My cat knows i sneak his medication into his wet food and now isn't eating it

[mxphs]

Hey everyone

Any advice? He's become really skeptical of every single serving of wet food now and is refusing to eat it because he's clued on that after wet food = drowsy, down time (he's on gabapentin capsules) It also probably affects the taste of the food although, its a really small amount of powder.
I don't want him to be skeptical of his wet food time, so i was thinking about sneaking it in wet tube treats instead.
It's not as vital if he is refusing treats, but it's really important he actually eats his dinner.

The vet was able to stick the capsule down his throat, but he is a different cat at the vet. Super docile and lets you do anything to him, i don't think this would be an option for me. Any experiences also with pill pockets too?

Thanks

 

[iPappy]

I've had good luck with pill pockets for the most part but sometimes they're pretty smart and learn to avoid those, too.
Is there a compounding pharmacy anywhere near you? It costs a little bit more, but they can make it a flavored liquid that's accepted by most cats via syringe, or in food.

 

[NekoM]

I alway crush pills add a little water and use a syringe, followed up by a treat. It takes all the stress out of inspecting their food. There are pill poppers available, I haven’t used one personally.

 

[iPappy]

I alway crush pills add a little water and use a syringe, followed up by a treat. It takes all the stress out of inspecting their food. There are pill poppers available, I haven’t used one personally.

I've done this too. If the pills are bitter, you can add a tiny amount of broth or goats milk to take the bitterness out. Just be sure to syringe it slowly.

 

[Margret]

There are also devices known as pill guns or pill poppers. You can put the pill (or preferably a capsule) in the end of a sort of syringe device. It's held fairly securely (i.e. the pill can't just fall out), and you use one hand to open the cat's mouth, use your other hand to place the pill near the back of his tongue, then push the plunger. The pill pops out into the cat's throat and the cat has to swallow it. You should be able to find one for less than $5; your vet may be able to give one to you for free. And, of course, after pilling the cat you follow up with a treat.

Margret

 

[FeebysOwner]

I use pill pockets or even better, pill masker, and only enough of either to wrap around the pill. I then coat it by shaking it inside a condiment cup with some Forti Flora - as the added enticer. Feeby gets pills this way 3 times a day, AM with a bite of food before her breakfast, midday with some treats, and PM in a lickable treat. The Forti Flora also helps to prevent the pill pocket or pill masker from sticking to the dish or plate, so it is less inclined to be left behind as she eats the rest.

 

[betsygee]

Those kitties are smart little critters, aren't they! I feel for you, it's tough getting the medicines they need into them sometimes. I had great success with pill pockets with one cat. You might try that first, it's probably the easiest way. Another cat of mine, though, seemed to be able to sense meds anywhere I tried to hide them and I ended up doing what NekoM does--dissolving the pill and syringing it into him, followed by lavish petting and a treat.

Good luck!

 

[Caspers Human]

Our cat, Casper, takes medicine every day. We grind it up and put it in his food.

Try using a mortar and pestle to grind the food up into a fine powder then add a few bits of dry food and grind them together before putting the mixture into the food.

That's how we do it for Casper. In fact, the grinding and mixing is part of his feeding routine.
When Casper's Girl-Human makes his food, he stands there and watches her do it. If I make Casper's food, he often looks at me as if he's saying "That's not how Mom does it!"

It's gotten to the point where Casper expects this and won't eat without it.

 

[mxphs]

Hey everyone, thanks for all your suggestions!


Im not sure what i'm going to do next. I have done the powder and the mixing into treats but he's starting to get suspicious of every wet type of food now because i've tried to put them in wet food and also wet treats too.
I'll keep you posted about what i do next because even im not sure. Syringe sounds tricky and im not a very hands on type of owner, this was what I was most worried about before getting humphrey.

 

[lollie]

Whenever she’s had to take meds, I use a gloop of hairball gel (she loves it) and just shove the pill or capsule inside. I prefer those tiny pills, the capsules are sometimes a little big and I’ve had to transfer the powder to a smaller capsule. She absolutely will not take it in her food. Their scent ability is pretty good.

 

[Mac and Cats]

I worried about this with my cats too. What I ended up doing is getting those treat tubes or Delectables and put it in a little dish and mix the medication in. That way, if they reject it because of the medication, they wouldn't be rejecting their actual food, but the treat instead. For me, the medication I put in the treat doesn't really have a taste except the fish oil, which she doesn't like the taste of. The medication that does have a taste, I put it in a pill pocket, pop it down their throat and then give them the liquid treat immediately after. This ensures that they associate pilling with a treat afterwards and also that the pill doesn't get stuck in their throat which can cause damage to their esophagus over time.

Something similar happened to me with my cat. She LOVED pill pockets until I started putting meds in them. Once she bit into one and discovered I was tricking her, she wouldn't eat them willingly again. That's why I just have to pop it down her throat now. I put it in the pill pocket to help it go down a little easier so that it doesn't dissolve in their throat.

What medication is your cat taking and what form is it in? That may help us to come up with a better solution for you.

 

[daftcat75]

My Betty is a blessing to medicate as she will take anything I can pack into capsules, dip in Hills A/D, and drop on the carpet for her. I don't really have to drop it on the carpet anymore. But it certainly makes it easier on both of us. Otherwise, she's more likely to lick and flick: lick the A/D off the capsule and flick it away. It's easier for her to scoop and swallow it off the carpet than off a plate.

We use a variation off this method:

And here's Betty demonstrating how easy meds time can be:

 

[daftcat75]

My Betty is a blessing to medicate as she will take anything I can pack into capsules, dip in Hills A/D, and drop on the carpet for her. I don't really have to drop it on the carpet anymore. But it certainly makes it easier on both of us. Otherwise, she's more likely to lick and flick: lick the A/D off the capsule and flick it away. It's easier for her to scoop and swallow it off the carpet than off a plate.

We use a variation off this method:

And here's Betty demonstrating how easy meds time can be:

I should note that I had her gabapentin compounded into 25 mg doses with Wedgewood Pharmacy. This reduced the human capsule size (size 1 or size 2?) down to something more manageable for a cat (size 3.) Before the compounding, I would use a capsule filling machine and an index card to eyeball one 100 mg capsule into four size 4 capsules (e.g. cutting four lines and pushing them into the four capsules.) After compounding, she's developed a tolerance so I still use my capsule filling machine to split her 25's and she gets 37.5 for breakfast and dinner, and a 25 at lunch. You can get empty capsules from Amazon. You can get a size four capsule filling machine from Etsy. I would post the link. But the redirects don't resolve. Simply search for the MYHERBAR seller. It runs about $30. Besides her gabapentin, once a month I turn about a dozen human sized s. boulardii capsules (size 0 or size 00--gigantic!) into 50 cat sized (size 4) capsules. With the filling machine, it takes no more than 30 minutes once a month. Betty also takes prednisilone once a day and ondansetron twice a day. These get packed into size five color-coded capsules (purple capsules for pred plus ondansetron and orange capsules for ondansetron only.) This takes me about 20 minutes on a weekend morning to cut up and pack a week's worth of capsules. Finally, she takes a gut restore supplement (like probiotics, but more powerful and more complete.) So she's taking five capsules in the morning, one at lunch, and four in the evening. She may not always eat at meds time because we're waiting on the meds to kick in. (A tiny starter strip of A/D in her regular food helps get something in her at meds time.) However, she always shows up, and takes her meds. She must really like the A/D. Or she must have figured out by now that she feels better after her meds kick in.

 

[mxphs]

I worried about this with my cats too. What I ended up doing is getting those treat tubes or Delectables and put it in a little dish and mix the medication in. That way, if they reject it because of the medication, they wouldn't be rejecting their actual food, but the treat instead.

What medication is your cat taking and what form is it in? That may help us to come up with a better solution for you.

I did this and it worked for a week and now he's refusing the wet tube treats.
I have to start doing the throat shove down thing and im dreading it. My cat will fight you to the death if you even try to do something as easy as check his ears, im really struggling

 

[daftcat75]

I did this and it worked for a week and now he's refusing the wet tube treats.
I have to start doing the throat shove down thing and im dreading it. My cat will fight you to the death if you even try to do something as easy as check his ears, im really struggling

Have you considered getting the meds compounded to something he might enjoy taking? My last cat, Krista, (my avatar kitty), she got ornery about meds in her last couple of years. I got one of them compounded into transdermal cream in a pen applicator, and another into a flavored oil. She had IBD and then lymphoma. Compliance was critical and our options were limited. Her chicken and fish intolerance ruled out a lot of conveniences like pill pockets, tube treats, and baby food. But her chemotherapy medicine in an anchovy-flavored oil? She willingly and eagerly lapped that up every time.

Veterinary Pharmacy for Compounded Pet Medications

Chewy also has a compounding pharmacy.

 

[mxphs]

Just did a google of compounding pharmacies near me, this seems like a really good next step, thanks for the advice!

 

[Mac and Cats]

I did this and it worked for a week and now he's refusing the wet tube treats.
I have to start doing the throat shove down thing and im dreading it. My cat will fight you to the death if you even try to do something as easy as check his ears, im really struggling

I totally feel your pain. Our lady cat, Molly, is a real sassafras. I use to say that I hoped she would never need to be medicated daily because she would slit my throat. In the beginning, after I ruined the pill pockets, it was rough. I found that the surprise tactic was the best with her. So, I would come up to her with the pill ready and wrapped in a pill pocket and would pop her mouth open and put the pill as far back as I possibly could. Then I followed it with treats, she eventually learned that it would be over quickly and she would get a treat at the end. So, to this day, Molly still won't eat the treats I "tricked" her with. So, I found another liquid treat that I just gave to her normally and not after a pill and let her eat them for a few days. Once she saw that I wasn't tricking her with these new treats, that's when I started using them as a treat after she gets her pill. I use a different treat to mix in her fish oil (she has REALLY bad dandruff), so that in case she decides that the fish oil is a trick, I won't be left trying to find another treat to give her after her twice daily pills. I know people don't like Hartz, but i've been giving her half a pouch of these (so one full pouch per day) after her daily medications and for her fish/omega oils, I've been mixing it into these. I would suggest trying to find a treat that she hasn't had before and just trying to give it to her as a treat for a few days. Then, try using it as a treat after you shove her pills down her throat. I bought these little dishes to give her the treat in. It doesn't matter to Molly, but it makes me happy to use the little cat dishes.

 

[Mac and Cats]

Just did a google of compounding pharmacies near me, this seems like a really good next step, thanks for the advice!

Wedgewood is a good compounding pharmacy and I think cheaper than Chewy. I always got my order quickly. We tried doing that with Gabapentin with Molly, but she did NOT appreciate the liquid gapapentin even if it was "chicken vanilla butternut squash flavored" (our vet suggested it??). What medications does your cat take, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[daftcat75]

I totally feel your pain. Our lady cat, Molly, is a real sassafras. I use to say that I hoped she would never need to be medicated daily because she would slit my throat. In the beginning, after I ruined the pill pockets, it was rough. I found that the surprise tactic was the best with her. So, I would come up to her with the pill ready and wrapped in a pill pocket and would pop her mouth open and put the pill as far back as I possibly could. Then I followed it with treats, she eventually learned that it would be over quickly and she would get a treat at the end. So, to this day, Molly still won't eat the treats I "tricked" her with. So, I found another liquid treat that I just gave to her normally and not after a pill and let her eat them for a few days. Once she saw that I wasn't tricking her with these new treats, that's when I started using them as a treat after she gets her pill. I use a different treat to mix in her fish oil (she has REALLY bad dandruff), so that in case she decides that the fish oil is a trick, I won't be left trying to find another treat to give her after her twice daily pills. I know people don't like Hartz, but i've been giving her half a pouch of these (so one full pouch per day) after her daily medications and for her fish/omega oils, I've been mixing it into these. I would suggest trying to find a treat that she hasn't had before and just trying to give it to her as a treat for a few days. Then, try using it as a treat after you shove her pills down her throat. I bought these little dishes to give her the treat in. It doesn't matter to Molly, but it makes me happy to use the little cat dishes.

I have a cat-shaped dish with whiskers on it. I used it with Krista for special meals and treats. I hope she realized and came to appreciate that when the cat dish came out, she was getting something special. Towards the end when her pred and chemo dose were too high to trust raw food, the dish only came out for her chemo oil puddles. She still licked them up every time. Betty, for the longest time, had a troubled relationship with plates. I suspect and it seems to be proving out that she had (still has?) dental issues and perhaps teeth hitting plate was something that lit her up. For awhile there, she would scoop food off the plate with her paw and then eat it from her paw. Or if she sniffed and snubbed her plate, I could often get her to reconsider if I dropped her food on the carpet instead. Now that she's taking enough gabapentin (a happy accident of a cancelled vet appointment), we don't have plate nonsense anymore. If she ever can't have A/D anymore, we'll be screwed though. I don't know how to medicate her any other way. Even the vet had a hard time popping her mouth open.

 

[mxphs]

Wedgewood is a good compounding pharmacy and I think cheaper than Chewy. I always got my order quickly. We tried doing that with Gabapentin with Molly, but she did NOT appreciate the liquid gapapentin even if it was "chicken vanilla butternut squash flavored" (our vet suggested it??). What medications does your cat take, if you don't mind me asking?

Im in australia and there's one really close to where I live, so gonna check that out after chatting to my vet.
Humphrey is also on gabapentin too