Tips on getting tablets in cats please!!!!

[Beth]

Just wormed the kitties today and tried the webbox treats, they're brilliant!! Ginny in particular cat be fussy with treats but she ate it immediately and definitely was none the wiser to the wormer in there. Thanks for recommending them Helen.

[CC & The Pussycat Guys & Dolls]

Yes I have to sometimes blow In Ollies nose to get him to swallow, Ollie is very good at taking tablets. He doesn't even run away anymore, just slinks around the table leg or something 

[Debsymiller (Rufus' mum)]

If you do have a cat who holds the tablet in their mouth, as well as rubbing their throat gently if you blow down their nose while holding the mouth shut they have to swallow and quickly. My friend who's a vet nurse taught me that and it woprks everytime! Jasper's a fiend for holding the pills in his mouth so this was a real godsend.

[DebbieM]

Landy (sadly no longer with us, RIP my sweetheart) had to have a quarter of atenalol twice a day for most of her life (bless her) cos of a heart problem. Thankfully they were tiny and we just popped them into her mouth at the back and down it went. Sometimes we would find the odd one where she had been sneaky and waited until we weren't lookiing and spat it out! 

[Millys Mum]

Raw beef always works for my lot, they cant resist it! You can slot the tablet straight in without crushing

[CC & The Pussycat Guys & Dolls]

Ive found with penicillan my cats can even smell if only just waffed under their noses for a second, and they gagg just from smelling it. It must have a very strong smell. If the tablet is small enough, I would just try to put it at the back of his throat and hold his head upright, gentally rubbing his throat untill swallowed.

[Kay and Penny]

Could this thread perhaps be stickied and placed in the  health section eventually? - I would love to be able to find it if and when I need to

[Beth]

Very useful thread, need to worm the girls in a few weeks, and was dreading it after the last time, it took me a whole day to worm Ginny, every time i wasn't looking she'd cough the   tablet up again for me to find on the floor the next time i went upstairs. will try the webbox treats first i think. (Am veggie so no meat hiding in my fridge, and i'm not having the doggy chicken wings in my bedroom. )

[Janeyk]

Our Smokey adored King prawns and I used to break one in half and pop half a tablet in each half and that never failed.

[scattycat]

Thank you so much for all your suggestions.

I have tried one this morning and it's worked!

Jasper LOVES red meat (he is a very good hunter!) - and we had 2 sirlions in the fridge for our tea tonight, so did what Gillian suggested (cut a bit off, crushed the tablet up)

... here Jasper .... wow he must have thought Sirlion for breakfast and wolfed the 2 bits down!!!

We'll pop out later today and buy a rump steak to use ... as sirlion's a bit expensive for cat pills 

Thank you again for your suggestions - will keep the others in mind if Jasper susses the steak treats!

[Stuart]

could it be jasper has a scent gland infection ??

Misty has been on Fortekor for over a year so I'm quite an expert at giving pills now 
but they are sugar coated and he doesnt taste them
wish the same could be said for the steroids, you can see by his face that they taste foul 

ok here's what I do

1/ take left hand, using thumb and index finger gently place iether side of mouth (palm covers head)
2/ carefully tilt head back until mouth begins to open, pill in right hand
3/ when mouth is open far enough plop pill into mouth, gently close mouth and rub neck to stimulate the swallowing reflex

n bobs yer uncle 

failing that, try this link ( only if you have a humor  )

http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php/topic,8152.msg128780.html#msg128780

[Gillian Harvey]

I'd also add that cheddar cheese works well too - go for the cheaper cheddars that are softer and not the more mature crumbly cheddars, because you can mould those round the pill. Cube of raw beef, cut a slit, put pill in - also works with prawns!

[Tiggy's Mum]

I feel suitably qualified to advise on this    Tiggy had over 2000 tablets over the last few years of her life and the methods below were successfull 99.9% of the time... however Lu & Riley are two bright young things and they had other ideas so I had to revise my methods when they had antibiotics last week and came up with the Webbox trick as well!

The tablets the boys had were very bitter and had been broken into pieces so the bitter insides were exposed hence some of the methods were rumbled by them.

1) Webbox treats - a soft malleable stick treat - cut a small piece off, cut that in half and then mould the treat round the tablet. 100% success rate with Riley, available in Tesco/Asda etc

2) De-furrum treats - break in half and poke the tablet in the gooey centre.  Available from Pets at Home, Jollyes

3) Dairylea/Primula - poke tablet in blob of aforementioned cheese. 

4) Wafer thin turkey ham (Bernard Matthews) - hide tablet inside mini parcel.

[scattycat]

Jasper is on a course of penicillin - however, even though the vet said that the tablets were paletable and to crush it and put in his food - when we do that tonight for his tea (and it was slightly later than normal so he would had been hungrier) - he sniffed it but then just looked at me as if to say 'you think i'm daft!' - and then refused to eat it.

We tried putting it in front of him again, but again, turned his nose up. He then went out for a little while, so when he came in a little while later, and much more hungrier, we tried the tablet in the food trick again, but he turned his nose up at it again.

We know he needs to get this in him as he has got an infection (just below his mouth, cant for the life of me think what the little things are called that have the infection in it!) - so we crushed the tablet and my husband held him, whilst opening his mouth and I tipped most of the crushed tablet in his mouth - some of it missed.

We really dont want to have to do that to him for 2 times a day for 7-10 days - as we know he'll work the routine out and simply hide up, or worst case start to not like us. We've had that with one of our other cats and having that kind of relationship with them is not nice - even though you're doing it for their own good.

I know the vet said there was an injection, however, she said she's not sure it would do much good (if any) - so can you guys give any tips on how to get the course of tablets in him - without us having to do what we did tonight.