How to drug my cat!

danih

Buddy's ear has exploded!!!

He has a nasty infection, in what had been the remains of a haemotoma (blood blister) in his ear. This blood blister had settled a year ago, leaving a lump and a flattened ear - equivilant of cauliflower ear in a boxer or rugby player.

Not sure what has caused the current infection, he does like to play rough with our other tom.

Vet has prescribed antibiotics, to start tomorrow.

Any ideas on how to get tablets into a cat?

GwylimT

I wrap ours in a towel with just her head poking out, then I sit down and hold her with my thighs, one hand is to open her mouth, the other uses a pill plunger. As soon as the pill is plunged I shut her mouth and rub her throat until she has swallowed.

Last time she needed antibiotics I requested a long lasting injection, much easier!

Fluff15

danih wrote: »

Buddy's ear has exploded!!!

He has a nasty infection, in what had been the remains of a haemotoma (blood blister) in his ear. This blood blister had settled a year ago, leaving a lump and a flattened ear - equivilant of cauliflower ear in a boxer or rugby player.

Not sure what has caused the current infection, he does like to play rough with our other tom.

Vet has prescribed antibiotics, to start tomorrow.

Any ideas on how to get tablets into a cat?

Are you alone or with another person?

I do my two alone - it's harder but can be done. Get a towel, remove tablet from packet and keep it near you.

Sit behind cat, swaddle cat with towel so legs are wrapped but cat is still sitting and put the cat inbetween your legs - cat should not be able to escape like this. Use one hand to pry open the cats mouth, then with the other pop the table into the cats mouth right at the back of the throat, then shut the mouth and keep it closed with your hand for a couple of seconds until the cat swallows.

Repeat the process when you've found out the cat has still managed to not swallow the tablet. Get annoyed that you're now handling a wet, dissolving tablet and probably have to get a new one.

Once the tablet is finally gone, sit out the cold shoulder you'll be getting from the cat, he'll forgive you later.

If you're with another person, one person can swaddle the cat easier whilst the other does the tablet insertion. Some people manage to trick their cats into eating the tablet whilst wrapped in cheese/food - mine are too clever for that.

danih

Might try that. Thankfully, he's a very good natured cat, and has let me clean out the ear last night and today. Just the outer ear, with sterilised water and a cotton wool pad over my thumb. Wary of doing damage while I'm trying to keep the ear clean, so being very careful. Poor cat has a big absess in that outer ear, and its very leaky, and stinky. Not nice.

splishsplash

I do the towel wrap, flip the cat onto her back on my lap in her cocoon and place the tablet on the back of her throat, then keep her flat on her back until it's gone.

Alternatively, if it's not a very big tablet, get some Hills Kitten Mousse and put the tablet in a spoon of it - my cats love that stuff so much they don't notice the tablet at all.

JulieM

My cat has to take a tablet every day and the only way I can do it is hidden in food. I chop each tablet into 4 tiny pieces and wrap a small amount off food around each piece, her favourite is fatty pork. which is good as you can mould it round the tablet.

McKneff

I just sit mine on a towel on the table, give her a biscuit, left hand over her head and thumb and mid finger on either side her mouth, pull her head back and her mouth will open, put the pill in firmly, stoke her throat till she swallows, give her another biscuit.

chocolatelover93

I put butter on the tablet so it will go down easier and wrap it in ham or cheese, most of the time they spit it out so if that doesn't work I hold my cat stroking them and get them to open their mouth and put the tablet in and stroke their throat to make them swallow. Sometimes it's a two person job and I need hubby to help me!

fairy_lights

You'd think someone would have invented cheese or ham impregnated with anti-biotics by now wouldn't you? It would save a lot of bloodshed and espionage.

pinkteapot

Before you try above... Does kitty like treats, eg Dreamies?

Our cat will happily eat antibiotic tablets if we simply put a few Dreamies in the palm of our hand, put the pill among them, and hold them out (so he eats out of our hand). Before that, we'd had fights, towels, pill-poppers, the lot. Hiding it in food didn't work. I saw the video below and refused to believe it, thinking it must be a cat who doesn't mind tablets anyway. Literally jaw-dropped when it worked for us!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMs0HoM_COM

The theory is that in wet food, the hidden pill has a noticable texture, but with a load of other crunchy small things they're less likely to notice it.

Next time (but hopefully there won't be one!), ask the vet if an antibiotic injection is possible instead. For some infections, our vet has done a single long-lasting jab which replaces a week of tablets. The first time they said "it's a bit more expensive". When we asked for prices, pills were £8 and injection £15. We went for the injection!! So much easier. But for some infections pills are the only option.

meritaten

the way I have done it in the past - including the very nasty tempered 'First Cat, Timmy) - is to wrap them tightly in a towel, hold them like a baby and use the little finger to push the lower jaw down, pop in the tablet to the very back of the throat, let them close jaw and stroke the throat until they swallow. I had a pill dispenser (looked like a syringe with jaws) for first cat - because he bit hard if you made a mistake! but didn't need it for second or current cat.