Kitty advice?

[next_to_normal]

This is the first time I've ever had a sick kitty before, and we are having some difficulty with taking our meds.

We took a trip to the vet this week and Chelsea has an inflamed bladder. They gave me two kinds of medicine - a pain reliever in liquid form that comes in a syringe, which I'm supposed to put on her gums, but it's okay if she swallows it; and pills for the inflammation. We're doing fine with the liquid - I kinda just stick it in her mouth and squirt and hope for the best. The pills, on the other hand... the first two she took no problem, I just gave them to her with a little bit of tuna and she gobbled them right up. But now she's caught on to my evil plan, and has started ignoring the pills and eating around them. I've tried just opening her mouth and sticking it in, but she's quicker than me and spits it out before I can get it to go down. I thought about mashing them up and mixing them into her food, but I don't know if that's advisable if they're time release or whatever.

I know there's a lot of pet people on my flist - anyone have tips or tricks to get them to take their pills?

Comments

[silverusagi]

My mom has pilling cats down to an art form. Notice I use "pill" as a verb, LOL. There's no such thing as "giving a cat a pill." If you can get a pill gadget that actually works, that would probably be easier.

But, if you have to force your cat to take a pill, this works. Get a towel. Put the cat on the towel. Quickly wrap the towel over the cat so that nothing but the cat's head is sticking out. Sit and put cat in towel between your knees with cat facing outward. Now cat is immobile, cannot back up, scratch you, or get away. Open cat's mouth with one hand and poke pill down with the other. Hold cat's mouth closed so that cat must swallow pill.

[next_to_normal]

She's actually really well-behaved - a little squirmy, but she doesn't scratch at all, and I can hold her pretty still just by straddling, so I don't think the towel is necessary. It's mostly getting the pill in and her mouth closed that I'm having trouble with. I think I just need to be less concerned about my fingers getting chomped and do it. :)

[silverusagi]

Most cats are well behaved until they catch on that you're going to do this to them every damn day (or two weeks, or whatever), LOL. Then they fight you... All mine did, at least.

[next_to_normal]

Haha, Chelsea is the most mild-mannered cat ever. It doesn't matter what you do to her, she just keeps coming back for more. Unless you try to put her in the carrier, then she runs and hides.

[silverusagi]

Oh yeah, they all bolt when they see the carrier come out.