How to Pill Your Cat

You’ve been to the vet and your cat has been checked out and sent home with medication that you need to give several times a day. Now the question is, how do you get this medicine into your cat?

The easiest way for everyone involved is to hide the pill in some type of food. What type will vary depending on what your feline friend likes. Some good bets to try are:

Canned cat food
Cream Cheese
Velveeta or similar type of processed cheese
Chunk chicken
Water packed tuna
Soft cat treats

Another product which is made specifically for hiding pills in is Greenies Pill Pockets . They are a soft, malleable treat that you can wrap around a pill that many cats like.

If your cat is prone to eating the treat and spitting the pill out, check with your veterinarian to see if it’s all right to crush the pill and mix it into some type of strongly favored food or liquid.

If none of these ideas work, then your other options are to pill your cat manually or with a “pill shooter”. A pill shooter, or pill gun as they are also called, is a long plastic tube with a soft rubber tip to hold the pill on one end and a plunger button on the other end. You place the pill in the rubber end, insert it into the back of your cat’s mouth and then depress the plunger. While these don’t work for every cat, it does make pilling easier for some, and keeps your fingers out of your cat’s mouth. Having someone else hold your cat, or wrapping it in a towel can also help.

The last option is to manually pill your cat.  We have a Youtube video with Dr. Morrow demonstrating how to do so at “How to Medicate Your Cat” .

 
Whichever way works out for you and your pet, it’s important to make sure your cat gets all of the medication prescribed for it. If you find that you are unable to medicate your kitty, please let us know. In most situations we can have you bring in your cat for injections instead.