ADVICE NEEDED! On giving a cat liquid medicine.

[Raven]

My old cat Miles has an infection in her tooth. The Vet pulled it this morning and now I am supposed to give her an antibiotic twice a day. It's just me here so I need some good tips on how to get her to take this medicine. Any ideas?

[DS1]

1. hold down firmly, use body weight

squeeze at the back of the mouth to open it, squirt in meds, shut mouth until swallow, run.

[Raven]

2. RUN?????

Shit!

[xultar]

4. Wrap the cat in a towel. Use a dropper and put it in the side way in

the back corner of the lips. give a treat afterwards

[displacedtexan]

3. it's easier than you think. the vet taught me how.

use an eyedropper.
put the cat on the kitchen counter (a la the vet's table).
hold its head and wiggle the eyedropper into the side of the mouth in the back (the teeth are small there).
hold on until the cat swallows.
love on the cat.

my yorkie just finished a round of liquid meds.

[flamingyouth]

14. Good advice here

Even easier when you wrap the little one tightly in a towel.

Having two humans involved helps.

flamingyouth
(veteran of 15 years of giving cats daily medicine)

[gristy]

5. mix it with her favorite treat

My cat recommends the oil/water from a can of tuna! No problem.

[MuseRider]

6. OK, my experience

Sit on your legs on the floor, Miles between your knees. One hand holds her chin and tilts her head up. In the other hand the dropper or syringe. Put the dropper in the corner of her mouth and slowly drop it in. Keeps her head up and when you are done hold her mouth closed and rub her neck until she swallows. If she scratches you can wrap her in a towel. Good luck. BTW, did your dog ever get used to her ramp?

[Raven]

9. Thanks for asking. Yes.

She getting better. It was me actually who had to learn to be relaxed about it. Once she started getting the idea that it was routine, it got easier. :-)

[Philostopher]

7. I can give you anecdotal advice.

We have a cat here who'd rather die than take meds, so I've had to really learn how to be deft with this stuff! She's like a little chainsaw once she decides she doesn't want something, so it's 'hit it, hurt it and get out!' with her.

If you can (i.e., if your knees will allow it) crouch on the floor on your knees. Settle the cat's butt between your legs, with its head at your knees. Fill the dropper to the mark, and hold it in your 'strong hand' (i.e., if you're right handed, use your right). Grasp the cat's head with your other hand under its chin. Aim the point of the dropper at the corner of its mouth -- there's a little bit of a gap behind the teeth right there. Squirt the medication as quickly as the cat can swallow into that pocket in its cheek.

If you're lucky, the cat won't immediately shake its head and bathe you with antibiotic. The next time I have to do this, I'm finding a compounding pharmacy that will make up the antibiotics with beef flavor. They always give me this baby-dose cherry flavored amoxicillin for mine, and they hate the way it tastes and immediately spit it all over me.

On edit -- putting them on the counter is another option; some cats don't like being sat on! Hitting the pocket at the back of their jaw is still the key with liquid meds, though.

No guarantees on this one -- it's worked pretty well for me, over the years, but it takes some practice.

[Roon]

8. simple

Grab the cat by the scruff of the next behind his head, start lifting the cat up but not so much that his feet come off the floor. Just enough to stand him up, he'll relax and just put the dropper in and dispense.

[Raven]

10. Antibiotic Tuna!!! YAAAAAY!

Thank you everybody! I took the course of least resistence and put the medicine in a little bit of tunafish. She lapped in all up!

[MuseRider]

11. That was a great idea

and I will use it the next time. I worm my horses that way(in thier food, not tuna) since I got sick of getting wormer sneezed back into my hair.
Tunameds! Great idea.

[FlaGranny]

12. Quick, run to your nearest

military supply store and suit up in riot gear!!

Seriously, cats can be tough. It looks so easy when the vet does it. They just open their mouths and drop it in. Dogs don't care. They'll take anything as long as its wrapped in a piece of cheese or meat. You could try it like the vet does by opening her mouth and dropping it in if she doesn't fight you. You could wrap her in a towel and do the same thing. Or, if your cat is anything like the cats I've had, I would mix the medicine in something sticky, like peanut butter, and put in a spot where she can reach it and lick it off.

Edit: Ah, I see the tuna "juice" suggestion. Sounds like a winner.

[LoZoccolo]

13. We used to have problems with this...

...until we found out the cat actually liked the medicine, just not being held down and force fed. Maybe you could hold some in a big spoon in front of her and see if she just laps it up.

[Catshrink]

15. It's not fun, that's for sure!

I've had to give my cats meds of one kind or another.

For liquids: Put the critter in your lap, pry open the mouth by pressing gently on the back part of the jaw, put the eyedropper pretty far back in the mouth, and squirt. Wear protective clothing!

For pills: Same set up, but then close the mouth and gently stroke the neck until the critter swollows. Make sure it doesn't fall out -- they like to fake you out. Again, wear protective clothing.

For gels (this is an awesome new delivery method for many meds involving simply rubbing a gel on the ear flap): While giving scritches, just rub in inside the ear. Easy!

In general, it's not a great idea to mix meds with food for cats. Their sense of smell is so acute they know something is up. That said, I have a 25+# cat whom I can't wrestle to give meds. But, he loves to eat! So, I break the rule about mixing.... I have a pill pulverizer and smash the pill up, then mix it into a small amount (about 1/4 of a can) of his favorite Fancy Feast flavor. He scarfs it up.

When I gave an older cat a daily pill it was a bit different. She was tiny, about 6 pounds. When she saw me coming toward her she'd cringe and start to run, even when I just wanted to love her. So, I needed to help her differentiate. When it was time for her pill, I said, "Pill time" and grabbed her, no nonesense or lovin', and popped the sucker in. She got used to the consistency and relaxed about my approach. She's in kitty heaven now, but always my little princess.

Good luck!

[RainDog]

16. All good advice

my big cat has shredded an old towel trying to get away from a medicine dropper. when I stopped trying to restrain him, and simply and quickly, with him under my arm, put the meds on the side of his mouth and then held this mouth closed for two seconds to keep him from spitting all went well.

and it's absolutely necessary to stroke their throats and again hold their mouths shut with pills. my little calico became an expert at faking me out when a serval (yes, a wild african cat) got ahold of her behind when it was let loose in my neighborhood.

she still has a bit of a limp and lost some fur/skin on her back hip.

as a reward, if you let your cat lie down and then curve yourself to fit them, they'll love you...or at least my cats do, and they can put me to sleep with their purrs.

oh, factoid I recently learned, which all of you probably know-

cats purr to communicate with humans. they don't purr to each other, and no one knows exactly the mechanism which creates a purr, according to "How to Talk to Your Cat.," my son's favorite book.