Advice please on pilling

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marymartin

Member Since 2010
My diabetic cat Felix has developed heart failure and has to be given tablets three times a day. Initially I was hiding the tablets in his food and all was going well. Now he seems to have realised that there are tablets in his food and is refusing to eat. I have abandoned this method so that I can get him to eat his meals. I have tried all the usual methods of introducing the tablets directly into his mouth but this is causing him distress resulting in coughing and gasping for breath. I was unable to adminster any tablets yesterday and his condition is now worse. I would be grateful for any suggestions or advice anyone can give me. Mary
 
Have you tried Pill Pockets?

http://www.greenies.com/en_us/Products/ ... ckets.aspx

I've also used cream cheese and even a moist cat treat, just dabbed a little water onto the moist treat to make it pliable and put the pill in that.

If the pill is one that can be crushed, ask your vet, many that don't have coating to protect the belly or are not time released can be crushed, I powder the pill and add a tiny amount of water or tuna juice and make a slurry and admister using a needleless syringe or clean eye dropper.
 
Read this for tips on how to safely give pills to your cat: http://catinfo.org/?link=pillingcats

Pill Pockets work well. You don't need the entire Pill Pocket, just enough to coat the outside of the pill to mask any unpleasant taste and/or smell. The dog Pill Pockets are more economical and are the exact same thing as the smaller cat ones.

Many pills can be compounded into flavored liquids. Ask your vet if this is a possibility. Chicken or salmon flavored liquids are usually easier to give than a bitter tasting pill. There may be other flavors you can choose from, like peanut butter ot cheese.
 
a cat food supplement maker recommended to me to use a dab of chicken liver powder and a dab of water mixed together as a paste. coat the pill in that before administering.
 
I use aged cheddar cheese - a little bit to surround the pills. I let him sniff the cheese balls and lick my fingers that are 'cheesy' from mushing the cheese and forming it around the pill. Then his mouth is wet and the cheese balls seem to be swallowed easily. A little competition from another cat (who also gets a teeny bit with no pill) seems to make him eat them up quickly as well.

Just another tool to add to the toolbox.
 
You may also want to get a 'pet piller.'
http://www.amazon.com/Pet-Piller-Tablet ... B0002AL6U6
Your vet may have them in stock for a lower cost than this online one.

The piller allows you to get the pill into the back of your cat's mouth without your having to cram your giant fingers into his tiny mouth. On some cats it works just great and is much less traumatic for the cat.

That said, I'm having pilling failures at my house these days and will be buying pet pockets, sharp cheddar, and cream cheese today.

J.
 
Thank you to everyone for their suggestions on how to administer tablets, I have now tried them all. After an initial struggle followed by gasping for breath, (me and Felix,) crushing the tablets, adding a little tuna water and administering with a syringe seems to be the most successful method. Mary
 
If the pill is small (or can be cut into small pieces) and tastes really nasty (cat salivates thick ropes), you may find that coating it with butter or other edible oil keeps it from dissolving in the cat's mouth.

Always follow a solid tablet or capsule with a few cc of water to get the tablet all the way down to the stomach. If it lodges in the throat, it can cause severe irritation to the esophagus.

Sometimes, if the dose instructions don't require an empty stomach, it is helpful to do pilling after the cat has eaten so there is food to buffer the effects of the pill on the stomach.

For the not really horrible tasting tablets, I often break a tablet, put it in an oral syringe, and suck in some AD and water to make a slurry for dosing.
 
My Chester gets tramolol 2X daily which is apparently quite bitter. If he tastes it at all, it causes him a lot of distress, and the drool is EVERYWHERE. I went online and bought empty pill casings and put his tramodol in them. Then I coat it with some of his wet cat food or cream cheese (they can get a bit sticky) and use the piller. Works like a charm and he doesn't even struggle any more. He used to fight like blazes.

I always position myself behind the cat. Sometimes, depending on the cat, I will literally straddle them on the floor with my ankles crossed so that they can't back out. Smooth the whiskers back with the left hand (assuming you're right handed) while pinching the mouth open. Put the piller in with the right hand and pop.

I use www.capsuline.com and get the #2 yellow or yellow and gray. Even though they're bigger than the 1/2 pill needs, I've found that actually the larger the pill, the less they fight with it. Seems the smaller ones they get their tongue wrapped around and spit them out easily. The slightly bigger ones just go right down.

Plus, the great part is that if you need to give more than one pill, you can put them all (unless they're huge) in one pill casing, minimizing the stress for all involved.

It's only about $18 and you get 1000 (yes...1000!) of them.
 
Jaye and Chester said:
My Chester gets tramolol 2X daily which is apparently quite bitter. If he tastes it at all, it causes him a lot of distress, and the drool is EVERYWHERE. I went online and bought empty pill casings and put his tramodol in them. Then I coat it with some of his wet cat food or cream cheese (they can get a bit sticky) and use the piller. Works like a charm and he doesn't even struggle any more. He used to fight like blazes.

I always position myself behind the cat. Sometimes, depending on the cat, I will literally straddle them on the floor with my ankles crossed so that they can't back out. Smooth the whiskers back with the left hand (assuming you're right handed) while pinching the mouth open. Put the piller in with the right hand and pop.

I use http://www.capsuline.com and get the #2 yellow or yellow and gray. Even though they're bigger than the 1/2 pill needs, I've found that actually the larger the pill, the less they fight with it. Seems the smaller ones they get their tongue wrapped around and spit them out easily. The slightly bigger ones just go right down.

Plus, the great part is that if you need to give more than one pill, you can put them all (unless they're huge) in one pill casing, minimizing the stress for all involved.

It's only about $18 and you get 1000 (yes...1000!) of them.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea!! I may have to be giving Willie multiple pills soon... this may do the trick! Thanks!
 
get some pill pockets available in petsmart/petco and try that.,ost cats will take pills that way without a hitch. i also roll the pillpocket in a little bit if forti flora as an added flavor taste and everything goes very smoothly
 
As noted on my Pilling Cats and Dogs: Erosive Esophagitis article, be sure to 'chase' all pills and capsules with ~4-5 cc of water or food...especially capsules since they get stuck in the distal esophagus even longer than pills.

NEVER dry pill a cat or dog! And this includes any pill/capsule coated with butter since this won't increase the speed with which it enters the stomach.
 
Girlcat said:
roll the pillpocket in a little bit if forti flora as an added flavor taste
Click to expand...

This is my favorite trick.

Also, as noted above, never offer a whole pill pocket. It is too big and they will just bite down on it and that will be the last PP they ever eat.

Only use enough dough to coat the pill (~1/3 of a PP) and be careful not to get any pill powder on the outside of the PP.
 
I don't have any fortiflora yet (the vet was out of it when I asked), so I'm rolling the pill pockets in parmesan; so far that's doing the trick. Without the parmesan, my cat wouldn't even try the pill pocket. (Picky little butterball.)

J.
 
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