(no subject)

[dragonimp]

Anybody have any ideas on how to get a cat to take a pill? We've tried giving it to him in hairball gel (worked once), and cheese (worked once). We have a pill syringe but we can't get him to open him mouth.

Any suggestions? Wet food won't work, he doesn't always eat that anyway.

Comments

[kurai-mori.livejournal.com]

If you can get a second person to hold him down (which can be all kinds of painful unless someone has a leather jacket and gloves) then you can take one hand and squeeze the edges of his mouth, and if you do it right that should force it open, and you can stick the pillpusher in.
One of my cats had an infection a while back, so my parents became experts in the technique. :D

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

I must be doing something wrong, because I've poked and prodded and sqeezed at his mouth and I still can't get him to open it :(. Is there a certain place to squeeze a cat's mouth to get it to open?

[kurai-mori.livejournal.com]

The hinge of his jaw? I think the idea is you get your fingers between the teeth in the back and sort of wedge them open.

[shawk.livejournal.com]

There's an illustration of pilling a cat here, which is about what I do with my cats.

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

Illustrations really help, thanks. I was going at it the wrong way to get him to open his mouth.

[kianacao.livejournal.com]

The illustration is as good one.

Sometimes it takes two to hold the cat, but if you used your left thumb on the right side of the cat's jaw and your left middle finger on the left side of the cats jaw and gently insert them just in front of the hinge of the jaw to start the mouth to open....

Then, with the pill placed between your right thumb and right middle finger, use your right ring finger to gently guide down the front of the cat's lower jaw, then place the pill quickly on the back of the cat's tongue...

Close the cat'ts jawe quickly, gently and firmly. Lightly stroke the cat's throght a couple of times and or genly blow in the cat's face a couple of times to promote swallowing. I know it sounds weird, but it works.

Expect the cat to hold a grudge for a couple of hours...but we often offer a treat right after the pilling so there is something to look forward too.

As to foods, we have used petrimalt (hairball treatment), nutrical (suppliment), butter, and dry.

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

Luckily Khaibit's pretty good about letting me hold him and do nasty things to him (only me, though. He's a little fiend at the vet's).

I tried inserting my fingers just in front of the hinge of his jaw and he wouldn't budge. He was like a little kid who clamps his mouth shut at the sight of the medicine. Pulling his head back from the top worked okay, though. We tried crushing it and giving it to him in petrimalt, but he must have still been able to taste the pill, or had an aftertaste of it, because after the first time he wouldn't eat more than a few licks of it (and he loves petrimalt). Hadn't thought of butter.