How To Give Your Cat Pills & Medications
Pills, Dosing and Medication of Cats
Giving pills
Kneel on floor and put cat between knees (cat facing forwards). Cross your
ankles behind so cat can't escape backwards; press your knees together so cat
can't escape forwards.
Make sure your cat's front legs are tucked in between your knees so it
can't claw you.
Put the palm of your hand on top of its head and thumb and index finger on
either side of its mouth; the mouth will fall open as you tilt the head back.
If it doesn't, gently push down on the cat's lower front teeth either your
middle finger of your other hand (the first two fingers are to hold the pill).
You may wish to stop at this point and use a flashlight to examine the
cat's mouth to see what you are doing.
You want to drop the pill in on top of the tongue as far back
as you can. Keep the head tilted back and stroke its throat until pill is
swallowed. Then let your cat escape.
Another trick is to buy a bottle of gelatin capsules. Take the capsule apart,
dump the contents, put the pill in the empty capsule (in pieces if it won't
otherwise fit) and reassemble the two capsule halves.
Some places, especially natural food stores, will sell empty gelatin
capsules, try and get size "00". This makes the administration of
small pills much easier, and can also allow you to give more than one pill at
one time, if they're sufficiently small. The capsule itself just dissolves
away harmlessly.
Do NOT use capsules which have been filled with any other substance but
plain gelatin, since the residue may not agree with your pet!
You can try baby food as a deception: get some pureed baby food meat, dip
your finger in the jar, and sort of nestle the pill in the baby food. Offer it
to your cat and it may lick it up. Be warned, some cats are very good at
licking up everything BUT the pill.
You can get a pill plunger from your vet. This is a syringe-like tool that
takes the pill on one end and lets you "inject" the pill. You can
insert the pill deep down the cat's throat this way.
Administering Liquids to Cats
To administer liquid medication if the cat will not lick it up: use the
same procedure for pilling, but (using a needle-less syringe that you can
obtain from your vet) squirt the medicine down its throat instead of dropping
the pill.
Cats do not choke on inhaled liquids like humans because they rarely breath
through their mouths.
Cats can vomit easily, so keep an eye on them for a while after they've
been dosed: it's not impossible that they'll run off to a corner and upchuck
the medicine. Giving them a pet treat after dosage may help prevent this.
Topical Application
If your cat has an affected area that you must clean or
swab or otherwise handle, try this strategy, especially if the cat is
uncooperative:
Start with lots of handling. At first don't handle the affected area, at
all or for long. Gradually increase the amount of handling of the affected
area. Move closer to it day by day, spend more time near it or on it.
Talk to the cat while you're handling it. At the same time you're handling the
affected area, pet the cat in an area it likes to be handled. After handling
the affected area, praise the cat, pet the cat, give the cat a food treat, do
things the cat likes.
As long as the medical problem you're treating isn't acute, don't restrain
the cat to apply treatment. Gradually working up to a tolerable if not
pleasant approach is much better in the long run.
If you must restrain the cat, grab the fur on the back of the neck with one
hand, holding the head down, and clean/medicate with the other hand. Have your
vet show you how. Sometimes wrapping the cat in a towel helps too.
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