All living creatures on our planet are not immune to health problems. And, despite the fact that “cats have nine lives,” they, too, sometimes get sick. Sometimes it’s just impossible to give them any medicine. I know several cats who don’t even want to eat vitamins in pills. What can I say about the difficulty of giving a bitter pill or medicine to a cat.
Today I want to share with you what I use myself when I need to give a cat a pill, for example, from worms.
5 tips on how safely to get a cat to take a pill
- Our calm, acceptance and understanding of the situation is already at least 50% of our success.
The animal is stressed when he is sick, and then there’s you and your shoving something in his mouth. Many people have a hard problem with taking pills, understanding what for. And what can you say about an animal that doesn’t understand why he need pills.
- Masking the pill in the food.
The second way to give the cat a pill is simple enough. You can put the pill in a small meatball of re-frozen minced meat. You can also disguise the pill in a soft cheese or breast of cottage cheese, a cat treat. The size of the ball in which the pill is hidden should be as small as possible so that the cat does not have to chew it thoroughly.
At the moment when the animal is eating watch carefully so that the pill does not fall out and the cat eats it.
- Crushing the pill and adding it to food
Crush the tablet with a spoon to a powdered state and sprinkle on top of wet food, this option is not suitable for dry food. Check with your vet to see if you can give the prescribed medication in this way. Some tablets should not be too crushed or mixed with food, as they may lose their medicinal properties.
- Dissolving the tablet in the water
If possible, crush the tablet into a powder and dissolve it in a small amount of water, no more than a teaspoon. Draw the resulting liquid into a small syringe and give it to the cat to drink. Open the animal’s mouth, fix the body and head, insert the spout of the syringe without a needle into the mouth opening at the side and pour out the contents. Hold the head slightly elevated for a few seconds to allow the pet to swallow the liquid.
- Pill on the root of the tongue
I only use this method of giving pills to a cat if none of the alternatives are suitable. You should approach the cat when it is in a calm state, fix its head, open its mouth, and put the pill on the root of its tongue. Then close the mouth, and hold the head slightly tilted back for a few seconds so that the animal swallows the medicine. Make sure that the pill is swallowed carefully.
Whichever method you choose to give pills to cats, be sure to consult your vet about it. Don’t forget to keep calm, talk to your cat softly and gently, and praise it when it has taken its medicine.
