I’ve watched all the videos on how to pill a cat and just laughed. It’s not because they’re bad advice. My parents pilled our cats by gently tipping their heads back, plopping the pill in, and massaging their necks. It may take practice, but if your cat lets you do it, it’s the way to go.
However, if your cat is like my Pickles, that’s never going to happen. I’m not going into his full story here, but the bottom line is: do not get near his mouth, do not hold him. I tried clicker training him for pilling, but I wasn’t making progress. I got medication in chicken and liver flavors or compounded in such. He wouldn’t touch it. Hid it in his favorite food – he knew. Wrapped it in turkey breast (a VERY high value treat) – he stopped eating. I put tablets in empty capsule shells to mask the flavor, but he wouldn’t eat that either. I once tried to squirt a mixture of gabapentin, Churu, and water from a syringe into his mouth (risky!). I chased him around the apartment for about an hour, getting the meds on him, on the floor, on me, but not IN his mouth. He even let it dry on him rather than cleaning it off!
The only solution was to make Pickles think eating the medicine was his decision. I decided to pursue a pill pocket strategy, though Pickles (shocker) doesn’t like pill pockets. He does like freeze-dried chicken and hard treats.
I like the pill pockets because they cover up the taste and texture of tablets. I used about 1/3 of a pill pocket to cover the tablet. Then I stuck a small piece of freeze-dried chicken onto it. I put the med-treat in front of Pickles and covered it with a few more treats. He ate them all up! It was literally a miracle.
That was about two years ago. Since then, Pickles has had other health issues come up and takes medications twice a day. This strategy still works, and I even use fewer treats now that he’s used to it (there is always a treat stuck to the pill pocket). In fact, I think he looks forward to what I call Special Treat Time.
