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

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

1.) Kneel on floor with cat between knees.
2.) One hand under chin to keep cat looking straight up.
3.) Use fingers of same hand to press in at jaw points to open mouth.
4.) Drop pill into throat (aim for the black)
5.) Exhale sharply into cat's nose as if blowing out a candle.
6.) Let go. When cat sneezes, pill is swallowed.
It takes practice before you can do it smoothly, but it can be done.
-- Dagonell

Alternate method

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

There's also this method (http://www.nanceestar.com/CatPill.html)

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Actually, I discovered that my vet's weird requirement of a syringe of water *helps* with the pilling process. After I get the pill in his mouth (using a technique similar to dagonell), I open my hand just a *bit* so I can put the tip of the syringe in between his teeth. He has to swallow the water that I'm *slowly* putting in his mouth, and the pill goes with.

Hope he feels better soon!

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

We had better luck with an antibiotic liquid one time Duke needed it. The last time we had pills, and it went pretty much as you just described.

[kayre]

Medicine syringe or dropper-- I like a plunger-style syringe best. You'll find them in the baby section of a drugstore. Mix the medicine with liquid, about the consistency of syrup. You can force the tip between teeth and squirt. With a mouthful of liquid, the cat really HAS to swallow.

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

We had to give our other cats medication as they got older. We used steps 1-4 of

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We had to give our other cats medication as they got older. We used steps 1-4 of <ljuser=dagonell>'s method. It worked most, but not all, of the time. I didn't know about blowing into the nose. That might have helped with Minerva. Good luck with the medicine!

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

1. Try to get cat to come to you by making friendly, cat attracting noises.
2. Turn small apartment upside down looking for cat.
3. Find cat in space you did not know existed.
4. Pry cat out of alternate space-time dimension.
5. Marvel that cat has clearly been lifting weights while you are away at work. Resolve to spend more time at gym.
6. ...

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

We have had good results with small pills by completely embedding them in a "moist" kitty treat and following a close variant of dagonell's method. What little comes off the pill in the cat's mouth is treat-flavored, so our cats have come to accept it well. YMMV. Just pop it in and don't let them chew. Chewing makes the pill come out on the floor.

Re: Alternate method

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

No, no! You don't want hamsters. they are nastiest, cussedest rodents except for squirrels.

Pilling the Cat.

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Used to be, cats just disappeared when they got old and sick, and that was the expected norm. No longer so. Not here and now. We went through an incredible number of tests trying to figure out what the devil was wrong with Roo. And the best the vet could come up with was steroids. It bought him another couple years. He fought me, but let S_C pill him. I had to be invisible during that time each night. I was the one who took him to the vet's. He was ornery as hell, but not stupid beyond that.

I think each cat has to be approached as the unique creature it is, even when forcing a nasty-tasting thing down its throat for its own good. Hiding pills in tasty things has never fooled one of my cats. They explore their food cautiously, possibly because getting extra tasty food is likely a trick. They are sure. And don't trim their claws right before pilling. Administer catnip after nails. And be tough, but not brutal. They'll meet you there. Sort of.

[cellio]

Thanks. If I have to do this again I'll try that (or maybe the water variant someone else mentioned).

Re: Alternate method

[cellio]

Thanks for the link. That's the version I had in mind when I said "revised". (But mine has the advantage of being true, while the other is merely not inconsistent with observed behavior. :-) )

[cellio]

Thanks! I have syringes left over from his post-surgical care, so I'll keep that in mind if I have to do this again.

[cellio]

He's had liquids in the past, but the vet wanted to try this particular drug this time and it normally comes in a capsule. I assume I can request it in liquid form, but since I've given him other pills/powders mixed into food before, I didn't think it would be a problem. And it doesn't seem to be a problem generally; today I was able to get him to eat drug-laced food. I had just failed to consider the case that if he has no appetite, the food trick won't work.

[cellio]

Thanks! I hadn't thought to roll my own liquid.

[cellio]

Yeah, I've had that experience. :-) The door to the attic crawl space is now wedged shut, much to Embla's annoyance, because I'm a little too big and awkward to be in there trying to retrieve Erik. (It has joists but no finished floor and a great deal of assorted house detritus, like some spare trim and a door, and now AC ducts as well. Not fun.)

[cellio]

Thanks. Just burying a pill in a treat doesn't work with my cats (they eat the treat and leave the pill), but I hadn't considered the possibility of forced delivery wrapped up in something tasty. As you noted, chewing is what causes the big problems.

Re: Pilling the Cat.

[cellio]

If Erik were having an obviously-lower quality of life, that might be different. The current state seems to be that he's got some chronic problems ending in "-itis" that can be managed but not cured, so he's getting periodic courses of antibiotics. We're trying to work out the correct timing on that, and I think this time it was too long between doses by a dew days. If I'd started the drugs a little earlier he might not have gotten the apparent fever and loss of appetite that led me to be forcing a pill into him instead of just lacing his food.

[cellio]

Thanks. I have hopes that this was a one-time problem, at least for a while. Once he has an appetite I can fall back on lacing his food.

[(Anonymous)]

We use "Whisker Lickin's" cat treats, and Dana (whose fingers are much smaller than mine) breaks off a bit and just uses about 3/4 of the treat. The tiny little bit broken off gets used as a pre-pill enticement.

Dealing with Roo and Death in General

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Ahh. We never had an -itis for Roo. He was just not right. He lost weight and wasn't as vigourous as usual. I ended up feeding him wet food because it was all he would eat. Not even tuna interested him towards the end. I cooked chicken to yield him broth.

This was all made tricky at the start because when I moved in with S_C, and brought a *gasp* dog and another cat into the mix, Roo decided not to use a litter box anymore. After we rehabbed (cat piss) and sold the condo, I bought him a cat house with a glass brick foundation (Thank you Jessie) and a secretary's heating mat under it in cold weather. Under wide eaves. We let him be ornery about litter boxes outdoors. Some will condemn us for that.

I took him in for regular checkups, since being outside was a liability. But what was wrong with him wasn't apparent, and we couldn't afford a colonoscopy. He didn't die within the time he would've if it had been colon cancer. We saved $1250.

Sometimes critters just get old. I went through it with Hamish, too. And yet I have another poodle. (Hamish kept me from suicide, so I figure it's a good idea.)

You will know when Erik no longer wants to live. They have very definite ways of telling you. And you shift into hospice mode. It's not fun, but it's part of the deal you make with your companion aminals. You give them a death on their terms.

My Grandma is teaching me Ukrainian. She's 92. Blind and close to deaf. Has always been notional and sharp, simultaneously. My Good Aunt is taking care of her. Except for species, end of life care is not so different. We take care of our forebearers as we take care of our companion aminals. Decently. No?

So I have 2 cats. Erica is 13, and Mel was astray in early 1996. Jamie the poodle is 5.4. I have your scenes to look forward to with these cats. But it's part of the deal. Except I didn't ask for Erica. But she is in my domain and she can hate me all she likes, I will care for her.

I hope Erik remains on an even keel, and comfortable and content for as long as possible. And that his end of this time will be comfortable.

It's not easy waking up on your bathroom floor with a dead cat in your arms, or holding your dog's paw while he dies from an overdose of phenobarbitol. It comes with the territory, and you don't have to "get over it". Or aren't supposed to. I don't know. Maybe just learn.

[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...

Re: Dealing with Roo and Death in General

[cellio]

Yes, this is an obligation we sign up for when we decide to get companion animals. I owe Erik the effort to deal with problems when we can and to make him comfortable when we can't. He's only 13 and he's an extremely sweet kitty; I think he's planning to be around for a while yet.

[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.

L'chaim

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

I wish you pleasure in one another's company as long as possible. A sweet cat is a joy.

My friend called Erica "Psycho Kitty". Mel is short for "Mellow". He's always been a soggy boggy baggy shaggy. Jamie is the sweet one, so I've been told. Even if he is kind of a dog. So is Mel.

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.