Pill pockets without grains or chicken?

[Margot Lane]

Trying to find pill pockets without chicken or grains, or even a paste? Anybody heard of such a thing?

 

[Meowmee]

Trying to find pill pockets without chicken or grains, or even a paste? Anybody heard of such a thing?

I think there are pastes but I am not sure if they are grain free and people at amazon said they didn’t work well and their cats hated it due to taste etc. but here is a wrap up grain free at chewies, stashios.. reviews said these are too sticky though and they got stuck on the cats teeth / mouth etc.

STASHIOS Wrap-Ups Cheese Flavor Grain-Free Dog & Cat Treats, 2.1-oz bag - Chewy.com

 

[LTS3]

Chicken-free yes but not grain-free.

I use these for Leroy and his IBD / chicken sensitivity: Pill Paste for Cats - Bacon Flavored

The product is currently out of stock on Amazon (Chewy does not sell it) and while other pet supply web sites may sell it, I'm not familiar enough with those web sites to buy from.

As a back up pill dough, I have this: Wrap-A-Pill Bacon Flavor Pill Paste – 4.2 oz

 

[Alldara]

Catit Creamy tubes are grown free. Their fish ones are chicken free (salmon and tuna). Tubes are great for hiding pills. If you are allowed to crush the pill then that's easy to put in it. If you can't, I've also had great luck with putting a little below the pill and a little on top. If they miss the pill the first time I just add a bit more. Then they get to finish the pill.

Nobel went from being an alligator. I would beg the vet to give him slow release shots. It was impossible. After his tooth surgery the vet asked me to try the crushable pills. If I have a tube, I can sit in front of him, provide metacam and then give the tube.

Magnus has never been forcefully pilled as we got him as a baby. If I set his medication down next to him, he will frequently eat it before I can open the tube so that he gets the tube medicine free

 

[Caspers Human]

When I'm trying to get my cat to take its pills so that it won't be sick, the last thing on my mind is whether or not the Pill Pockets are grain-free. If comes down to a choice between a tiny bit of grain in a Pill Pocket or grabbing the cat, holding it down and shoving a pill down its throat, which one do you think I'm going to choose?

If a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, I'm all for it.

 

[Margot Lane]

When I'm trying to get my cat to take its pills so that it won't be sick, the last thing on my mind is whether or not the Pill Pockets are grain-free. If comes down to a choice between a tiny bit of grain in a Pill Pocket or grabbing the cat, holding it down and shoving a pill down its throat, which one do you think I'm going to choose?

If a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, I'm all for it.

Normally I’d agree w/ you! Who the HECK wants to do battle with eely furball & his cactus claws!? But as Daftcat reminded me, anything w/ chicken and grains can be bad for an IBS or Small Cell Lymphoma diagnosis. Anyhoo, I ordered the bacon flavored wrap a pill as mentioned above.

 

[Caspers Human]

Sure. If your cat has special dietary needs, you have to choose carefully, especially if the cat has to be medicated long-term.

Most cats only have to take medicine infrequently and for a short time. In that case, it make little difference how you entice your cat to take medicine without having to resort to physical tactics. If it's a "special needs" cat, Pill Pockets probably wouldn't be your first choice, anyway.

When I was a kid, we would just hide our dogs' pills inside a lump of hamburger meat. They would wolf it down without question.
There was one time when one of the dogs had to take a pill that was the size of a gumball. I don't remember what the medicine was but it was green and shaped like an egg. There ain't no piece of meat that's going to hide that!

Imagine a ten-year old kid wrestling down a dog, the size of a German Shepherd, and making it take its medicine!

After growing up like that, making a cat take its medicine is like a walk in the park.

We had one dog, a black Lab, that wanted to eat anything that his humans were eating. Making him take his pills was simple: Just pretend that you were eating candy or something! You didn't even have to go get the dog. Just sit anywhere in the dog's sight and make like you are eating a package of Skittles. He would come a-running! Just take a pill out of the bottle and give it to him... SLURP! All gone!

Our cat, Casper, is a very recalcitrant pill taker. He's worse than any cat I have had. Making him take medicine is always a battle for me. Casper's Girl-Human can do it if she sneaks up on him while he's napping but, even then, it's still a battle, sometimes.

Worse, Casper is wise to Pill Pockets. We tried them and they worked exactly one time. The first time, we thought, "Hooray! Casper took his medicine!" The second time, we found the pill on the kitchen floor. After that, he wouldn't even touch a Pill Pocket if we gave it to him without any medicine inside. We ended up throwing the whole package away after it went stale.

Casper has to have medicine every day. The only way we can make him take it is to grind it up to powder with a mortar and pestle then put it into his food. (Under our vet's advice.)

Casper won't take Pill Pockets. He doesn't eat any human food, not even sushi. I've never had a cat that didn't like sushi, at least a little bit. What cat doesn't like sushi?! I even had a friend who named their cat "Sushi"!

Bottom line: When your cat has to take medicine, your cat has to take medicine. Most other concerns go aside.

Gosh! I WISH that Casper was more like my old dog! "Here, Casper!... SLURP!!"

Special needs cats are one thing but, if a "spoonful of sugar" is what you have to use... "Ya' gotta' do what you gotta' do!"

 

[LTS3]

Compounding the medicine is an option if you want to avoid grains and possible other gastrointestinal irritants.

 

[Margot Lane]

Compounding the medicine is an option if you want to avoid grains and possible other gastrointestinal irritants.

Thank you all for your helpfulness. My vet never said it could be compounded, and is resistant to prednisolone’s liquid cousin. I forget why. Anyway, Zorro has loved any treat it’s been wrapped in sofar, so hopefully the faux bacon you reccommended is a welcome substitute!

 

[Alldara]

When I'm trying to get my cat to take its pills so that it won't be sick, the last thing on my mind is whether or not the Pill Pockets are grain-free. If comes down to a choice between a tiny bit of grain in a Pill Pocket or grabbing the cat, holding it down and shoving a pill down its throat, which one do you think I'm going to choose?

If a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, I'm all for it.

I can understand why one might worry.

Magnus cannot even have a hint of beef or cow by-products or he has huge painful flare ups on his toes. Sometimes it's reasons like that. We had to wait 48 hours for the vet to get a malt flavoured antibiotic in because all they had was beef.

I didn't even realize cats could have food allergies until 2020!

 

[daftcat75]

Krista suffered through months of an incomplete remission because she was taking her nightly pred pill wrapped in a little fish flakes. That was a trigger food of hers. The sugar that made the medicine go down was more like a small amount of fuel to keep the inflammatory fires burning. When we switched to transdermal prednisilone (this is definitely an option and one I recommend for the difficult cats that have to be medicated regularly), her remission came almost overnight. So yes, sometimes devil’s bargains are needed to keep a cat on a medicine schedule. But if it’s going to interfere with the medicine or the recovery, it’s not worth it.

Margot Lane What drug is this that your vet won’t let you compound? If you can’t compound, can you try the repacked tic tac approach I use with Betty? All her meds are quartered pills. So I repack them into size 5 gelatin capsules—the smallest size about the size of a Tic Tac. I get her to eat two food coated capsules off the carpet every morning and one at night. She doesn’t bite the capsule more than once before swallowing and never seems to bite through it (except that one poop pill. ) I like to get white colored capsules from Amazon. They probably look similar to her to the rice grains in her I/D food. I prefer white because it’s easier to see a missed or flicked pill when it’s not clear. You could also get the capsules in other colors.

 

[Margot Lane]

I have those capsules. It’s daily prednizalone (which I can never spell) but he’s pretty sharp about noticing hidden goodies in his food. I’ll give it a whirl…this faux bacon wrap doesn’t sound terrible. Thanks all for these suggestions!

 

[LTS3]

Leroy takes prednisolone, too, for his IBD and asthma. He only gets 2mg so it's small enough to hide in pill dough.

I wonder why your vet won't let you get the pred compounded. The vet just writes the prescription and you fill it at any compounding pharmacy of your choice. Wedgewood Pharmacy is a popular one and has pred available compounded into flavored chew treats and other options.

 

[Alldara]

I have those capsules. It’s daily prednizalone (which I can never spell) but he’s pretty sharp about noticing hidden goodies in his food. I’ll give it a whirl…this faux bacon wrap doesn’t sound terrible. Thanks all for these suggestions!

Can they give it in liquid form? My previous vet gave Lily hers as chicken flavour. Or is that more expensive where you are?

 

[daftcat75]

I had prednisilone compounded into Twist a Dose transdermal gel pen from Wedgewood. Turn the pen cap twice and it measured out 5 mg of gel onto the head of the pen. Then you just rub that into the cat’s ear. Easy as a wet willy.

 

[Margot Lane]

Thanks for all of this! Has no idea this thread would be spotlit, so to speak: hope it helps others. Yes, I have asked my vet twice about any liquid form and she feels it doesn’t have as much impact as the solid pill. I’ve asked her twice: perhaps she is just following the format drilled into her at this particular clinic, or, maybe even (I hate to think) their clinic is dialed into a certain brand of this drug. Since my “Zee Zee” is still with us after all this time, I try to walk the line. (But heeding all your sage advice & wisdom, and am intrigued by the fake bacon wrap coming in the mail). Thanks so much, all!

 

[Meowmee]

If she lets you pill you can just crush or put the pill in a tiny gel capsule, grease it and put it at the back of her tongue. I did that with my cats who were pillable all the time. My Angie however was so smart and sneaky- she would pretend to swallow them but spit them out later.

 

[livismom1]

I have to give my cat Amitriptyline nightly. He refuses all treats now because he "knows" I've hidden the pill in them before. We even tried transdermal gel but he fights me when it comes time to clean his ears properly and he got a sore in one of his ears. So now I ordered a pill popper and the size 5 gelatin capsules from Amazon. With a bit of trial and error, it is almost trauma free (for both of us) now.

 

[Caspers Human]

I like the pill popper. That's what I use on Casper when I have to "make" him take his medicine.

Most of the time, Casper's Girl-Human waits until he's napping then she pets him for a minute. When he's nice and calm, she just opens his mouth, pops in the pill and waits for him to swallow. She can give Casper his medicine without much of a fight but he gives her a look as if he's saying, "Yuck! You made me swallow that icky pill!"

If she's not around or if she can't give him the pill, it's my turn to step in.

I'm used to giving pills to large dogs. If I can't hide their medicine in some kind of treat like a lump of hamburger, I can wrestle the dog down and do it the "old fashioned way." I don't like doing that with cats but I am perfectly capable if I have to.

Most of the time, I can hold Casper on my lap and use the pill popper. Nine times out of ten, it works. I just get that "icky pill" expression from him. It's just that last ten percent when I have to throw a towel over Casper, sit on him and do it the "old fashioned way." There was one time when he had just made up his mind to be difficult and he fought, tooth and nail. I had to hold him down and use my "big voice" to cower him. I hated like hell to do it but, when my choice was to manhandle the cat or have him be sick I had to steel myself and "just do it." Casper ran upstairs and hid under the bed and wouldn't come out and talk to me for the rest of the day but he eventually got over it.

What am I going to do? Casper won't eat ANY human food so we can't bribe him. He's wise to Pill Pockets. He eats the treat part and spits out the pill. (Yes, we did mush the treat up so that the pill was all the way inside.) He will only eat Purina Cat Chow, Friskies canned food and Temptations kitty treats. Even then, it took us a couple of months to get him switched over from the Meow Mix that he had been eating when we first adopted him.

As of now, Casper has to take a pill every day because of his tendency to develop megacolon.
The vet's advice is to make sure he eats at least 50% wet food and to make sure he drinks plenty of water. (Which he does drink lots of water.) But, the pill, we grind it up and mix it with his food. He eats that without any problem.

The only time when there are problems is when Casper needs a worming pill or some other medication.
When the vet prescribes pills, I just go "Aw, gee..."

Casper's Girl-Human is his "main human." He depends on her for security. He's a skittish cat and she's his "safe person." She can calm him down when I can't.

Casper is also the Girl-Human's support cat. She gets anxiety and when she cries or acts anxious, Casper always seems to know and comes right over and calms her down. He can calm her down when nobody else can.

When a person and a cat are THAT closely bonded, I don't want anything getting in the way and messing that up.
If it was JUST my cat, I wouldn't think twice about doing what needs to be done. (With all due caution and care, of course.)

When the situation is as touchy as it is, I'm happy to let her take care of Casper's medicine and only step in when "backup" is needed.

 

[Margot Lane]

Tried the suggested wrap a pill bacon flavor today, and it went down like a charm! Minimal, understandable ingredients, and grain free, gluten free, soy free. …thanks all! Managed to sneak it into a capsule recently in the food too, so hooray, there are options!