giving a cat a pill (revised)

[cellio]

1. Order medicine in capsule form specifically so you can open the capsules and mix the powder into attractive food.

2. Observe that cat is totally uninterested in attractive food.

3. Place cat on counter (at convenient height), get cat into a hold (looping pinky through collar as an anchor), gently press jaws open, and attempt to insert pill.

4. Retrieve pill from counter.

5. Repeat 3 more forcefully. Insert pill and quickly press jaws shut.

6. Retrieve pill from space between cat's gum and lip and try again.

7. After several variations on this theme, get pill solidly into cat's mouth. Hold jaws shut while massaging throat to get cat to swallow.

8. Observe cat swallow. Remove hand from mouth and retrieve soggy pill (with small puncture, leaking powder) from counter a few nannoseconds later.

9. Repeat 7, waiting a really long time and observing multiple swallows.

10. Remove hand and observe half of pill in cat's mouth. Replace hand in an attempt to get the cat to swallow some of the powder.

11. After cat wriggles free, clean up spilled powder from counter and hope enough got into cat to do some good.

That was this morning and tonight he ate some food (with the next dose in it), so that's a good sign. The apparent fever he had this morning seems to be gone, which might be related. (I don't think the antibiotic would have done that all on its own, so that's just lucky timing, I expect.)

Comments

[jducoeur]

For the last couple of years of our boy's lives, we were pilling them regularly. The method was somewhat similar to what dagonell describes, although without the blowing at his nose. Key elements mostly seemed to be psychological, frankly. They included:

-- Do it quickly and confidently. If you approach it hesitantly, it turns into psychodrama and scratches, but if you get it done fast, he generally doesn't mind it so much.

-- Establish quite clearly that you are the alpha cat, and he *is* going to cope. Again, being very firm is essential.

-- Really plonk the pill way back. You need to drop it into the back of the mouth, down at the throat. This means not being afraid of getting your finger near his teeth.

Putting that together, the process is very quick. Grab him; pull the head back; pop the jaws open with one hand; pop the pill in with the other; close. Maybe stroke the throat to make him swallow if you're not sure he has. And pet him afterwards, to establish that this was a "good kitty" moment. Whole process takes maybe 15 seconds.

Takes practice, but once you get the hang of it, it really isn't traumatic. I had my apprentice (ladysprite, the professional vet) teach me, and it became pretty second-nature after a while...

[cellio]

Thanks for the advice. I think my problem was probably that I wasn't getting it far-enough back in his mouth. Fortunately or unfortunately, I've gotten better at confidently asserting dominance through having to give him fluids from time to time. I scoop him up, push the needle into him, and start the flow, and he pretty much just sits there and takes it. (I always pet him during and give him a treat at the end.) So I guess I need to make pill motions as smooth and natural as fluids motions.

General Alphaness

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

I agree, in general, with jducouer. Getting cats used to having their nails trimmed gets them ready for pilling. Half the problem with pilling can be solved by making sure that they know that you can fuss with parts of their bodies. Try bathing them for fleas. Oh whee. They do figure out that you're Alpha. Eventually. Give them treats afterward. I'm not sure the bonny wee beasties remember that 'bugs every summer' phase of our lives now.

Re: General Alphaness

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Dang. I misspelled his/her name. Sorry jducoeur. Must be the Ukrainian lessons loosening up my spelling.

French

[cellio]

I have a lot of trouble getting French right on the first try, and I can't even blame it on other languages. It sometimes feels like the ordering of adjacent vowels, the presence or absence of terminal "s"s and "t"s, and the use of special marks is random, almost as if it's a test so the French can mock the Anglos who try to get it right.