Any tips for hard-to-pill cat?

We have a cat who is almost impossible to pill. I've given pills to cats for years and never had a problem like this!

He's an easy going guy but putting a pill anywhere near the back of his throat triggers a strong gag reflex. When the pill is closer to the the middle of his mouth, he works it over to his teeth and chews it, even when his mouth is closed tightly.
Once it is chewed, he begins to froth and drool, and most of the pill ends up anywhere but in the cat.
He won't swallow, even when we hold his mouth closed, stroke his throat, and blow on his nose - no matter how long we wait, he outwaits us!

We've gone to giving him suspensions (liquid) to avoid all the mess, but now he has a medication that cannot be compounded.
In addition to everything listed above, we're also trying kitty burrito to keep him calm, gel caps so the medicine has no taste, using a pill popper, greasing the pill with butter or cottage cheese... no luck.

So far, he has still managed to bite open the capsule every time. I'm worried that he is not getting his full dose and that other cats are coming in contact with medicine that they don't need when they groom him after he "froths" all over himself!
Do any of you have tips that we might not have thought of yet?

 

Wow, sounds like you've tried just about everything. Sorry that you're having such a difficult time of it. One thing that you didn't mention is pill pockets, have you tried them? It's like a little soft treat that you can mold around the pill. My cat liked them for a while.

 

Ah, yes - we tried pill pockets.
We tried the whole pocket, and just sort of picking off some of the pocket and kneading it around the pill.
It worked once, and then never again!
Thanks for the suggestion, though! At this point we'd try anything.

 

I have a kitty named Mullet who is the most uncooperative cat I've ever seen. They have to sedate him at the vet to do anything, even something simple like trim his nails. I got bit lots of times trying to pill him, and a vet tech showed me a way that worked on him.
First I have to scruff him very tightly. And when I grab the scruff, I have to grab higher (closer to his ears) than normal. Then I pull his head back and make his nose point skyward. When I do that, his lower jaw doesn't follow, and hangs down (looks like a Pez dispenser, lol). At that point, with the other hand I stick the pill shooter in his mouth pretty far back towards his throat and pop the pill in. When I pull the popper out, he always manages to bite down on it. Which is fine, because as he's trying to bite through the popper, the pill slides down his throat and the job is over. I let him beat the heck out of the pill popper once he swallows the pill, and I guess that's good enough for him. The only thing I have to watch out for is the front claws trying to tear up the hand holding the pill popper.
I know it's probably pretty traumatic for him, but he doesn't really leave me a choice but to handle him sort of roughly at pill time.
Mullet has quite the reputation at the vet clinic. It's funny, but every time I have to bring him in, it's always the "new tech" that gets to deal with him. I'm thinking when they set up an appointment for him, the ones who've dealt with him before all say "no way, make the new girl do it!" OTOH, when Bob goes to his appointment, they fight over who gets to take care of Bob. :lol:

Carl

 

Carl had some excellent advice using the pill popper. The only thing I could add is to try the clothes pin trick: http://www.felinecrf.org/subcutaneous_f ... _peg_trick Sometimes this is the only way....

 

I also have a cat that the vet couldn't figure out how I could pill him since the vet couldn't open his mouth to check his teeth(lol). Carl had excellent suggestions - the only thing I could add is after you have "stuffed" the pill in your cat's mouth consider giving him an injection of water as a "chaser". I have yet to try that trick but it was suggested to me by a vet technician and it sounded like it could work. (when I give my cat a pill he will swallow about 3 or 4 times and I will put him down and then he spits out his pill - lol)
Good luck with Mullet

 

Just wanted to let you know that we FINALLY got a WHOLE pill down the cat tonight!!!
I can't tell you how relieved I am!

The magical combination seemed to be:
Kitty burrito
Scruff the neck very tightly
Dunk the pill and popper in vegetable oil very last thing
Double team him - someone else "encouraged" him to open his mouth while I navigated the pill popper
Blow very sharply on his nose and stroke his throat while holding mouth closed
Don't even think about letting go of the cat's face for several minutes, just in case!
Follow up with water chaser from a needleless syringe

It seemed a little harsh, but was over in five minutes, instead of the half hour of frothing and gagging we've had after past attempts!
After a few minutes play time with his favorite toy, all was forgiven.

Just hoping we can have the same luck again tomorrow!
Thank you , thank you, thank you to all who posted suggestions!

 

Hi. If you have more problems, you can check with the vet about whether you can crush the pill and put it in his food. I use an electric coffee grinder (Black and Decker) for the really stubborn pills. Maybe you could even mix it with some food and stuff it in the pill pocket with an oral syringe.

 

What has worked for me with capsules is top open them, mix the contents into some baby food (no onions!) and syringe it in. I do the same with pills, just crush them first. Ask the vet first with pills, though, because if they are timed-release, they won't work right if crushed.

 

What I used to do for my civvie Christmas to get allergy meds down her, before I found out pill pockets work for her, I would:
(First make sure the pill is nearby, if you have other curious cats, in it's original container is fine)
1. sandwich her between my legs, make sure she's loose enough to breathe and be comfy but still not be able to move
2. Pet her some. That's an important part or else the cat may very well panic.
3. Then I'd put the palm of my non-dominant hand on the back of her head and kind of wrap around without any pressure
4. I'd pick up the pill with my dominant hand
5. I'd lift her head up a little, then open her mouth using the thumb and pointer finger of my non-dominant hand, I've found it helps keep Christmas from closing her mouth on me if I lift her head up a little before opening her mouth.
6. I'd launch(literally) the pill in to the side of her mouth, making sure it doesn't go right out the other side and then let go. She'd be shocked and swallow the pill before even realizing what it was right after I let go.

I went with the side of the mouth because I didn't want her accidentally breathing the pill in since I know I can't let that happen with my birds(giving medicine orally to a bird is a pain in the you know what!) and didn't want to risk finding out what'd happen if I didn't do it this way for Christmas.

But now I don't do that because of pill pockets, so I can't exactly make a video showing as that'd probably be easier. ^.^;

 

We have great luck putting pills into that slimy kind of AMerican "cheese" that comes wrapped in individual slices. Just take enough to coat the pill, make it a tight little packet and my cats and my dog go for it.

If that fails, roll the cheese "packet" in some freeze-dried chicken dust and offer first a piece of freeze dried chicken, then the pill ball, then the next chicken right away. They will often swallow the pill ball to get to the next chicken. And it doesn't hurt, if you have any other pets, to let them watch so the pilled cat is worried that someone else might get the good stuff!