Tips for Giving Medication
Giving your cat medications can become fairly difficult, particularly if your cat is not food motivated. Given that dogs can smell a fingerprint on a pane of glass 6 weeks after it was made and cats are thought to have a more acute sense of smell than dogs, it is no wonder they can sniff out a tablet a mile off. They do however have less taste sensitivity than humans, smell and texture are the most important things when it comes to food.
The following tips and tricks are based on what I’ve found works for the many clients I’ve helped with medicating their pets. Intrinsically some medications are more bitter, like trazodone or strong-smelling like fluoxetine and therefore harder to disguise.
And if these tips do not help, there are many ways of compounding medications, such as flavoured liquids or chews and some can be made into a transdermal paste that can simply be rubbed onto the ear. Many medications also come in a capsule or flavoured form as well, so you can always check if you can switch medications.
Giving your cat medications can become fairly difficult, particularly if your cat is not food motivated. Given that dogs can smell a fingerprint on a pane of glass 6 weeks after it was made and cats are thought to have a more acute sense of smell than dogs, it is no wonder they can sniff out a tablet a mile off. They do however have less taste sensitivity than humans, smell and texture are the most important things when it comes to food.
The following tips and tricks are based on what I’ve found works for the many clients I’ve helped with medicating their pets. Intrinsically some medications are more bitter, like trazodone or strong-smelling like fluoxetine and therefore harder to disguise.
And if these tips do not help, there are many ways of compounding medications, such as flavoured liquids or chews and some can be made into a transdermal paste that can simply be rubbed onto the ear. Many medications also come in a capsule or flavoured form as well, so you can always check if you can switch medications.
- Given cat are pretty suspicious sometimes, opening the pill packet or bottle away from your pet and getting everything ready out of sight can help with the whole process. Often they are tipped off that you are up to something and primed to sniff out your deviousness. Wash your hands well after handling the tablet and before attempting to medicate your cat.
- BBQ chicken (just the meat part) can be a great option for cats with sensitive stomachs. Simply buy the chook and pull all the meat off (avoiding the fatty skin), then make a small slice in a good-sized piece and put the tablet inside. Save the rest in the fridge for 3 days or freeze in zip-lock bags.
- Make up a series of biscuit-dough balls using liver paste, peanut butter or anchovette. These can be made in bulk by adding a little flour to the paste until you have a firmish consistency that can be rolled into balls. Store these in the fridge for 3 days or freezer for longer. The key when later adding the tablet is to avoid getting any of the tablet residue on the outside. Make sure you wait until the last minute to add the tablet, as some medications are not stable once added to things.
- Similar to this idea, use a strong cheddar to hide the tablet, using a ‘biscuit crumb’ of liver treats or a ground up treat that your cat already loves.
- If you need to give multiple medications, you can buy empty gelatin capsules to place the medications inside. You can even buy flavoured ones! Size 000 is the biggest and is 26mm long, while size 5 is the smallest at 11mm long.
- Sardines, Anchovette paste (usually in the sandwich spreads area of the supermarket), Dine Creamy Treats, cream cheese, butter and pate are other great ways to disguise medications.
- Use a pill popper. The rubber tips are split, so you can hold the tablet steady. With your body behind your cat’s, so he can’t back away from you, hold the top jaw and tip your cat’s head back. The power of physics means when your cat’s head is back, their bottom jaw will open (saving you the trouble of prying it open), you can then use the pill popper to push the tablet right to the back of the mouth, over the bump of the tongue. Then quickly follow this with a treat.