Tips for Administering Medicine

We neutered my cat last Friday and he hates taking his pain medicine. He doesn't mind taking his antibiotics orally, but refuses to take the pain meds. Do you all have tips for giving cats medicine orally? The vet told me to mix apple juice with the meds so it will taste better. I don't think my cat would want to drink apple juice. Any other tips? Thanks!

 

You can disguise the pill in anything the cat likes to eat, in my case, cream cheese.

Unfortunately my guy is a smart cookie and after 1 day sussed out what was going on. No what I do is sit him down, wrap one arm around him up to his head, and use the other with the pill. Slowly and gently pull the cat's head back, and the mouth will open naturally, throw in the pill.

This works all the time now, I always do it this way.

 

Thanks for the tip Scotty. No pills for the kitty this time around. It's all liquid so I have to shoot it on the side of his mouth and he hates it. I tried to mix it in his food and he won't go near it. I am going to try the wrap around method! I have to give him meds twice a day for a week and we have 4 more days to go before he goes back to the vet.

 

Yeah for the liquid, my vet told me to shoot it into the side of the mouth, but pry his mouth open. I do the same wrap around technique with him for that too. He had some white fluid that he HATED and I had to do this with. But the wrap around work, but my cat is super docile!

 

Could you mix it into a gravy? My cat absolutely loves soft/wet food, so whenever I have to give her a powder, I mix it into the gravy. She won't eat the pate/meaty stuff, but she licks all of the gravy off of it. It might work if you water it down with the medicine.

 

I also heard someone tell me using chicken stock also works to get the cat to eat again, especially after an upset tummy. Maybe that could help too?

 

Yep, I bet it would. Any sort of yummy flavored liquid should make it more tolerable. I have a hard time getting mine to eat anything solid that is out of the norm, so I would struggle to get it hidden within a food that she might actually eat.

 

Mine is the same, as soon as I hide it in the food he seems to know! I stopped trying to hide it as I didnt want him to stop eating, as he had already lost so much weight, hence I started the wrap around technique, and just held him and threw it in.