Giving Medicine to a cat

Gavin83

KxMx said:

The easiest way I found of medicating my cat was to get a mini mortar and pestle off Amazon, grind down the tablet and stir well into wet food, ideally all out of her sight.
You could make the meal smaller than normal as well to ensure it's all eaten, although my philosophy was it was better for her to intake some of the medication rather than none. 

We also do this. Don't bother with the pestle and mortar though, just use the back of a teaspoon to crush it. Crush it up, mix it in with the food and it's gone. We don't have to worry about the out of sight thing as our cat never hangs around our feet when preparing food and often she'll wait at least half an hour before eating it. I wonder if it would make a difference if she saw it!

I hate having to give our cat medicine via any other means. She had an ear infection at one point and we had to give her ear drops. That was a miserable few weeks for all involved.

TripleH

I dread the day our eldest boy needs medicine. He doesn't eat wet food (through choice) and the moment we put a bowl down we'll have a hyper enthusiastic Maine Coon to fight off added to him taking a minute to grasp that we've just given him food that he was expecting (I love him to bits).

The other 3, I see no issues at all.

The pestle and mortar sounds a good idea.

SensibleSarah

MichelleUK said:

I managed to get him to take his tablet this morning. He loves those long salmon and trout sticks and I had been rolling a chunk around the tablet, so it looked different to the other pieces and was smooth. This morning, I tried to handle it as little as possible; I poked a hole down the centre with a long pair of tweezers, pushed the tablet in with the tweezers and then squeezed it closed, The hope was that I did not transfer any of the tablet smell to make it seem different to the other bits. So, it has worked today….tomorrow, who knows!

This was the method I used with my previous two cats - for worming tablets as well as meds. They never seemed to notice the pills when hidden this way and sneaked in with some normal pieces of treat. 
My current 3 cats are not as easy though and don't like the same kind of treats - so it's a bit more hit and miss. 

marcia_

 I've the same problem problem, 3 of my cats don't eat cat treats or human food like fish chicken etc at all.
 Pretty hard to hide in wet cat food. did try mixing the liquid painkillers in with it but he turned his nose up 

SootySweep1

Hi
Our cat was very difficult to medicate.
His weakness was prawns & it was possible to sneak a tablet into the prawn.
Jen

baser999

Our cat is a bit of a picky eater so it’s always been difficult to medicate him. However, we did try cat putty which we found we could hide the pill in, he loved it 😺
If you find it works and you’re going to use it regularly, shop on-line rather than pay the vets prices!!

MichelleUK

Thanks everyone, he is taking the tablets most times…I think that I am going to have to get him to try more proper foods, so that I have more options once he tires of his treats.

One of my previous cats, when she was 19, would only take her tablets when I had hidden them in a little fresh mince parcel (like …Banana_Anna_2709, tiny amounts frozen and defrosted every couple of days) that was then lightly warmed up in the frying pan each morning! 

Silvertabby

Our last cat was so gentle she would let me push tablets down her throat with my finger.  But I had to get it in the right place, otherwise she would get her tongue behind it at spit it the length of the kitchen.

fly-catchers

Cant remember how many bits of crushed pills I found just under the cat food saucer after I was feeling pleased he had the pill in the hidden food! My hopelessness at giving medicine to my cats makes me hesitant to get another one now.. 

Murphybear

Cats and pills rarely make a happy combination .  I had an elderly cat years ago who had a thyroid problem.  The vet offered me a choice of pills for life or a partial thyroidectomy, I chose the latter and she was fine.  I’ve found the best way to get a cat to take a pill is to hide it in something “smelly”.  Unfortunately that doesn’t always work, I’ve had cats who ate the food and deposited the pill on the dish.  I’m not surprised if the pills taste as awful as some of my meds.