Pilling the Unpillable

[Anne]

Awesome tips in this thread! We tried all sorts of hiding tricks, but she wouldn't fall for any of them, and you should see the look on her face everytime we try. She doesn't eat the food around the pill even, no matter how much she loves it, she just gets upset and goes away.

I'll call the vet about the injection. The amazing thing is that it's easier for the vet to give her the injection then for us to pill her. Go figure!

 

[pombina]

Oh Anne

you're first post made me chuckle. I know it's not funny but I just had this image in my head.
I hope you get her treated one way or another!

Susan, do you know they now do worming treatment you put on the back of the neck, like flea treatment? Sleeves had it when he went for his yearly check up, and they gave us some to take home for Nismo. Sooo much better than trying to get pills down the little monkeys! It just gets absorbed into the bloodstream I'm assuming!

 

[rosiemac]

That'll be next Lauren because i've tried the ice cream, cream,cheese, ham, beef, butter and they still won't take them!

 

[jcat]

I actually took a nursing course that "qualified" me to give subcutaneous injections. Dogs are easy to pill, but cats???? Robert is an R.N., and can inject any cats we have, but he has neither the time nor the inclination to do so at the local shelter. I've really found that cats find injections less objectionable than pills, and won't always stay still long enough for the "spot-on" treatments. Some bribes work well - "human" tuna, hard-boiled eggs, green olives, peanut butter, or mozzarella cheese. but the hard-core ferals really need injections.

 

[deanne]

My vet showed me a good technique after I called for help, bloody and near tears at the thought of trying to give Oscar pills for three weeks. I couldn't even handle one day!

What she showed me is to get the cat into a confined place (ie, the bathroom). Pick up the cat by the scruff until his front feet are off the floor. This serves two purposes -- he can't claw you and it forces his mouth open a bit. Then I used a pill popper to shoot in the pill.

I saw that you don't have a pill popper, but with the cat incapacitated by the way you're holding him/her (sorry, I don't remember if yours is male or female), especially if there are two of you, it still might work for you.

Good luck!

 

[meower]

It is truly amazing how you can find those pills laying around the house when you thought the cat swallowed it.
I have had success with the cheese in a can like one of the others who posted. My vet recommended a two inch line of cheese then the pill with a dot of cheese on it then another two inch line of cheese. It worked for three days on my cat before she figured it out. I bought the cheese with bacon flavor.

 

[kim hanna]

I know this thread is old but I want to add that a cat will learn the smell of/taste of / the undesired medicine and reject it no matter how good the surrounding flavor. For ferocious cats they must be towel wrapped (best to rim nails this way)  best to syringe the pill (after crushing) with anything tasting good to the cat. Crush the pill to dust with a spoon and mix with something liquid/soft (to syringe it) but not too loose or it will run out of their mouth easily. DO NOT squirt it to the back of the throat or it can go down their lungs & choke them (scary) & kill your cat. Kind of squirt it in the cheek/jowl area and a little at a time as the cat can just push the medicine out with their tongue and ends up in their fur whiskers (but they must lick it off to clean up) and you may have to adjust dosage based on how much they spit out. At least with the syringe they will get some meds inside but if they spit the pill out, they get no medicine. The worst part is it hurts the relationship with your beloved pet since you are doing something they don't like. My guy is more fearful now of medicine and the towel and the time of day he gets syringe and just not happy with the new routine and hides more. Forget trying to judge reactions to medicine. My guy gets 3 meds and I think he may have a skin reaction to them but I  can't tell for sure or which med.