My cat is onto me with the pills...

[FeebysOwner]

There are some non-chicken mousse options (instead of lickable treats) that you could use solely for his supplements. Tiki Cat, Applaws, Delectable Bisques, Wellness Core Tiny Tasters, Simply Nourish, and/or Solid Gold Perfect Pairings are the ones that come to mind. Even with the lickable treats Feeby gets, I interchange between about 7 of them in order to help prevent her from becoming tired of any of them.

I do agree that smaller doses might work better as the taste of the supplement might overwhelm the treats. I know that I could never get Feeby to take fish oil as she hates any kind of fish!!

 

[BluOnyx]

Delectable Bisques

I got 3 cases of these as he had been eating them with his supplements but decided he didn't want them anymore the other day. You know, after I bought the cases. lol I am just going to take a break from them and see if he will eat them again after a week off of them.

I know there are other brands, some of which I have tried in the past that he did not like. I think giving him so many options (since starting his meds) backfired because he is becoming picky now and he never was before.

 

[BluOnyx]

I spoke to soon. He didn't want to finish his pills with the treats tonight. I ended up having to mix one of the pills crushed up in the other cat's food, a small amount, which contains chicken. I figured a once off was better than nothing and if he hates the food it doesn't matter as it is not one of his normal foods.

I am hoping he takes everything okay in the morning. I am basically out of options after this. He has stopped eating more than half the foods he used to love because of medication. Hardly eats his other treats. I can't force feed him the medication either as he will fight (badly). I tried twice before and it took two of us for 20 min of fighting him and not a pill got in him.

If I manage to get his medication compounded, he likely won't take that with food either (liquid form). I am trying not to get worried or upset over this but it is very hard not to.

 

[BluOnyx]

I spoke to soon. He didn't want to finish his pills with the treats tonight. I ended up having to mix one of the pills crushed up in the other cat's food, a small amount, which contains chicken. I figured a once off was better than nothing and if he hates the food it doesn't matter as it is not one of his normal foods.

I am hoping he takes everything okay in the morning. I am basically out of options after this. He has stopped eating more than half the foods he used to love because of medication. Hardly eats his other treats. I can't force feed him the medication either as he will fight (badly). I tried twice before and it took two of us for 20 min of fighting him and not a pill got in him.

If I manage to get his medication compounded, he likely won't take that with food either (liquid form). I am trying not to get worried or upset over this but it is very hard not to.

He took almost everything (medication) with the treats. He missed half a dose of pimobendan. He also refused to eat the last BFF variety I had left with his fish oil and was reluctant to take his ubiquinol and taurine with the PureBites mixer. He is already being put off from that. He is also becoming very itchy from the chicken treats. I even tried buying fresh fish oil, just opened today and he does not want it. He didn't want to finish his meal either, became very frustrated and walked away.

I did not sleep good from worry. I don't have an appetite and just feel sick to my stomach. I am trying not to get stressed out because I know he can sense when I am. He goes to see his doctor in a few days so I am compiling a list of everything going on and questions. Hopefully we can find some easier ways to give him his medication. I can't force him to take them.

It just upsets me because he once loved eating his food. He was never picky. Always so happy when it was time to eat and now he looks at me with distrust and gets upset when it is time to eat. I also feel terrible because the treats I have been needing to use are making him itchy and uncomfortable.

 

[Lillyenn]

So this is a long shot but one of my cats sadly passed away more than a year ago due to fip. She has been sick for a while (about 6 months I think). Her teeth sucked and she had a very sensitive stomach. So we mostly gave her stuff like chicken breast, sensitive cat food and she also really liked chicken hearts. She loved her stomach insanely and she also had a very very strong sense of smell (which did not bode well for any medications).

She was horrible with medicine. If it was a pill and I tried to mix it into any food (and I did try everything I could think of) she would not eat it. If it was a liquid she would just let it flow out of her mouth with saliva. You could not force feed her she would spit anything out somehow.

We don't really have pocket treats here. So what I would do that actually ended up working great was: I would cut a well cooked chicken heart in half and push the pill inside the hole in it. If it was a bigger pill I would cut it into two parts with a knife as well.

She almost never noticed it if I gave her the chicken heart when 1., she was hungry 2., immidiately after I pushed the pill inside - this way she couldn't taste the pill since the taste of chicken heart was more intense (in a place where she couldn't see me doing it) 3., the heart was still warm but not too hot.

Due to her teeth not being the best + chicken heart being essentially the perfect pocket treat in shape and size for her, she did not chew into it enough to notice the pill.

She did notice sometimes when the pill was too big compared to the heart-piece size or when the heart has gone a little cold but this method still proved to be the most effective (it worked about 85-90% of the time which I was more than satisfied with compared to 0).

You could try this as well but I just basically wrote it out to try and give you some hope. Every cat is different. For some I can force feed them medicine. For others chicken heart would not work because they don't like it. Chicken heart was simply a more natural taste than something with a specific flavor. + she went crazy for it + it never upset her stomach. There is a good solution to your kitty you just have to find it. I was so relieved when I figured it out.

I know that this is easy to say, but try to not stress about it because if they notice that you are nervous or agitatated while trying to feed them, they catch on quick. If feeding is already more stressful because you are acting off and the food tastes bad then of course eating becomes a chore and not a joy. And all cats hate chores. You need a specific food that the cat loves that either has a strong enough taste or a strong enough smell so the pill is the least noticeable. Grinding it into powder and mixing it into something is always the worst choice that doesn't even work with my easy to medicate cats. It's best if they can swallow it with something whole or in like two pieces. If the pill sits inside any food for too long it becomes more and more noticable. And sometimes wrapping it in something that's not thick enough won't work. For example I tried this trick with chicken breast too (like cutting it in a specific shape and digging a little hole in it with a knife) it never worked because chicken breast was not solid enough like a heart (which is more chevy) and it also has a milder taste and smell.

I was super casual about the heart thing even the few times it didn't work because that way she never started being suspicious about hearts. She waited for them excitedly right until fip got it's final hold on her and she couldn't eat anymore.

 

[BluOnyx]

So this is a long shot but one of my cats sadly passed away more than a year ago due to fip. She has been sick for a while (about 6 months I think). Her teeth sucked and she had a very sensitive stomach. So we mostly gave her stuff like chicken breast, sensitive cat food and she also really liked chicken hearts. She loved her stomach insanely and she also had a very very strong sense of smell (which did not bode well for any medications).

She was horrible with medicine. If it was a pill and I tried to mix it into any food (and I did try everything I could think of) she would not eat it. If it was a liquid she would just let it flow out of her mouth with saliva. You could not force feed her she would spit anything out somehow.

We don't really have pocket treats here. So what I would do that actually ended up working great was: I would cut a well cooked chicken heart in half and push the pill inside the hole in it. If it was a bigger pill I would cut it into two parts with a knife as well.

She almost never noticed it if I gave her the chicken heart when 1., she was hungry 2., immidiately after I pushed the pill inside - this way she couldn't taste the pill since the taste of chicken heart was more intense (in a place where she couldn't see me doing it) 3., the heart was still warm but not too hot.

Due to her teeth not being the best + chicken heart being essentially the perfect pocket treat in shape and size for her, she did not chew into it enough to notice the pill.

She did notice sometimes when the pill was too big compared to the heart-piece size or when the heart has gone a little cold but this method still proved to be the most effective (it worked about 85-90% of the time which I was more than satisfied with compared to 0).

You could try this as well but I just basically wrote it out to try and give you some hope. Every cat is different. For some I can force feed them medicine. For others chicken heart would not work because they don't like it. Chicken heart was simply a more natural taste than something with a specific flavor. + she went crazy for it + it never upset her stomach. There is a good solution to your kitty you just have to find it. I was so relieved when I figured it out.

I know that this is easy to say, but try to not stress about it because if they notice that you are nervous or agitatated while trying to feed them, they catch on quick. If feeding is already more stressful because you are acting off and the food tastes bad then of course eating becomes a chore and not a joy. And all cats hate chores. You need a specific food that the cat loves that either has a strong enough taste or a strong enough smell so the pill is the least noticeable. Grinding it into powder and mixing it into something is always the worst choice that doesn't even work with my easy to medicate cats. It's best if they can swallow it with something whole or in like two pieces. If the pill sits inside any food for too long it becomes more and more noticable. And sometimes wrapping it in something that's not thick enough won't work. For example I tried this trick with chicken breast too (like cutting it in a specific shape and digging a little hole in it with a knife) it never worked because chicken breast was not solid enough like a heart (which is more chevy) and it also has a milder taste and smell.

I was super casual about the heart thing even the few times it didn't work because that way she never started being suspicious about hearts. She waited for them excitedly right until fip got it's final hold on her and she couldn't eat anymore.

He can't have chicken anything outside of the few treats he gets with his medication or he ends up with diarrhea pretty badly. Thanks for the information though. Someone else here may find it useful. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[BluOnyx]

I'll update this while I am here.

I ended up getting one of his pills compounded so he is getting 2 less per day and it is much smaller.

Instead of fish oil, he is getting sardines daily (small amounts) so he still gets his fatty acids.

I also mix his taurine in a new food that he has never had and will not let him taste it without it so he doesn't suspect anything. It is that Core 95 stuff in the turkey variety. I just add 4 taurine capsules to it and mix it up then divide it into 4 small containers. I keep it in the fridge to keep it fresh as possible. I read it can last up to 5 days if kept cold. Seems to be working thus far.

I had to double up his ubiquinol and give it to him once per day instead of twice. I have to hide it and make sure it is mixed well so he doesn't notice.

He stopped the vitamin C. I did get him some treats with vitamin C in them, but he ate 4 and has not wanted them since. Too healthy for his liking lol

 

[LadyLondonderry]

BluOnyx , I feel your pain. I too have a smart and suspicious cat with a chicken intolerance and the need to take multiple pills! Mine now has the added twist of not being able to smell her food.

Until very recently, we were going along pretty well. Last year 16-year-old Sylvie was diagnosed with hypertension and prescribed amlodipine. It was a teeny fragment of a pill, and I had some success getting her to take it wrapped in the bacon-flavored Vetoquinol pill wrap and plopped on top of her food (wet).

At some point she figured out how to liberate the pill from its wrappings, gobble up the bacony stuff, and leave the sad, disintegrating pill in the dish. As this happened with increasing frequency, I looked for alternative pill wraps. The big hit was cream cheese--but it had to be whipped, and it had to be the Philadelphia brand! Seriously--TempTee was rejected for not being fluffy enough.

In the week between Christmas and New Year's, Sylvie had a couple of urinary accidents where she peed near, but not in, the litter box, and also on the couch throw. I thought it might be the beginning of kidney disease, but when I took her to the vet last week and they ran every test under the sun, it turned out that she had a urinary tract infection. We waited several days for the culture results to come back from the lab so the vet could prescribe the appropriate antibiotic. In the meantime, the blood tests results showed mild hyperthyroidism. So we were looking at adding an antibiotic to Sylvie's routine very temporarily, and a thyroid medication long term.

I think all of that might have been manageable, but she caught an upper respiratory infection at the same time. She had been sneezing and snuffling a bit, and at the cat hospital the vet noticed some eye discharge. This dealt us a wild card in terms of administering meds, because this usually very food-motivated cat has a compromised sense of smell.

Last night my wonderful vet tech visited us to deliver the new medicines and give the first dose of the antibiotic. All good.

This morning I tried to administer the hypertension and thyroid meds via the usual cream cheese and was rebuffed after a couple of (non-pill-containing) licks. I made a clumsy attempt to "pill" Sylvie, mimicking my wonderful vet tech ("It's so easy! She has no teeth!" Easy to say when you have decades of experience doing this ) and failed, with Sylvie looking at me like she was thinking, "What the hell are you trying to do to me??" Next I tried sticking the pills in bits of the pill pockets the vet tech gave me for the antibiotics (yes, chicken-containing, but worth a one-time shot). Sylvie, predictably, ate the pockets and left the pills. Next, I tried coating the pills with butter and plopping them on top of the food. She would not go near the dish. Then I went out in the snow/rain and bought an oral syringe and the last two jars of Gerber Mealtime for Baby turkey baby food. Came back, put the pills on a nicely textured washcloth (a la the brilliant linked video) and topped them with the baby food...Sylvie was so olfactorily oblivious that she completely ignored them and lay down almost on top of them.

So here I am with a mostly unmedicated cat and a boatload of stuff (capsules, syringes, another jar of bacon wrap, a tube of anchovy paste...) on its way to me, most likely to do nothing except deplete my checking account and get passed along to someone to whom it might prove helpful. Oh yeah, I researched the antibiotic Sylvie is supposed to be taking and learned that it should not be consumed along with dairy products, such as cream cheese. So her most recent pill wrap is out of contention for this particular pill.

 

[daftcat75]

BluOnyx , I feel your pain. I too have a smart and suspicious cat with a chicken intolerance and the need to take multiple pills! Mine now has the added twist of not being able to smell her food.

Until very recently, we were going along pretty well. Last year 16-year-old Sylvie was diagnosed with hypertension and prescribed amlodipine. It was a teeny fragment of a pill, and I had some success getting her to take it wrapped in the bacon-flavored Vetoquinol pill wrap and plopped on top of her food (wet).

At some point she figured out how to liberate the pill from its wrappings, gobble up the bacony stuff, and leave the sad, disintegrating pill in the dish. As this happened with increasing frequency, I looked for alternative pill wraps. The big hit was cream cheese--but it had to be whipped, and it had to be the Philadelphia brand! Seriously--TempTee was rejected for not being fluffy enough.

In the week between Christmas and New Year's, Sylvie had a couple of urinary accidents where she peed near, but not in, the litter box, and also on the couch throw. I thought it might be the beginning of kidney disease, but when I took her to the vet last week and they ran every test under the sun, it turned out that she had a urinary tract infection. We waited several days for the culture results to come back from the lab so the vet could prescribe the appropriate antibiotic. In the meantime, the blood tests results showed mild hyperthyroidism. So we were looking at adding an antibiotic to Sylvie's routine very temporarily, and a thyroid medication long term.

I think all of that might have been manageable, but she caught an upper respiratory infection at the same time. She had been sneezing and snuffling a bit, and at the cat hospital the vet noticed some eye discharge. This dealt us a wild card in terms of administering meds, because this usually very food-motivated cat has a compromised sense of smell.

Last night my wonderful vet tech visited us to deliver the new medicines and give the first dose of the antibiotic. All good.

This morning I tried to administer the hypertension and thyroid meds via the usual cream cheese and was rebuffed after a couple of (non-pill-containing) licks. I made a clumsy attempt to "pill" Sylvie, mimicking my wonderful vet tech ("It's so easy! She has no teeth!" Easy to say when you have decades of experience doing this ) and failed, with Sylvie looking at me like she was thinking, "What the hell are you trying to do to me??" Next I tried sticking the pills in bits of the pill pockets the vet tech gave me for the antibiotics (yes, chicken-containing, but worth a one-time shot). Sylvie, predictably, ate the pockets and left the pills. Next, I tried coating the pills with butter and plopping them on top of the food. She would not go near the dish. Then I went out in the snow/rain and bought an oral syringe and the last two jars of Gerber Mealtime for Baby turkey baby food. Came back, put the pills on a nicely textured washcloth (a la the brilliant linked video) and topped them with the baby food...Sylvie was so olfactorily oblivious that she completely ignored them and lay down almost on top of them.

So here I am with a mostly unmedicated cat and a boatload of stuff (capsules, syringes, another jar of bacon wrap, a tube of anchovy paste...) on its way to me, most likely to do nothing except deplete my checking account and get passed along to someone to whom it might prove helpful. Oh yeah, I researched the antibiotic Sylvie is supposed to be taking and learned that it should not be consumed along with dairy products, such as cream cheese. So her most recent pill wrap is out of contention for this particular pill.

In a pinch you can probably powder up all the pills and make a suspension in water, load up a syringe, and shoot it into her mouth. My Betty who used to take capsules on her own with A/D frosting now rejects it all. I have liquid gabapentin for her and I crush up her ondansetron into a spoon, squirt out her gabapentin dose into the spoon, and then take both up in a 3 mL syringe. I find the short squat 3 mL syringe does a better job of shooting it all at once than the 1 ml which often gets caught halfway through. Then I have to chase an angry, betrayed Betty to give her the second half. No thank you! The 3 mL is also easier to aim. She hates it. I hate giving it to her. But we worked out a system that’s not too hard for either of us. I can grab and corner her into my legs pocket and grab her face with my free hand. With the syringe, I tap it against the front of her teeth saying “open up” which she eventually does and then *pop* 1 mL shoots into her before she can spit it out. She runs off and I wash the syringe and spoon and get her treats ready. Because the gabapentin is for dental pain she doesn’t always take the treats right away. But I think she’s catching on to where to find them even if she doesn’t see me place them next to her fountain. I think she must know that it helps her because she’s always very quick to forgive me.

Neither one of us like this method very much. But we’re getting it done until we can get the next flavors or formulations to try from Wedgewood. Sadly I asked for unmedicated blanks first and they are taking a long time to get here. Holidays. Weather. You name it. I keep telling Betty a better method is coming soon. And we’re still waiting….

But we’re getting it done until then.

Edit: came back to say that I don’t have to force Betty’s mouth open because the liquid has a bitter foul taste to it. Just tapping the tip to her grimacing lips and teeth is enough that she’ll eventually get a taste and open up on her own. That’s when it’s helpful to have the 3 mL syringe that pops her 1 mL dose all at once like her 1 mL syringe won’t do.

 

[IndyJones]

I use the way my vet taught me a long time ago. Forget about using food, treats or anything like that.

Tilt the head back Pop the pill in the cats mouth, snap it shut and rub their throat until you hear them swallow. No fussing or making it into a big deal.

Works for me every time.

Cats aren't like dogs who will often take whatever you give them.

 

[daftcat75]

I use the way my vet taught me a long time ago. Forget about using food, treats or anything like that.

Tilt the head back Pop the pill in the cats mouth, snap it shut and rub their throat until you hear them swallow. No fussing or making it into a big deal.

Works for me every time.

Cats aren't like dogs who will often take whatever you give them.

I tried that a couple times with Betty. Her teeth sliced my finger open before I could even get the capsule in her and her mouth closed. Then she would wrestle her way out of my grip, and spit it out. I've watched vets have a hard time popping her mouth open just to look at her teeth. She used to love the A/D frosting method. Now we're on the liquid method until we can find a flavor and formulation she likes better. Maybe a concentrated flavored oil that I can mix with other yums or a medi-melt she'll maybe take with some kibble. She likes kibble and hard treats so that might work for her.

 

[Mac and Cats]

I just tried it and I am mind blown. He took all his pills in less than a minute. He licked around one but went back for it when I put more food on it. Even the bitter one, he spit it out and look it right back in with more food. I am so happy and relieved. I wish I knew this years ago.

Not sure which pills your cat takes or how big they are, but you could try putting them in a gel capsule to do just one pill or a couple of pills. This might be helpful with the bitter pill. I started doing this with my cat because he has to take multiple pills. Much easier.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

Happy to say Sylvie got all three of her meds today, helped by her returning sense of smell. In the morning she came to me for breakfast, and afterward sat looking at me expectantly for her customary dessert. I got out the whipped cream cheese, mixed the blood pressure and thyroid pills into it, and she licked it all up off my fingers.

In the early evening she came around seeking dinner. I seized the opportunity her hunger presented and offered her an improved version (over yesterday’s attempt) of the pill-treat shown in the video: gelatin capsules filled with her cut-up antibiotic tablet, placed on a nicely textured washcloth and generously topped with a tuna & scallop Churu treat. The capsules, sizes 3 and 4, turned out to be so small that it took three of them to hold all the pill pieces, but Sylvie eventually ate them all! I just had to keep refreshing the globs of Churu on top until she polished them all off.

Hoping this routine keeps working for the next week or so, so she can easily complete the course of the antibiotic. The blood pressure and thyroid meds should be much less of a challenge, as long as her senses of smell and taste are in working order.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

This evening I put the antibiotic tablet into my pill crusher and ground it into smaller bits, so I needed only two size 3 capsules to hold them. The other elements of the routine (textured washcloth and generous amounts of Churu "icing" on the capsules) remained the same. Again, success! I am so grateful that these techniques are working.

 

[daftcat75]

This evening I put the antibiotic tablet into my pill crusher and ground it into smaller bits, so I needed only two size 3 capsules to hold them. The other elements of the routine (textured washcloth and generous amounts of Churu "icing" on the capsules) remained the same. Again, success! I am so grateful that these techniques are working.

That icing technique worked with Betty for over a year. Then it stopped working. I think the last round of dental extractions were particularly difficult on her and maybe she might have some that still need to go that the vet wasn't comfortable taking (canines that weren't loose but showing signs of resorption.) Betty used to eagerly take up every capsule I put down for her and purr for more. I miss that so much. For awhile, she just got sick of the "cake frosting" (Hills A/D) I was using. I switched it up a few times. But eventually she got smart and realized that whatever I was putting down was just hiding something she didn't want to take up. She licked at it and even learned how to flick the capsule away if she managed to take it up. I have not tried whipped cream cheese though. I just had to chase her down, squish her flat between my legs, and squirt another shot of the foul into her. Then she ran off and let out a low moan. I'm still waiting on those unmedicated samples to see if any compounding flavor or formulation appeals to her.

I'm relieved and thrilled that the icing technique is working for you and hope it never fails.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

I'm relieved and thrilled that the icing technique is working for you and hope it never fails.

Thank you, daftcat! It just needs to see us through the rest of the antibiotic course (6 more days!). I've thought about applying it to the morning blood pressure and thyroid pills as well, with both of those stuffed into one little capsule. But we both enjoy the simplicity of sticking the pills into little blobs of whipped cream cheese and letting Sylvie gobble them up from my hand. I'll hold the icing technique in reserve in case the whipped cream cheese ritual ever loses its charm.

 

[BluOnyx]

If you can manage one supplement and your cat has heart issues, Standard Process makes a formula for cats Feline Cardiac Support. I started my boy on this and it seems to have balanced his appetite enough so he eats most food and takes all his pills. For whatever reason, it keeps him on the hungrier side.

I started with one tab a day and then two a day when he would take it wrapped in lunch meat but he got sick of the lunch meat so I do one a day, in the evening before bed and just wrap it in lunch meat and pop it in his mouth and get him to swallow it. He has gotten good at it thankfully. I just make sure to pet him before hand and say "open" when I want to put it in his mouth so he knows it is coming. This relies on someone else holding him though over the shoulder. I can't do this alone.