The topic of oral medicine and cats is one instantly makes many cat lovers cringe. Many cats will protest taking a pill, giving you the knowing side-eye if they spot you anywhere near the medication. Then, it’s an all-out struggle bus to get them to take it, with predictable theatrics, escape attempts, and loud meows ensuing. If more than one pill is required, we don’t even want to think about it. The stress! But it doesn’t have to be this way with training and some easy tips.
Here are some helpful, easy ideas shared by a Certified Cat Behavior Consultant, Ingrid Johnson, about how to get cats to take multiple medicines. If your cat is a sly one, they might resist even this idea, but it will still make it easier and safer for them – and help maintain your sanity too!
As Mary Poppins said in the 60s, just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. But for felines, replace that spoon with a flavored gel cap. (More on human foods you can safely offer your cats here.)
Screenshots via YouTube/Fundamentally Feline
Gel Caps to Help the Medicine Go Down
If your cat takes multiple medications, trying to get them to take them all is probably torture. Even covering them in yummy treats, the cats have an uncanny (uncatty?) way of detecting any pill, extracting the treat, and adeptly sliding the medicine out the side of their mouths.
So Johnson suggests putting the pills, in many cases cut into halves or quarters, into one gel cap. There are so many reasons for doing it, which she lists in the graphic below. The medications she shows are only for example, and you should always follow your veterinarian’s advice.
⚠️ Remember: Always consult your veterinarian before administering medications or mixing them ⚠️
“If you are not using gel caps to ease medication administration to your cats, you should be! Gel caps are:
- Kinder and glide down smoothly.
- Offer the ability to combine multiple medications into one “pill.”
- Disguise the taste of bitter medications.
- And many cats can be trained to eat their capsule willingly, avoiding the need for “pilling.”
Image via Facebook/Fundamentally Feline
It’s an easy trick to get the job done and help your cat stay healthy.
“This trick is the tip of the iceberg of medicating tricks and possibilities, but it is an excellent and often underutilized tool,” she shared on Instagram.
“Ingrid cradling her cat Simon while administering SQ fluids (he’s purring)” via Fundamentally Feline.
Training Cats to Enjoy Medicine Time
Of course, a cat could wildly protest a gel cap too, and then you are left with another struggle. At least it would be easier to do it all in one go rather than multiple frustrating attempts, and safer. But to make it far easier, the trick is to get cats used to the whole idea, says Johnson.
“If you need help medicating your cat, I am here to help! However, I cannot recommend enough getting ahead of it and training your cats to take medications BEFORE they need medications,” she says.
If you need pro help, she’s there for medicating consultations on her website. With 24 years of experience medicating cats in homes and veterinary offices; she has tips for all kinds of medications, ointments, eye drops, etc.
She suggested a company called Capsuline for empty gel caps that sells chicken-flavored “Petcaps” for dogs and cats. She also recommends Greenies’ “Pill Pockets” and has some tips for introducing them (see video below).
Note: Cole and Marmalade have no affiliation with Capsuline, Greenies, or Ingrid; we just want to pass along the helpful info for educational purposes only.
Below is a video by Capsuline featuring Ingrid Johnson discussing administering oral medications to cats. She also shows how to gently restrain your cat so the experience is (hopefully) a pawsitive one. Following the pill, she gives her kitty a chaser of yummy food from an oral medicine syringe. The chaser encourages and helps the cat to swallow that pill without sneakily sliding it out of their mouth again.
You can find more great feline tips on Fundamentally Feline’s Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and website.
Cats Come to You for Their Pills
As unlikely as it may sound at first, Johnson has some great tips on how to train cats to enjoy the process. The key if finding a treat they love and only using it when it’s time to take their medication. That way, they associate the experience with getting a wonderful reward.
“If you can find a special treat or special reward that your cats really enjoy each night, then they actually come to your for meds,” she explains. “Instead of chasing them around the house for 30 minutes to shove a nasty pill down their throat, only to find its spit up on the floor later; in our house, we medicate everybody with a syringe full of really delicious canned food they only get at meds time.”
Zinnia the calico loves medication time
Below, Johnson gives medication to her kitties, including a very enthusiastic calico, Zinnia. Interestingly, she says that using a rough-textured tablecloth or carpet makes all the difference since the cat would lick the food off the medication on a slick surface such as a tabletop or flooring. She also has a great idea about making a “parfait” of liquid or crushed medications with a mortar and pestle and then putting it in the oral medication syringe.
Thanks to Ingrid Johnson for helping make this often-difficult time for cat lovers a whole lot easier for all involved.
Video by Fundamentally Feline about “Medicating Tricks and Tips”
Images via Instagram/fundamentallyfeline
