Need help finding things to hide cats pills in

[andy55]

hi there, sorry in advance if a post like this has been posted already, as this is my first post since joining the forums. My cat Milly has recently developed epilepsy and is now on Phenobarbital. Im happy that the pill is actually quite small and she needs to take half a pill every 12 hours. At first all i had to do was put it in her wet food and she would gobble it all up. A week past and i noticed she would be leaving the pill. I then bought pill pockets (even though my dog never ate them), i would pinch off a piece and mold it around the pill and put that in her food and she would eat that maybe 50% of the time. What seemed to work best so far was using tuna in water..i would pinch some tuna into a ball and give her a little bit to eat before her regular wet food and she LOVED IT. Ate the pill every day for maybe a week...now she eats all the tuna and leaves the pill.

I ended up special ordering the phenobarbital in a liquid, to use that as a last resort when shes not eating the pills but she does not like the taste of that at all even though its supposed to be chicken flavoured. Long story short, it gets quite stressful if my cat doesnt get her pill and she seems to be getting smarter and smarter. If only they knew you were trying to help them eh.. Is there anything anyones tried using that their cat has found irresistible 100% of the time? Next i was going to try chucks of dog food because they are a lot larger than chunks of cat food, and hide the pill in a piece of that.

Sorry for the short story! thanks!   

 

[Columbine]

Hi, and welcome to TCS

Cats are usually WAY too clever for their own good when it comes to pill avoidance I used to have a cat who was absolutely impossible to pill, and he was on a number of meds at the end to treat his heart condition (CHF).

Ringing the changes can help a lot, as that way the cat is less likely to associate a certain food with meds. Giving a few pill sized morsels can help too - give one or two plain bites first, then the pill, then another bite or two. If she doesn't know when it's coming she'll be less likely to catch on and spit the pill out

I've always found strong flavoured paths or meat/fish pastes to be good vehicles for pill giving. Cream cheese or cheese spread can work too. It's just a case of working out what your cat likes.

If all else fails, manually giving the pill is always an option. Gently but firmly open her mouth and pop the pill on the back of her tongue (ideally followed by a squirt of water from a needle-less syringe). Gently rub under her chin and throat until she shallows. A pill gun can make this process a lot easier, but it isn't essential.

I will say, though, that some cats just find liquid meds easier to take than pills. My Cal (the cat is mentioned before) was like that. He still didn't like having his meds, but syringing the liquid meds into his mouth was SO much easier and less stressful (for both of us) than giving pills was.[article="22402"][/article][article="32724"][/article]

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I use Whisker Lickin brand soft treats to pill both my girls.  They prefer the Chicken and Cheese flavor; but the Salmon is nice for some variety. i think the Chicken and cheese one is easier to mold around the pills.  I always offer at least one treat that doesn't have a pill hidden in it.  They get a total of 6 treats a day doing this.  

We used pill pockets for Mooch for a while; but she got tired of them.  Noodles never liked them.  

 

[whatsonemore]

If the pill can be crushed or emptied, I've always had good luck with sardines in water mashed up into sludge with the powder stirred in a little bit of it to worm my cats.  Also, my cats are big cheese lovers, so if your cat is too, maybe get some and warm it up where it's pliable and not too big and hide the pill/drops in the little cheese ball.  Like others have said, you will probably have to use trickery if this is an ongoing thing.  Switch up the food you are planting the pill/drops in, give some of it pill free and at random times to keep your kitty off guard. 

 

[jcat]

[thread="237863"][/thread] I asked the same question when our last cat had to take multiple pills a day for his heart condition.

Nowadays I work at a shelter and have to give pills to several cats on a daily basis. There's nothing that works 100% of the time, but we have the most luck with liverwurst.

 

[chromium blues]

Pill gun, pill gun, pill gun. It makes life so much easier. Then you know its down the hatch where it belongs, no question.

 

[andy55]

thanks everyone for the tips and ideas! today im going to pick up a few things and try out new methods. I gave her tuna with 2 pieces of the pills this morning and sure enough...she ate every bit of tuna and left the 2 pills. So i had to use the liquid phenobarbital. I find that if she leaves the pill in a piece of food and i put a few temptation treats on top her food, she always comes back and eats the rest. 

 

[raiinboweyes]

I second the pill gun, it's a life saver! The kind that gives the pill and squirts water in at the same time- looove it. My cat has to take 8 pills total a day currently for her heart condition. At first she would HATE being pilled, it was a whole two person ordeal. She ate around pill pockets (she would even eat it then spit only the pill back out). They can be so clever!

I know giving it manually can seem like a big job. But after a month or so giving the pills manually with the pill gun, she got use to it. Now when it's time for her meds, I just say, "Kitty medicine time!" and she actually goes to the couch and lays down and waits for me to pill her. Giving treats after you pill her can help with the positive association as well. For pills that have a bitter taste, I will cover it in a small amount of pill pocket but give it manually (since she won't eat them anymore), and that covers the taste. Good luck!

 

[cindywhite398]

I crush my kitty's meds. In something he likes to eat and gently press it into his paws since he hates his hands/paws to be dirty he lucks and cleans them immediately. Especially if it's whipped cream which he likes so he gets a treat while cleaning his paws.

 

[Ziggy's_mom]

it is too much stress for my kitty to is a pill gun - he does not like to be held and he somehow ALWAYS know I come with a pill. The pill is to calm him down for vet visits. He is so fussy with food, no way to full him, except... Ensure! (Human meal replacement). He will do anything for a little bit of that so I crush and mix the pill ( or use liquid one) in a little bit of Ensure and he eats is, he can taste the pill, but comes back to finish it all anyway!

 

[catlover73]

I have had some success wrapping the pill in a small ball of cheese. My vet suggested to try rolling it in butter. I did not end up trying the butter yet. My Sonny is a big cat and he was very difficult to pill. His foster mommy found out her vet had the liquid form of the medication. Her vet was my 2nd opinion for Sonny so she told my friend to have me call her because she needed to know how many pills I had left so she could calculate the liquid dosage correctly. I gave her the info she needed and my friend picked up the script since the vet is near her house and she was coming over that day to visit Sonny. He had a bad UTI that caused a partial blockage and had to be hospitalized. The ER hospital did not have the liquid form available. Since my friend/Sonny's foster mom paid most of his vet bill I had authorized her to be a contact for his care also. She called her vet on her own and asked if they had a liquid form for his antibiotic. She has experience pilling her own difficult cats and she also had a hard time pilling Sonny. She tried to come over and help me when hubby was at work and realized just how hard he was to pill. She saved Sonny's life by paying his ER bill. We did not have the money needed to pay for hospitalization and she considers Sonny to be a part of her extended family so she took over the medical expenses. I offered to pay her back over time but she told me no because she cares about Sonny. This friend is also my cat sitter. When we travel I put it on record with her vet that she is authorized to obtain medical treatment for my cats and make decisions. She has not had to do this yet but I trust her judgement and know she would also find a way to reach out to me if we were out of town.