Cat pilling

[mamadogmamacat]

In response to MajorTom's comment in the marriage thread, as I did not want to hijack that thread as it is so much fun for so many and did not want to upset anyone:

Have you tried using a pilling syringe? I sit on my hunkers with my cat in between my legs, so that if she wriggles or struggles, she's not going anywhere. Then I approach her from the side of the mouth with the pill in a pilling syringe. The second she opens her mouth, I push the syringe to the back, depress of the plunger, and it's in!

It's not always that easy, but I've found it to be significantly easier than doing it with my hands.

Hey, thanks for mentioning that. I do have a couple pill shooters from a couple different vets. They are useful if your cat just will not accept hand manipulation without shredding you or becoming distrustful. However, for me with my two types of arthritis, it just seems to require too many subtle hand muscle movements to be successful more than half the time. So, I'm left with a pissed cat who still needs their meds. Since mine are so old now, they have had to experience not just pill administration, but even syringe feeding when they had some really serious short term illnesses. So, they are all four now (fifth one died in Jan 2018) very used to hand manipulation of their heads and mouths.

 

[JoeWras]

I hear all these success stories with pillers, but we've never had any luck.


Usually, the old "shove it in and rub the neck" works as best as anything. The only thing is, sometimes the cat learns devious tricks! Our last cat was master at giving the old "Yep, i swallowed it. Thanks for trying to kill me" look. Then 5 minutes later, you hear a "plink."



Seriously? Where did you hide that thing?

 

[Katsmeow]

I have had this work with some cats. What I have found works better for a couple of my cats is bagging the cat.

We bought both the medium and small of this bag:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0098AOY0K/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Basically you zip the cat up in the bag to give medicine. OK here is a pic of my cat in a bag:

One of my other cats is fine on pills, but he hates having his claws clipped. There are zippers where you can take out one paw at a time and clip the claws.

The bags have just been so much help to us in giving medications and clipping claws for some cats. It has been interesting that the bags are very calming for the cats. The one in the picture is very calm in that picture. She hates being given meds but is totally fine if you do it in the bag. Go figure.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Bags sound intriguing. May consider them for any new cats, if there ever are any, in my future.
This crew is well used to me medicating them. Smart, too. The twenty plus pound male who really could resist if he wanted to, seems to know when he needs a syringe, say for a bout of diarrhea (he has a lot of food allergies, so despite my best effort, sometime something I didn't even know he was sensitive to can cause a temporary problem) he comes and purrs while i prep it. Then he sits quietly while i hold his scruff and slowly pump in a 2 ml does into his cheek pouch, as he swallows it in stages. I'm still amazed at how much they have come to trust me, and seem to understand their need for this type of care.

 

[Sue J]

When we had cats I would put the cat on my lap or on the floor facing away from me. Tip the head up and put the pill in the side of the mouth. Then gently hold the mouth closed and blow a gentle puff of breath on the cats face. That would make them swallow. Worked most of the time!

 

[mamadogmamacat]

I hear all these success stories with pillers, but we've never had any luck.


Usually, the old "shove it in and rub the neck" works as best as anything. The only thing is, sometimes the cat learns devious tricks! Our last cat was master at giving the old "Yep, i swallowed it. Thanks for trying to kill me" look. Then 5 minutes later, you hear a "plink."



Seriously? Where did you hide that thing?

Used to have those dispiriting experiences too with the little devils.
And I tried not only the neck rubbing, but also the blow on nose idea. All of these have the intent of inducing swallowing. but even if they do swallow, the smartest ones may have already pushed the pill off to one side.

Here is how I do it now:

Wrap pill in small amount of either cheese (easiest as it is so malleable) or deli meat if they do not tolerate dairy
Open mouth with thumb and forefinger on each side of head. Can modify by grasping scruff first if cat needs more help to remain calm and still, but will have only one finger for mouth manipulation in that case.
Shove pill way down with two fingers on other hand, totally bypassing any possible tongue interference
Praise cat (mine like a chin rub at this point in process) and have another small piece of meat to feed them if they like it a lot

 

[JoeWras]

My concern with putting fingers in the mouth is getting cut by the teeth. Our cat has really good teeth for a 10 year old, and they are amazingly sharp. He is very kind and never chomps down. But I can see cutting my fingers if I put them in the mouth. Won't this be a problem?


I want to look into the bag. We gently grab the scruff for his nail cutting. He doesn't seem to mind this at all and is very calmed by it. Yet, I'm still on the fence as to whether scruff grabbing, even lightly, is called for.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Holding the head still is the key. Then, one can easily aim to avoid those gorgeous but dangerous canine teeth, and shove it right down the middle.

If you do want to try it, it would help to, when you have no need of pilling your cat at all, to try just opening his mouth as i describe and looking at the 'territory', so to speak. This will get him used to you doing that part of the process, which is really key because if the mouth is still and held open by you then you can do what you want with the other hand.

One can make this part of a petting/grooming session, and give a treat after the mouth/head manipulation so he may even look fwd to it. Then you can add the pill part when you need to at a later date.

 

[Katsmeow]

My concern with putting fingers in the mouth is getting cut by the teeth. Our cat has really good teeth for a 10 year old, and they are amazingly sharp. He is very kind and never chomps down. But I can see cutting my fingers if I put them in the mouth. Won't this be a problem?


I want to look into the bag. We gently grab the scruff for his nail cutting. He doesn't seem to mind this at all and is very calmed by it. Yet, I'm still on the fence as to whether scruff grabbing, even lightly, is called for.

The bag really helps so much. Even with the ones who want to bite. The bag lets me use both hands to give the pill since I don't have to worry about both holding the cat and giving the pill. For my cat who hates claw clipping the bag helps to keep him from twisting away. Again, I can focus more on the claw clipping than holding the cat....

 

[Gumby]

We are on our third generation of cats. The current ones don't yet need it, but we are very familiar with pilling from our prior cats. I just grabbed them tight on my lap and jammed a finger (with a pill on it) down their throats until they swallowed. The many scars on my arms are testament to their dislike of that approach, but it was the only thing that worked.

 

[TrvlBug]

For us Pill Pockets worked until they didn't. I gave up and found a vet pharmacy that compounded. Then transdermal gel in the ears . Until one of our cats needed a third med at which time we went back to pill down the throat for the smallest pill. They needed the transdermals 2x/day and you could not mix meds so the third med had to be administered via mouth.

 

[Gumby]

One of our prior cats had arthritis. We did the ear pinnae transdermal compounding route for her arthritis meds. IIRC, we used Stokes Pharmacy in NJ.

 

[TrvlBug]

One of our prior cats had arthritis. We did the ear pinnae transdermal compounding route for her arthritis meds. IIRC, we used Stokes Pharmacy in NJ.

We used Golden Gate Pet Pharmacy in California. They are strictly mail order, however, made an exception and let me pick up the meds when kitty was diagnosed and we needed an antibiotic the day before we left on vacation.

Kitty was kitty from hell when administering meds (this one was liquid squirt in mouth type), except when cat sitter dit it!

 

[ER Eddie]

I read "cat piling."

 

[atmsmshr]

Before discovery of "pill pockets", administration of meds to a cranky cat was fraught with danger and mostly futile. Now, we break a thyroid pill in half, smother it in wet cat food twice a day, and place a paper plate on the floor. Our 20lb male cat hoovers it up. Our 7lb female also demands a cut for herself. If we are late in delivery, the cats start acting like Timmy just fell down the well and needs help. Their 12 hour timing is so good we think the cats must have a sundial hidden away somewhere.

Long ago, a cat who previously owned us had a taurine deficiency. No go on the throat shots with a pill. The vet shaved a patch of cat belly and gave DW a bottle of nitroglycerine to rub on her (the cat). Forever afraid of blowing myself up with that feline.

The big male with a defective thyroid has gone diabetic several times and required insulin injections. A sharp needle and a squirmy cat - what could possibly go wrong? Found that in the 10 second interval that his lips were sucking down wet food you could inject a fold of skin (aka shooting the cat). Outside that short window, have bandaids and Bactine ready. Used to tell friends, time to go - we have to shoot the cat now.

Atom

 

[mamadogmamacat]

cute
I tell friends and family that I have to go water the cat now, for when I have to give subQ fluids (needle in neck area and connected to IV line for about 3 to 4 minutes)

transdermal meds are great, although pricey.
one of my cat who gets pills also gets meds in that way as well
poor thing has diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic constipation and kidney failure

 

[Gumby]

...If we are late in delivery, the cats start acting like Timmy just fell down the well and needs help. Their 12 hour timing is so good we think the cats must have a sundial hidden away somewhere....

Another Lassie fan, I see. When my cats are meowing particularly urgently at me (usually because I'm late with the evening treat), I sometimes ask "What's wrong? Did little Timmy fall down the well again?"

 

[badatmath]

My cat adores pill pockets but he is a chow hound. Been using them several years and he will start begging for one if he thinks I'm "late" on weekends.


I tell people he swallowed a timex - his inner clock seems to be to the minute!

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Timely thread, as my boy cay is having digestive system problems and needs steroid pills. He used to LOVE pill pockets, having gotten into the bag once and almost devouring the whole thing. But recently he decided they were too suspicious, I guess with that hard bad-tasting thing in the center, and he won't go near them. So starting yesterday it was the pill popper, which he hates. Good thing it's only for a few more days. He's also decided it's dry food only for now, which is a prescription. So much for LBYM.

The girl cat had similar medicine for years and we got it compounded in a chicken-flavored liquid that we squirted on her wet food, and she loved it.

 

[tmm99]

We have a cat with behavior problems, and on his second visit to the vet, he was not happy at all, being very aggressive. The vet and his assistant tried to put a leather muzzle on him without success, but after that, he went absolutely nuts, but they finally managed to put him in a thing that looked like a panini press with nets (don't know what is called), but still wiggling too much for the vet to be able to examine him well. The third visit was better, probably because the vet gave up on examining him (It was his annual and the vet gave him a shot, but that's all he could do, with no physical exams). They gave us a sedative to give him for the next visit (or was it for us to take so we don't get stressed out?), but now, I'm wondering how I will pill the boy. My DH was bitten once by him and he had to go through a round of IV antibiotics, so you understand our reluctance in trying to open his mouth. Even with a pilling device, someone will have to open his mouth...

We knew he would be a challenge when we got him because nobody wanted him at Human Societies for months due to his behavior problems. He has gotten better over the years, but still, he is not easy to handle, and he probably never will be.

Just so you all know, he is loving in his own way. He likes to give my DH's arm a bath when my DH is waking up. He now purrs (not my DH, my cat) a little once in a while when he's with my DH (He's never purred around me.)

I just hope he doesn't get seriously sick. I cannot imagine pilling the boy every day, or giving him a fluid injection every day.

One thing we've noticed though is that he is more tolerable when he wants to be fed, like if we're late giving him lunch. I can hold him and bug him a little and he doesn't retaliate as much, so maybe that's my chance.

 

[Texas Proud]

Both our cats hate to take pills... DW got the job of putting them in their mouth and has been bitten.. our boy was also able to not swallow and spit it out... he is a strong boy and can be a bit hard to handle..


Both will not touch pill pockets anymore...


Neither eats all their wet food at one sitting, and most of the time not at all... when we put the drugs on their wet food they do not even touch it...


I did buy a pill popper and have used it successfully a couple of times, but not for awhile...


BTW, our boy cannot stand to be in a box to be taken to the vet (we rarely go anyhow) so I have to put him in a harness and carry him connected to a leash... usually does not fight much...

 

[atmsmshr]

cute
I tell friends and family that I have to go water the cat now, for when I have to give subQ fluids (needle in neck area and connected to IV line for about 3 to 4 minutes)

transdermal meds are great, although pricey.
one of my cat who gets pills also gets meds in that way as well
poor thing has diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic constipation and kidney failure

Oh no - I can't imagine how hard an IV would be!

 

[eytonxav]

We break the pills into smaller pieces and imbed them in those soft kitty treats. Those treats are like crack for cats and there is never a problem in getting pills down this way.

 

[RunningBum]

I have had this work with some cats. What I have found works better for a couple of my cats is bagging the cat.

We bought both the medium and small of this bag:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0098AOY0K/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Basically you zip the cat up in the bag to give medicine. OK here is a pic of my cat in a bag:

One of my other cats is fine on pills, but he hates having his claws clipped. There are zippers where you can take out one paw at a time and clip the claws.

The bags have just been so much help to us in giving medications and clipping claws for some cats. It has been interesting that the bags are very calming for the cats. The one in the picture is very calm in that picture. She hates being given meds but is totally fine if you do it in the bag. Go figure.

I'm looking for something to help with nail trimming. I wrap mine in a blanket but I can go only 2 or 3, if any, before she breaks free most of the time. Looking at the one you refer to vs. https://www.amazon.com/ASOCEA-Grooming-Scratching-Injecting-Examining/dp/B0765VD6D6/. Do you see any specific advantages to the one you selected?

Also, on the size, a lot of the reviews say they are pretty small. My calico is about 7.5 pounds, so I'd think the Small would be best, but the reviews make me think I should go with the medium. What do you find?

 

[TrvlBug]

... ...I just hope he doesn't get seriously sick. I cannot imagine pilling the boy every day, or giving him a fluid injection every day... ...

Transdermal meds...gel that you rub in their ear.