Medicine

Did you ever have to give your cat medication? Was it difficult? Did they object to it or did they not mind? Did you have to give them pills or inject them or something else? We used to give our cats some tablets and we had to hide them in her food. If she found them, then she would spit them out and leave them on the plate. Sometimes, we had to hide the same pill several times before she ate it!

 

I have had to give all of my cats medicine before and the pill form is easiest. The vet's office actually have a tool specifically designed to accommodate pet owners. It is shaped like an extra long needle, only it is has a small open hole on the end with two small slits, where the pill can fit perfectly, and just like a needle. You pull the handle back all the way, while holding their head back and then insert the pill. It is over within a few seconds. I had my doubts about it when I first used it, but it is so much easier than trying to get them to stay still while "attempting" to give them liquid. There is no fuss and best of all, no mess. I highly recommend trying it.

 

Luckily I have never had to do this much as I have found it difficult to give a cat a pill. With a dog, just stick the pill in a piece of hot dog and they will eat it up without ever knowing it. A cat will know you are up to something every time. When we had to give medicine to kitten, we would just open the capsule, sprinkle the medicine in her food and mix it up. She always ate it down, but then again we nicknamed her the "scavenger" as she eats about anything.

 

I have given my cat medicine, both pills and liquids. I found the liquid so much harder than the pills. For the liquid i got a dropper from my vet, which I would slip in behind the back teeth of the cat and squeeze. Whilst holding the cat in a tight cuddle with my other hand pushing him into my chest.

For the pills, there are a couple of techniques to try, if you lightly grab the cats jaw and til the head back, the cats mouth will open when you do this, then you can push the pill in behind the teeth and they will swallow it. I was advised to try this technique with my cat by the vet, and we are successful first time, every time.

You can also try coating the pill in a food the cat likes, for me, this was cream cheese, but my little guy learned very quickly to lick off the cheese and leave the pill.

Just make sure you keep the cat gripped tightly. I always get behind the cat and push him back onto my chest, then wrap one arm around and tilt back the neck then use the other to put in the pill. This only works well if you have a good level of trust with your cat, and you know they wont scratch.

Many meds you can also break up into their food, but if you cat is already having eating issues, I would not suggest introducing more distrust of food.

 

We've had to give liquid with a dropper for urinary infections a few times. It's not fun, but we usually get it all into her.

The other thing is that since she's diabetic, she needs insulin shots twice a day. We thought that would be a terrible thing to have to do, but it's been more than 2 years now and there's never been a problem with it at all... for which I'm extremely thankful!

 

I have had to give my cats antibiotics and my latest kitty hate having things put in his mouth. He would not drink his antibiotics when we got him fixed, so I would have to squirt it in on the side of his mouth. He hated me for 3 minutes, but I would give him treats so he would feel better about the whole situation.

 

Yeah, I've had to put eye drops and give pills to my dear Bob, and let me tell you is way harder to do this with a cat than with a dog!!! I really wouldn't like to be the one injecting my cat tho Whenever he needs to get injected, I take it to a professional... there is no way I do that myself.