Bloody cat. Heart medication stinks. How to get cat to eat 2 pills per day? She is not good with being held by humans. This cat is nearly 18 years old…!
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Try hiding each pill within a 1/2 tsp or so of its favorite canned cat food.
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Try grinding the pill up (or opening it, if a capsule) and mixing with a strongly flavored canned food like tuna
*Mash pill. Mix with chicken flavored baby food. Put in deep spoon.
*Mash pill. Mix with sardine juice -fit for human consumption- as sardine’s are “smellier”. Put in syringe or small dish.
Best of luck.
[quote=“Icon”]*Mash pill. Mix with chicken flavored baby food. Put in deep spoon.
*Mash pill. Mix with sardine juice -fit for human consumption- as sardine’s are “smellier”. Put in syringe or small dish.
Best of luck.[/quote]
I used to have to do this all the fucking time.
The problem, I’ve had many vets tell me, with mixing it with food is that if he don’t eat all the food, you’re fucked.
Definitely go with the syringe, if you can mash the pills up with a little bit of fishy herring juice or oil as Ms. Icon says, all the better, but don’t add too much, keep the quantity down.
Prepare the syringe.
Get a big bath towel, come up on the critter and envelop him in the towel as you pick him up. You should be able to hold him, swaddled in the towel, so his legs are all under control and he can’t take off nor can he injure you.
This next bit takes a little practice. Get him on his back, still in the towel, so the back of his head is nestled in the crook of your elbow, like you’d hold a little baby. Holding him close to you like this should come close to immobilizing him.
Acting fast and decisive like, take the syringe and stick it in his mouth, go in the side where hs teeth are small.
This is critical: get the business end of the syringe WELL to the back of his mouth before squirting, as far to the back of his tongue as you can. If you don’t, he’ll spit it out and you’re proper fucked.
When it’s right back there, fire away. Hopefully it’ll spray against the back of his throat and be gone before he even knows it and all he can do is kaff kaff a little.
Let him go.
The real key is to move fast and effective, after the first few times you should be able to get it all done in a matter of seconds, bing bang boom.
Nobody gets hurt, he’s not damaged, except for being kind of pissed off with you.
Give it a try.
Eh, actually, I have one of these for those emergencies (boy, do I hate when they get sick just because they absolutely hate taking medicine):
Grooming bag:
http://grooming.petedge.com/Top-Performance-Cat-Grooming-Bags-TP463.pro
Put cat in, fasten all clasps, and then you can do what needs to be done.
[quote=“Icon”]Eh, actually, I have one of these for those emergencies (boy, do I hate when they get sick just because they absolutely hate taking medicine):
Grooming bag:
http://grooming.petedge.com/Top-Performance-Cat-Grooming-Bags-TP463.pro
Put cat in, fasten all clasps, and then you can do what needs to be done.[/quote]
¡Aye caramba! I can think of about 8 or 9 hundred times when that would have come in handy, kitty straitjacket, wicked cool.
You got the best toys…
Yeah, the meds in food method only works if they eat it all, like chief says. Best done when they’re very hungry of course, and don’t mix it into too much food (to ensure they eat it all). This also doesn’t work well if the meds taste really bad. But it’s less stressful for the cat than the swaddling and syringe method (you don’t want to stress a cat that has a bad heart, right?). I’d try the food method first, then if that fails, try the syringe one.
Yeah, that’s why you got to do it fast, boom boom in and out, you don’t want to keep them all bundled up and struggling like that for too long.
[quote=“the chief”][quote=“Icon”]Eh, actually, I have one of these for those emergencies (boy, do I hate when they get sick just because they absolutely hate taking medicine):
Grooming bag:
http://grooming.petedge.com/Top-Performance-Cat-Grooming-Bags-TP463.pro
Put cat in, fasten all clasps, and then you can do what needs to be done.[/quote]
¡Aye caramba! I can think of about 8 or 9 hundred times when that would have come in handy, kitty straitjacket, wicked cool.
You got the best toys…[/quote]
I got 4 cats plus TNRs… it is not optional!
By the way, I knwo wher eto get traps for 1000nts, with handles and all, if you need them. 
Yeah, that’s why you got to do it fast, boom boom in and out, you don’t want to keep them all bundled up and struggling like that for too long.[/quote]
Yep, it is problematic if they get excited. I tried the bag on Toto when he wouldn’t stay still to get his ears cleaned and he almost had a heart attack. First and last time.
At many vets and pet supply stores you can buy a pill feeder; it’s kind of like a syringe/piston, with a claw at the end to hold the tablet. You grab the cat in a towel, or even just by the scruff if you can, poke the tablet against the mouth, the cat will open up to threaten you, and you quickly push the pill to behind the tongue and ‘inject’; the pill shoots into the throat, and the cat swallows. Ta da! Repeat as necessary.
We had to medicate about nine cats at AT, twice a day, for a month, including one very feral cat and another one who really wanted nothing to do with the project, but we did it quickly and mostly painlessly (for us) by employing this method. The feral cat did bite through a few syringes at first but actually got more accepting as time went on.
Best of luck!