Getting Cat To Take Pills... Post Tips Here.

[kmoulus]

I tried the butter trick, my vet said cats like butter and it greases up the pull so it slides down easily. It was fine but it's not like Speedy suddenly loved the pill, it just made forcing the pill down slightly easier. I also bought empty gelcaps and put the pills inside, then greased it up with butter. This wasn't great, the gel caps were a bit large but at least I could get all five pills down in one dose. And I tried bits of Greenie's pill pockets. Again it went down but Speedy wasn't fooled.

In the end, Friskies Temptations treats worked like a charm. Speedy would eat anything as long as it was inside a Temptations. Luckily she was taking 1/4 pill for most of her HCM/CHF meds. If you work carefully, you can break it in half, stick the pill inside and stick it back together. Personally, I feel like the hairball version are slightly larger than other flavors but YMMV. Speedy didn't care if it was sticking out, she'd gobble it down. For years, she would wake me up begging for her morning meds and she'd pester me if I was late with the evening dose. Are Temptations the healthiest treat? Perhaps not but my vet said it was a small price to pay to get lifesaving meds into a cat.

Disclaimer: this worked for everything except Plavix, which tastes terrible and cats notoriously hate it.

Good luck!
Karen (and Speedy in Heaven)

 

[njg55]

My cat has been taking a Gabapentin capsule for over a month, and several weeks ago the vet added Amitrptyline (the pills, small to begin with, are halved). I used Royal Canine Pill Assists, which are a lot like Pill Pockets, and she gobbled them down. However, in the last few days she has been more reluctant. I'd drop the stuffed Pill Assist on the floor, turn my back or go into another room, then find it untouched. If I got out another one and wrapped it around the first, she sometimes ate that. Tonight she left it. I put the thing in her dish, so maybe later tonight she'll eat it if there's nothing else to snack on.
She's tapering off, down from twice a day for the Gabapentin to once a day, and in a few days will be down to every other day, and through with everything, hopefully, in a few weeks, but I still need a new strategy for the duration. The amitriptyline is so small I might be able to slip that into canned food. The Gabapentin capsule is kind of big, so that's harder to deal with. It's late at night, so the best thing I have on hand is cream cheese. I'll go shopping tomorrow. Your best ideas?

 

[Maurey]

Homemade pill pockets (cheaper, and without any of the nasty fillers) are great.
All you need are dry crushed up dry treats, a wet treat, and animal based oil or fat that your cat likes. The ratio is 2-2.5:1:1. I usually use freeze dried chicken, meat-only baby food, and butter. This only keeps a couple days wrapped up in the fridge, so you’re best off making small batches. You could probably try experimenting with gelatin or bone broth for the wet ingredient, to see if you could get a more pill pocket-like texture, but the basic recipe is more than enough for most pills, imo.

 

[mx4878]

I had 7 cats that all needed the same pills, it was impossible to find the same way to use on all of them. One day i decided to try hiding them in freeze dried treats (I got dog treats as they are bigger, 100% meat, and cut a hole with a knife to stuff the pill in) which worked for all. Another way that kind of worked was to crush freeze dried treats in a bag and place the pills in the bag for a few minutes, id give them 2 regular treats while i wait then feed the pills (They would smell like the treats, the trick is to find the stinkiest treats ever - I used freeze dried beef liver) This worked on all my cats except oscar, he would lick the pill but not eat it. You can reuse the powder as a topping. Using the second method and decreasing the time the pill was in the bag and using less stinky treats, i managed to get 3 cats to eat the pill alone.