Giving A Cat A Pill
by Michael
Felix Pill Postcard 1920 - photographed and uploaded by Sheffield Tiger (Flickr)
Giving a cat a pill can be tricky as we all know. And there are a lot of websites that explain how it is done. I won't read them! I'll just explain what I do and visitors can decide for themselves if it is a good or poor method. I hope, in fact, that one or two visitors will comment and pass on their own personal, first hand experiences. Before I describe my successful method, I pass on the expert's opinion. Once again I refer to the excellent book: Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, Fully Revised and Updated  . Drs Carlson and Giffin say that if the cat is not used to taking pills (the usual scenario), you should do the following:
However, I have had good success with Timmy a stray cat who had an abscess. I had to administer a complete course of antibiotics and I succeeded pretty well by carefully placing a whole pill into a piece of chicken (by slicing it open) or other highly palatable food. I think that is has to be a single piece of solid food and the pill has to be hidden inside it. If it is placed amongst pieces of food a cat will smell it. I then placed that piece of food on the top of the pile in the dish in such as way that the Timmy grabbed the area where the pill was at his first bite. A hungry cat will dive in and gobble that piece. Once the molars have bitten into the food and possibly broken the pill it is too late and the cat swallows the whole lot. This system will not work with delayed reaction pills that are coated because normally the pill is split open when bitten into. The only way to get one of these pills down is the authorised way. O.K. that's it. Not rocket science but effective. Got any better systems? Giving Your Cat a Pill or Capsule Uploaded by TLBz. - Discover more animal videos. Note..Video above: sometimes videos get pulled off the internet. If that happens the screen will go black. I won't know unless I bump into it. See Felix here: Black Cat Cartoons Update...from Dorothy Wandruff a regular contributor You are lucky Michael, that Timmy will eat the wet food where the pill is hiding. My cat Bigfoot is such a fussy eater, he wouldn't touch even the finest wet food ever invented. Even caviar! Even fresh fish! Nothing. When I had to give him antibiotics it took close to a week to find something that worked. I had the medicine mixed into two different supposedly 'tasty' liquids, that both foamed in his mouth when I gave it to him. He would shake and fuss, and I was sure he wasn't getting the proper dose. Finally, I found this little device (see Pet Piller below) that did the trick for him giving him the antibiotics in pill form. He didn't like it, but we got through it, and he eventually got used to it. You have to be careful using it, so as not to push it in too far. The rubber tip is gentle enough, you can feel it on the roof of their mouth, close to the throat, the 'pop' - down goes the pill. Of course you have to use the prescribed method you suggest to open the mouth. Fortunately, I didn't have to restrain Bigfoot. He complained, but opening his mouth as you described was easy. Bigfoot and I got pretty used to it by the last 10 pills. I'm keeping the device for later...not that I expect him to EVER need it again.
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