takes a ton of meds and has to be pilled (I have to put the pill in the back part of his mouth scenario). Because there are so many, I bought gelatin capsules on Amazon...they come in all sizes so take a good look and even try to measure...and consolidate them so that instead of taking 9 meds he actually takes 3.

There are artificially chicken flavored capsules, too: Capsules for Cats I'm not sure if Amazon sells these.

Don't forget to chase a pill down with water or food to prevent it from dissolving in the esophagus and causing irritation: Pilling Cats and Dogs Safely

drelocks said:

I need to give my cat a pill and today was really difficult.

It's tiny, we wrapped him in a towel, put in his mouth but never got it fully in, he started foaming like crazy, it was dissolving, we kind of just rubbed it on his lips (what we could salvage of it) and then when he got down he proceeded to vomit up his lunch, (I think it was a gag reflex from taste of pill), walked away and then went to eat some more. So obviously he didn't get any of the pill.

Advice?

I have a call into vet to see if meds can be compounded.

Click to expand...

I had the same issue with my cat. I bought Tomlyn Pill-Masker on Amazon. I cut his treat in half and then hide the pill in the paste and then stick it to his treat. He takes it no problem! Hope this helps.