Pilling the Unpillable

[Anne]

ok, I need some advice now...

We have a small tapeworm infestation here and needed to give the proper pills to our three cats. Now, I do know how to give a cat a pill

I even taught courses where I taught people how to do that, among other things. None of our cats are tame pussycats, they are all reluctant buggers, but two of them I could pill without much of a problem. Now... to the third.

Her name is Mishmish, she's a fiesty Tortie aged 8. People who know her fear her and are amazed that we are keeping her in the house with us, especially with out two kids

We love her, of course, and wouldn't dream of giving her up, despite her aggression issues. We know how to deal with her and how to lower her stress levels so that her behavior becomes more than tolerable. She is very affectionate with us. The kids learned to keep their distance from her, and the arrangement generally works for us all. We just have to remember to warn guests when they reach out to pet this beauty.

So, how do you give a pill to our princess? I tried a couple of nights ago. The same way as with the other cats. Very calmly and decidedly placed her down on the floor, and tried to open her mouth to I can pop in the buttered pill. Well, she didn't agree. She did her usual act of turning into the cat from hell lol. Yowled and screamed and spit. I knew that if I tried to open her mouth and pop in the pill by myself, not only would the pill not go in, but I am also putting my hand in grave risk. Seriously, I could see a very very nasty bite coming, the kind that needs stitches. So, I decided to let go for that night and let her calm down.

Today, we tried again, this time two of us. At first, my husband has the brillian idea of trying the cat whispere's way lol. I have seen it done, but it takes a very special person to do that. It's when you catch the cat relaxed, and very casually walk by, open the mouth and very quickly pill them. It's amazing when done right, but not everyone can do that. I let him try

He managed everything until the part where he had to open her mouth properly... he squeezed in the pill even, but of course it was out of there in a milisecond...

So... we figured out that if we tried it together, then one of us can hold her down and open her mouth and the other one can pop in the pill. So, I calmed her down a little bit, used the pastrami bribe which she enjoyed. Then we tried to act quickly, I held her down to the floor and opened her mouth. He popped in the pill. It seemed to have worked. So now, we are there, her mouth held shut, she's growling, and we're gently stroking her throat to make her swallow. Then she gets this burst of energy, releases one leg and lashes at us real bad. Blood all over the place, from both of us. And she manages to break loose and... yup, spit out the pill...

Well, we decide to give this one final chance and try the "wrapped up cat" way. Of course, by now Mishmish is not very happy. So, my husband tries to quickly wrap her up in a big towel. The next bit was funny really. She screeched and yowled and went wild and backed up into the towel, so he couldn't grab her properly. There was not no way to reach her head. "I can't hold her like this, I have to let go, run for your life" he says and lets go lol and runs into the bathroom to hide

Well, no, she didn't chase him. She ran away into the other room. So, now we still didn't get the pill in, and I'm not sure how to go about it anymore? We don't have a pill popper, they're not available here, but even if we did, we still need to get her to open her mouth, take in the pill and swallow it. Sigh. Any ideas are more than welcome.

 

[sar]

Sorry to laugh, Anne, but Mishmish sounds like my RB tortie, Disco!!

If she's at all like Disco, you can't coax her by wrapping the pill in anything either or mixing it with food?

One way that we found to work when pilling her was to put the pill in a small amount of cat milk/water on a tea spoon. The liquid made her swallow and rub her tongue, so the pill could go. (this can take a number of pills, mind you, as Disco would appear to have swallowed and then you'd see it peeking from the side of her mouth as she strutted her stuff!

)

This method does take more than one person though!

Actually took three of us at times!

Oooh and another good tip for the mouth opener is to wear Marigolds (the yellow washing up gloves) as it does save a little on the scratching and biting!

Good luck

with the pilling, I can completely understand the difficulty!

 

[jennyr]

I love your descriptions! But two thoughts - I can get Wellington to take his prednizone (for asthma) easily, but he won't let my regular petsitter do it. So she and I devised a way - she powders the pill, mixes it with a little goat milk or yoghurt, which he loves, and gives it him by syringe, while scruffing him. It might be more difficult if your tortie won't take a syringe either, but at least once it is in the mouth she won't spit it out. And it is easier of course, putting it in the side of the mouth rather than the front, where the teeth are!

I have just had the problem of worming a feral, and I got him to take the pill by putting pieces of it inside chunks of cat food and then feeding him late so he was very hungry and just gulped his food. It still took two goes before all the pill vanished, but it worked eventually. Good luck!

 

[gardenandcats]

Just a thought. They also can give cats a shot for tape worms. I know it would cost alot more then a pill. But as a last resort you could take your cat into the vets for a shot.

 

[naturestee]

Could your vet or a compounding pharmacist make the pill into an oral liquid? That might be easier to give, or you might be able to hide the liquid in a bit of canned food.

 

[laureen227]

ok, you're going to laugh... when i couldn't find my pill popper, i used... a vaginal suppository inserter

seriously - the ones that come with those yeast infection suppositories are very similar to the pill poppers - they just don't have the little 'claw' at the end. that may help.
also, when you open her mouth, wrap her lips around her teeth, so that, if she does bite down, she bites herself. she's not as likely to bite down that way.
good luck!

 

[sar]

That's very creative though, Laureen!

If it works, then it works!

 

[crt]

I have a cat that is impossible to give meds to as well. Have you tried crushing the pill in a good amount of Gerber Baby lamb meat? I put it in Brandon's regular food bowl and for some reason, he laps it up. He has even taken flagyl that way and it is bad tasting stuff.

I so empathize. Good luck!

 

[emmylou]

A thing I've had luck with is mushing a pill into the center of a soft cat treat. They do make treats that have a hollow in them for a pill, but it's not really necessary... any soft treat will do. Or you could try tuna or something similar.

Depending on the medication's taste and the cat, you can put the pill in the food or even dilute it in the water. The latter isn't preferable since it would take a while to get the whole dose, but if it's a matter of getting any medication into the cat and nothing else is working...

 

[jcat]

Have you tried the little pill "wraps" that conceal the pill in a malleable treat? They work wonders with some cats, and there are a number of brands and flavors.
I wasn't going to admit this, because I know cats aren't supposed to have chocolate, but I had to give my mom's cat and dogs pills for fleas about two weeks ago, and I resorted to putting the cat's pill into a mini Reese's peanut butter cup. It worked.

 

[rosiemac]

Am i pleased i'm not the only one with a tazmanian devil when it comes to pilling

I called into the vets last weekend to get their furball paste, and i asked for the smallest worming pill they have because although their indoors i've decided to give them one once a year.

Sophie was fine, but Rosie pfffttt. That pill was tiny, and i mean tiny. She has some treats which are soft so i pressed it right in and covered it over and she took it no bother, perfect i thought...........wrong!. While she was chewing the treat she spat the pill out, finished the treat, sniffed at the pill on the floor and walked away.

2 more attempts i had at trying to get the pill down her and boy can she struggle, so when i walked behind her slowly she kept looking behind then she just turned at me and gave me the biggest hiss known to man

I had to leave her for about 30 minutes until she calmed down before i was able to get hold of her safely from behind and managed to get it down her

I was sweating buckets because i was more stressed than she was

 

[rapunzel47]

I have to tell you how happy I am that I have never had occasion to pill Cindy. Her Tortiness, would I'm sure live up to the Tortie Code and give me what for -- I'd be laughing out the other side of my mouth then! But I have certainly had a good chuckle at all of these exploits, and I hope you find the solution for your girl, Anne -- any pilling I've had to do was tame by comparison.

 

[sarahp]

I can't help at all, but I had to let you know that this thread got me laughing and laughing

We're giving prednisone to Stumpy at the moment for her allergic dermatitis, and I put her on my lap, tilt her head back and she opens her mouth for me, I pop it in, and if I manage to put it on the end of her tongue, she just gets it in the right spot then swallows it, then gets her baby food treat

When she had worms though, she just got the injection from the vet and it worked really fast. Do you have that option?

 

[rosiemac]

Oh go on rub it in why don't you!

 

[jcat]

Being a coward, I'd rather give cats an injection than a pill. Most dogs are easy - open their snouts, drop it in, hold their mouths closed, and rub their throats, but cats? Ditto as far as giving them a bath.

 

[katachtig]

I was following this thread for ideas. We had a problem with Much who waited 20 minutes to throw the pill or liquid up. We stopped trying and everything is done by injection now.

Carly is the dream kitty. I have put it in her food and she ate it. Pill pockets are wonderful. There was one time when I didn't do a good job with the pill pocket and she had dropped the pill out of her mouth. But the trooper she is, she just ate the pill right up. I guess she figured it was part of the treat.

Lucy is my tortie and I dread giving her a pill. She is the one who will knock the nail clippers out of my hand when I'm trimming her nails. And I may have to pill her soon if her urine doesn't check out.

 

[white cat lover]

Anne, your post made me laugh! You have to admit, you'll never be as embarassed as I have been. I had to pill Damita, my BLIND foster cat. I took me a dozen tries to get it in her. Turns out I needed to up her dose a little & had to give her another pill...not fun. Yes, I could not pill a blind cat.

Liquid is realatively easy to give to Damita...it took me 6 ccs to get 1/2 cc into Damita Monday...granted she'd had 29 days to perfect the "puke the liquid" maneuaver.

Just as a side note-I never want to try to pill your kitties! Any way you can get the shot? Maybe hide the pill in some pumpkin? yogurt? cheese? ice cream? I'm trying to think of what I've used before...

 

[gayef]

Don't know if this would be an option, but with particularly fractious cats, a good blob of "squirt cheese" (the kind of cheese, think it's made by Kraft, which comes in a can like whipped cream) hiding the pill has been a particularly successful method for pilling in my house.

 

[gert452000]

HI, While I have had some experience in pilling my cats my expriences don't live up to yours. I had 5 kitties sick at once andhad to give them meds 3 times a day of 2 different meds. What I found to work was to take some of the gravy in a jar, thin it out a bit with water, disolve the pill in it, and "slurp it up into a syringe. I would put that into thier mouths off to the side and quickly push the plunger. I managed to do this what amounted to 15 times a day for 10 days. They were not happy with me but they all survived and so did I . I hope these suggestions work for oyu.

 

[gayef]

Originally Posted by gert452000

HI, While I have had some experience in pilling my cats my expriences don't live up to yours. I had 5 kitties sick at once andhad to give them meds 3 times a day of 2 different meds. What I found to work was to take some of the gravy in a jar, thin it out a bit with water, disolve the pill in it, and "slurp it up into a syringe. I would put that into thier mouths off to the side and quickly push the plunger. I managed to do this what amounted to 15 times a day for 10 days. They were not happy with me but they all survived and so did I . I hope these suggestions work for oyu.

Wow, you deserve a medal!! I thought it was bad enough having to pill a Momma and 5 babies, ONCE per day with only ONE kind of medicine!