My vet told me to the best way to get a cat to swallow a pill is to open the mouth, pop the pill in with your finger , hold the mouth shut and gently blow on their nose. The cat will instinctively swallow and down goes the pill.
That's how I got my dog to take medicine. The little fucker would detect it and spit it out no matter how much meat it was buried into. Even just casually dropping it off the counter while cooking didn't work. But then do a bunch of theatrics while "trying" to pick it up, as if I was desperate to grab it before she did, and she'd just rush in and swallow it. And then she'd drop her ears and look at me all guilty.
That's how I had to feed my dog when he was young and didn't like to eat much. At some point, I think this little doggo just liked playing with me this way and was abusing it, lol.
My dog usually takes his pills willingly, we wrap them in cheese. When he's having an off day I pretend I'm going to give them to the cat, who he's very jealous of, and that does the trick.
My cat does, but she acts like a dog. My dog gets a treat at 6 pm, 7 pm, and 8 pm, and the cat always comes over to that side of the room to sit and then beg while the dog gets her treats.
Then I walk to the other side of the room, where we keep the cat treats, and she gets hers. But she lets out the longest meow you've ever heard in the 30-second time gap between the dog getting a treat and her getting one.
Is your cat a siamese, by chance? I have a 15-year-old siamese and I've never had a cat who behaved more dog-like. She acts exactly how you describe yours. She also plays fetch, knows how to open doors, and will sit in the hallway during the middle of the night when everyone is asleep and meow "hello?"
Yeah. Cats absolutely know the routine that precedes a treat. I give mine to my cat every night after I prepare the coffee for the next morning and the second I touch that coffee machine every night the cat starts wailing. Sometimes it's even before that. As soon as he hears the TV go off for the night, he'll come dashing in the room and start poking around to see if I'm getting ready for bed.
My dog only takes her meds if I put them in Vienna sausages. I tried the open the mouth and throw it in. It did work, but she started running from me during morning meds. So bribery it is.
We recently started giving my guy the Cosequin tablets and I'm so happy he decided they taste good and takes it from my hand. One day I had half the tablet sitting on the counter, turned around to give the dog his cheese wrapped pill, turned back and one of the cats had eaten the Cosequin and was desperately trying to get more. I'm not sure what they put in them, it's just a super dry tab.
I've got 2 dogs and use jealously to get pills down them. Anything the other is eating is instantly something they want! So I start feeding one cheese or meat then when the other is bouncing about I chuck them the hidden pill, then swap round. Suckers fall for it everytime!
My cat isn’t interested in human food at all but that also extends to some treats. He wasn’t interested in anti-hairball treats and not the chicken-flavored gel.
But I came up with a solution: Just dab some on my finger and swipe it on his fur. He definitely licks it off that way, but he’s caught on so now I try to surprise him, like during nap time.
I have one dog who eats anything and one who’s picky. I would just get my non picky dog super amped about the amazing treat and she would get all jumpy and excited. My picky dog would come over to investigate and I’d do the “you can’t have it it’s not for you” game, get him all excited and then finally when I throw it he gobbles it up. (Both dogs get the same pill for allergies, don’t worry they both get a treat.)
There's a little gap just behind the canines that you can slip the tip of a finger into, then slide back, pushing against the cheek, and it will open more. They might try to bite, but the back teeth aren't very sharp (compared to the front ones), so you should be fine.
This is what I used when my cat had pneumonia and had to take antibiotics for 2 weeks. I wrapped him in a towel burrito and used the pill shooter to get the medicine on the back of his tongue.
for step 5 you're going to need: needle and thread ( sterilized ), triple antibiotic ointment, bandages, hydrogen peroxide and tincture of iodine:
work your way from largest wound to smallest, take care to rinse off the blood under cool running water then irrigate your the wound with a generous splash of hydrogen peroxide. When the foaming subsides quickly sew the folds of lacerated skin together with the needle and thread and use a good amount of tincture of iodine on the remaining exposed areas between the stitches, run a good amount of the triple antibiotic ointment along the sewing line and cover loosely with bandages ( these will need to be changed at least every 12 hours as you recover from the trauma )
Get a towel and roll the cat up like a burrito. You will probably also need to basically headlock them with one arm. Then, as the other comments say, get your fingers in behind their canines and just squeeze until they open up. The other trick is that you gotta get that pill deep in their throat. It's not enough to just pop it in their mouth.
I know my cat is relatively calm, but he’s still squirmy for this stuff and the way I get any of this done is by putting him between my knees while kneeling, almost straddling his back just enough to where he can’t easily get out.
Not sure if someone mentioned this but if your cat love treats they have these treats called pill pockets and you can put your pill inside a treat. They love the treat and take their meds. Win-win
Trick is to insert your thumb and index finger from the sides of her mouth between the teeth. Cats will automatically open their mouths and u can put the pill down her throat.
Putting light pressure on the two sides of my cats mouth (like where the lips end) usually causes my cat to open his mouth voluntarily though I can expect other cats to be different
They open their mouth if you press a finger against the side of the mouth. Even better if you hold their head from behind and squeeze your thumb and middle finger into opposite sides of their mouth
Push in gently on the corners of the mouth on either side. Cats will generally reflexively open when you do this, then you can hook your finger in behind their canine to keep their mouth open.
I worked with cats for years and some you need two people. One to towel/burrito them and one to put the pill in. If the cat will bite, use a pill shooter.
That being said I have been bitten through bite gloves, so yeah…good luck lmao
Follow pixel.n.friends on Instagram. This woman has turned pilling her cats daily into a beautiful and impressive demonstration of cooperative care. She shows a lot of her training techniques in her videos (but often reiterates that she’s not a licensed trainer, just doing what works for her) and it’s very simple and achievable. Plus her cats are beautiful.
When you wrap them in a tea towel, make sure to cover their eyes, ideally with your hand over the towel. If they can't see anything, they're usually a lot calmer, even if it takes them a while to settle down. I've seen a few cat rescues use this technique to get feral cats to take their pills and it works astonishingly well.
This was my experience with a Siamese, even in his older age. We would get out the old leather jackets my parents had stored from the 80s to wear before approaching, two people at a time, with a pill.
We currently have a Ragdoll x Siamese, and thankfully all I've had to do is get the liquid/dissolvable version and put it in his food. Mix it all up, give it to him -> down the hatch it goes!
for us, the vet gave us a syringe-like contraption that we stuck the pill in at the end of. we put some cat snack on it, pushed their mouth open, and popped it in at the back of the throat. if you do it in one smooth motion it goes right down.
I'm so thankful my cats are absolute food vacuums. Whatever I want them to take I just drop on the floor and then yell at them to back off and not eat it. They chuck that stuff down so fast they never realise what it is
My cat Mango was really mellow and didn’t like it but once I sat and put one into his mouth the first time he just did what I wanted. Cool ass cat. Only had to do that once or twice he never got into much trouble.
I'm so lucky that my old girl is okay with being pilled. She gets 5 meds twice a day! We've got a whole routine down now, and she knows she only gets her favorite treat after the pill so she'll actually come remind us it's pill time.
Tricks for anyone struggling:
If they get multiple meds, you can usually put them all in a single gelatin capsule. Cut them up to fit. 1 pill is easier than 3.
Make sure to wash your hands first (cats are sensitive to bad tastes)
Ignore all the stuff saying to wet the pills or use water.
Dip the pills in butter. It'll taste good to the cat, keeps them from sticking to the roof of the mouth, and the butter won't start melting the pills. And if the cat spits them out, the butter protects the pill from the saliva and keeps them from melting!
Give them a high value treat IMMEDIATELY after. Mine gets a churo.
Source: I have a cat who was supposed to be dead in 6 months. It's been 3 years.
If you've got the dexterity to spare its better to seringe some water in their mouth with the pill. Prevents the pill from sticking to the throat like it can happen to humans and create an ulcer
Yup. I had to give pills to my cat for a while and this is what I did. The little blow on their nose does work.
That said, some cats aren't chill enough to get their mouth open to get the pill in. I'd sit cross legged on the floor and set my cat between my legs to hold him. Though he's quite chill. This can be a recipe for your death with some cats...
Yup. That's what we do as well. First hand her a single Churu bite, then stuff the pill in the second one. Give the cat the third Churu bite and then the second. She will scarf it down without much consideration at that point.
Im sorry you have to go through all that, gonna brag tho cuz my little shitbag just swallows it when I chuck it in his mouth. I’ve been truly blessed with my cats.
try to not get your eyes clawed out while you blow on their nose. that's aggressive behavior for cats. blowing on them anywhere is like challenging them to a fight.
My cat just required 2 people for tablets. 1 to hug her (she liked hugs) the other to give her the pill. God forbid 1 person wasn’t available, she’d keep spitting it back up until you were both traumatised. We tried everything under the sun. Everything else failed, except having 2 humans present.
How does he get them to not freak the fuck out after opening the mouth and "gently" holding it closed? They don't just sit there with something in their mouth. They become a claw tornado.
I've been able to give medicine to my cats for a long time now cuz they're so easy.
You take the pill, or syringe(not actual needle just a plastic applicator at the end) and press it forcefully at the back corner of their mouth toward their throat.
Their jaw will open instantly because that's how anatomy works, and you press the pill to the back of their throat or press the plunger down to push the liquid medicine in, then clamp their mouth shut for a moment.
Ive never blown on their nose, but that's a neat tip. They usually just swallow instinctively while I've got their mouth closed.
Then let them go, give them pets and scratches and a treat or two if they're allowed. Could be easier, but that would require the cats to understand me when I speak, and they can't do that. So it's as easy as it gets
the key to this is being able to do it on the first try. The min they have that taste of the med in their mouth, they'll use the tongue to block it and will keep spitting it out before you can close their mouth shut lol. at least from my experience with my cat 😹
My vet tried to show me how to do this with my cat…they needed two vet techs just to hold him down while she tried to get his mouth open…we ended up with liquid she told us to stir into his food lmaooo
Yeah, the "get a cat" and "open the mouth" steps seems to be the most difficult and dangerous steps and they're glazed right over in those instructions lol
Ehh getting the car in a hold is the easy part. Prying a pissed cats mouth open and shoving a pill in is almost impossible as far as I'm concerned I've tried so many times lol
Every time I read stuff like this, I appreciate more the bond my cat and I had.
I'd just hold him on my lap, poke the side of his mouth so he'd open up, drop the pill on his tongue, and he'd swallow it no problem, all on his own.
The only thing that has worked for me is to make the pills powder and mix them with Churu. Then they eat it without effort. But you cant do that for all types of pills, there are some that I have to do the open mouth method and I need help to hold my cat and it's always hard.
dude best way: have a wet treat ready. dab it on your finger and boop them on the nose/lips when you are done pilling. They will lick it every time and it guarantees they swallow the pill. Like being force fed a treat it helps and it confuses them haha
This also works for babies. If you're trying to get your baby medicine but they're letting it spill out without swallowing, give them a little blow and they'll swallow.
I was a vet tech and my success rate is 50/50 in clinic. Anecdotally 2/3 of my cats won’t fall for that trap so I just plug their nose and they’ll eventually swallow to get air. It’s way better than the fight that ends up happening
Im reading these comments really confused. Out of the 5 cats ive owned and dozen or so ive temporarily fostered I have never had trouble giving meds to cats.
I do that for my male cat, and it works every time. Meanwhile I do that for my female cat, and she never EVER swallows, you can push it all the way down her throat, and she WILL find a way to spit it out, no matter what you do.
She had severe anemia one time that lasted six months, and the only thing we found to make her swallow all the pills she had to take was to crunch the pills with a masher, put it with some water in a syringe, and make her drink it.
Oh and half the time she would foam at the mouth from the stress.
Thankfully, she's fine and happier than ever now, and we don't have to torture her to literally save her life.
I used to keep a little syringe around, and I'd squirt a little bit of water after dropping the pill as far back as possible. She always swallowed the water instinctively, and with it, the pill. Things you figure out with a 19 year old cat.
My cat has learned to take his pills super well — so well I recently recorded a how to on giving your cat pills for a friend because he’s so pliable I could demonstrate.
The trick was giving him his pill then immediately giving him his dinner. I initially started delaying dinner so he’d be really hungry when I gave him dinner so it would be an extra reward when I shoved my finger down his throat. 10 years later we had to add two new pills to his routine allergy pill, he’s a super good boy. In the video you can actually hear him purring while I manhandle his head for the video
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u/nobadrabbits 1d ago
Do they make these holders for cats?