Sick and Stubborn Cat
 

I recently had to take my 9 year old male cat to the Vet with breathing problems. He is a large himalayan, so you can imagine the fur. Come to find out, while he was trying the throw up a fur ball, it did not come up, causing the stomach acid and the throw up to go back down into his lungs. This caused him to get pneumonia. After a couble of days at the vet and a good dose of anitbiotic's he is doing a bit better. But here is my problem, I'm having a very hard time getting him to take the medician the doctor gave me to give to him. He was given 2 antibiotics and 1 anit-flamatory drug, to heal his lung. He is suppose to take 2 of them in the morning and 1 at night. I have tried everything to get him to take his medician, from holding him down and trying to shove it down his throat, to putting vaseline on the pills (the vet recommend doing this). I also tried putting it in his food but hes a very smart cat and won't eat it. He gets so worked up and starts breathing hard and that gets me all worked up and frustrated, because all i want is my kitty to get better. :(

If anyone out there as any ideas to get him to take his medician, please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to make a cat burrito. ( No, I am NOT Martha Stewart! But had to read the label on one of my towels for the correct spelling of her last name, hence the pause)
Take a bath towel and wrap cattitude firmly across the back & then around the legs/paws, this is a two person job. Butter works better as a lubricant, I prefer to use hemoclips holding the pill to get done the cats throat.

I have other methods, I am the champion cat piller!

For first time people with a difficult cattitude I recommend the burrito, wrap him up.

Ah...it may take 3 people the first time with that big of a cat...
Good luck...

CATTitude and Kitty burrito
 

Excellent advice. The wrap works well and even for a medium size cat two full size adults often come out on the short end.
The key is to make sure the towel is tight enough around the neck that the cat cannot "scrunch" their head down and dissappear into the wrap and second warning is to make sure the rear feet are secured so they cannot claw your tummy. Also a claw in the nipple will mess up an otherwise fine day.
I have one cat that can spit out anything I can get down it's throat. The only success I have had is with the "PILLER" It is a slender syringe like device that shoves the pill down the cat's throat while keeping your fingers out of the way of the cat's biting teeth.
The only other adivce I could offer is to grind up the pills ( or open the capsules and mix it in something like "cat Lax" (a gummy substance for cats and hairballs). All my cats hate anything on their paws and will like it off-regardless of what it is. So putting the medicine in the sticky gooey stuff and smearing it on their front paws (get it in the hair so they can't shake it off) and the chances are they will lick it off and thus they have self medicated.
Of course al of this would be a lot easier if the cats weren't smarter than we are... :D

Try it with an 80lb Shepherd who doesn't like pills. Bob and I were in some WWE worthy battles when he had the poops real bad one time. I went through half the bottle trying to get him to just eat one of the damn things. This fellow can manipulate his tongue, twist his head, hold the pill in his mouth with the best of them. At the end of each battle he would simply sit up and spit the pill out in front of me with a smile on his face. Very frustrating.
I asked him if he was still smiling when I took him for a walk and the 'tide went out' so to speak.
Can't blame him. I don't like to take pills either. About half my daily vitamins end up in the sink because my body just won't let them down my throat and they start to melt so I just spit them out. I they made them taste better it wouldn't be so bad!

Buck up BOB
 

Geez, pills aren't that bad and where do you think DOG is learning to spit out his pills...???? LOL.

He sees Dad gagging and spitting out his pills....

I have a large G.S. with a lot of attitude who also hates to take pills but he loves cat food so I make several balls of cat food with his medicine in two out of four.
First I hand feed him a pure cat food ball-he swallows it and thinks "Hey this is good" then I feed him the two with the meds in them while showing him I still have another one for him. He wolfs #2 & 3 to get to #4.
All a matter of being smarter than the dog.... :D

Wrapping the cat up will work, but this is a two person job, since cats HATE being restrained and will fight it with all their might.

Did the vet show you how to give a pill? Can the meds be given in liquid form?

Giving the pill must be done smoothly and surely. Any fumbling or panic will not work.

Here is a pictorial on how to do it. Also, I always have a bit of wet cat food on hand, and dab it near the cat's nose when I close the mouth after inserting the pill (as far back in the mouth as you can reach) The cat will lick the food and force it to swallow. Keep the head tilted up and stroke the throat.

[URL=http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/ClientED/cat_meds.asp]Giving cats pills[/URL]

Oh believe me I tried different approaches. Tried peanut butter, cheese, rollover, meat, boiled chicken, etc. He would eat the food and pit out the pill. So then I thought I was getting smart and crushed the pill up in a powder and mixed it with a little water figuring if I could at least get that down his trap he'd get most of the stuff from the pill. Held his mouth open and poured it near the back of his throat. I held him with his mouth closed for a minute. Then he lays on the floor and drools, until it's almost all gone and on the floor.
I think the stance you take when you are trying this is the most important thing. I was kneeling at his side, but a friend said to straddle the dog with his mouth out front. It's a more comfortable position for you with more balance and your centre of gravity is more central to the dog.
Yeah, I never thought about the fact that he sees me spit the pill out and learns from it. Maybe I should hand him my car keys some day and see if he can go and get groceries for us! Or maybe "Here's your leash. Take yourself for a walk and don't get in any trouble. Here's a poop bag too. Don't be too long now".
But yes, you are absolutely correct that you have to outwit the dog. Just so happens I've got one of the wittier pooches around! Funny guy that Bob.

Good advice LR. I've also heard blowing on their nose a bit causes an automatic swallowing reaction. Didn't work with Bob, but hey what can I say.

And yes, the vet never did tell me anything either about how to get the pills into the pooches yap. Cat or dog, you'd think they would at least ask if you've ever had to do this before. I got home with Bob and his pills and all of a sudden I'm thinking, well how the hell am I going to do this?

I sure have no trouble getting pills into the garbage cans that are my dog's mouths.:p

My dog enjoys sitting at the edge of the kitchen and having me throw her bits of whatever I'm cooking. Her mouth just opens and I could be tossing nuts and bolts into it for all she knows! She's great at catching, so I just put a pill into a piece of cheese (or anything that will hold it) and toss - GULP! It's gone!:D

Oh, that is just so unfair. So unfair. Any time I give Bob something from the kitchen, which admittedly is rare, he likes to put in on the floor and have a good look at it before he eats it.
And after the fiery jerk chicken episode the other day, I'm sure he'll be more suspect of wanting anything I'd eat. I'm sure he's thinking "Yow, Dad's a weird guy for eating stuff that hurts!"

All this reminds me of an incident 12 years ago with my first Rotti, "Jesse". It was always a nightmare getting pills down her, she was 13 years old at the time, I won her in court when she was 10 years old so she did not live with me her entire life, but her former owner had the same pilling problem *long story*.
Any how, Jesse was getting on in her years and I had to take her to the vet once again, he prescibed a pain killer for a few days and I begged him to do the honors with the first dose, afterall he knew her history also. He fought, pried her mouth open, pill ended up in his lap, he tried the cat food, no dice..then he tried the poke down the throat again and again it landed on the floor, but this time..before he could retreive the evil pill Jesse walked over and sucked it up from the floor! Little did any of us know she hated the fight but will take pills out of your hand..and that is how she got all her meds until the day she died from cancer..just hand them to her.
Ciara is the same way too, I am so lucky! I can draw my own blood samples on her alone and bring them to the lab or clinic.
Anytime meds must be given to a difficult animal speed & the element of surprise is your friend.
I found the blowing in the nose trick uneffective. Tap their nose with canned cat food after you have made the pill deposit works great, they still have to lick their nose to swallow and the urge is greater now, ummm...cat food. There are many tricks for pilling...one of best ones I use I'll save for later...the first vet I worked for taught me this trick decades ago and I still use it when needed.