Cats taking Pills - Tablets

Cats taking Pills - Tablets

by Stan Beck

From time to time, you may have to give your cat medication in pill form — may that day never come for you, but it probably will.

Making this sometimes difficult task a little easier is the reason for this post.

An age old tactic is the hide-the-pill-in-the-food game. This is a game that has been around for years — and the cat usually is victorious in discovering the pill and very politely depositing it on the floor next to his/her dish. Spare yourself some grief and don’t even go there — cats are genetically predisposed to discovering the hidden medication.

Another failing tactic which is tried from time-to-time is the brute-force put-the-pill-in-fluffy’s-mouth-and-make-her-swallow-it. Yeah right - a recipe for getting scratched, bitten and really annoying the cat. If you have been successful with this method, you are one of very few.

Now that we know that simple hiding and strong-arm tactics will not work on Fluffy, we must turn to more stealth, clandestine tactics. We’ve got to outsmart the cat, which is sometimes difficult to do - cat’s are very intuitive. But try we must.

Our Secret Weapon: Disguise the Pill in the Food

What we are going to do is crush a pill into a fine powder and than sprinkle that powder on one of Fluffy’s favorite dishes - most cats love chicken or fish. Sounds simple, heh? It is, but there are a couple very helpful tricks/tips.

Tip #1 - Hungry Cats Only
We need a hungry cat - makes sense. If Kitty is full, he may not eat, or even worse, he may not eat all the food that he’s supposed to thereby getting only part of the medication.

Tip #2 - 1/4 to 1/2 of Kitty’s Normal Portion Size
Whatever portion size the cat usually eats, we need to feed him about 1/4 to 1/2 of that. Why? Because you want Fluffy to consume the whole bit of medication-laced food. If there is too much food out there, there is a chance that he wont.

First we are going to crush the pill into a fine powder. Now, for some of you, this is going to bit of a tactile challenge, but with practice you will get it. Here is what I recommend that you use.

Tip #3 - Crushing the Pill
You need to spoons - a teaspoon (smaller) and a tablespoon (larger). You put the pill on the tablespoon (larger). Then take the teaspoon (smaller) and place the round bottom side down against the pill which is sitting in the tablespoon (larger). Then you are going to crush down until the pill finds itself in a fine powder form. If you are having trouble crushing the pill because you are not strong enough, you may want to break the pill up into smaller pieces first - say with the edge of the spoon - just be careful that the pill doesn’t take flight and sail across the room!

Tip #4 - Mixing the Pill-Powder with Food
Here is an example of how I prepare chicken or fish for my kitty at meal time:

Chicken that is cooked and cold (and Cooked Cold Fish)

Crush the pill into a fine powder, as described above. Then break the chicken apart into small pieces - using you fingers usually works best. Add a small quantity of water and mix - you want the entire surface area of the chicken to be wet. Then drain off any excess water - if it’s too wet, the pill powder will just pool off at the bottom of Kitty’s dish. Now, slightly!!! warm the new chicken mixture in the microwave for about 5-7 seconds on the high setting - you are just trying to take the chill off of the food. This also brings out the aroma of the food. Be careful to not make the food too hot as the heat could damage the pill. Now sprinkle the pill-powder over the chicken and serve to your starving kitty.

Raw Fish

First, make sure your cat likes the raw fish you are serving - you can just test it by giving him/her a small taste. Then cut the fish with scissors - the scissors are very effective with dealing fish skin, which can be tough.Â Sprinkle the powdered-pill over the fish and serve.

And that’s it! I hope this makes giving pill-form medication a little easier for you!

Cat Health
Cat Health