If you go in without a plan, feeding cat medications can prove to be a bit of a challenge. Cat owners often find themselves chasing their pets around their homes trying to shove a pill in their pet mouths. The problem is that cats can regurgitate pills and tablets pretty easily, rendering the dose ineffective.
While most cat medicine come in flavored varieties, not all of them are equally liked by all cats. Some pet cats completely reject medications labeled as “palatable” or “flavored”. There are also plenty of essential medications for cats that are unflavored, which can make pilling sessions extremely stressful. Thankfully, there are a few tricks you can use that can make this process easier.
Create a Positive Atmosphere
The last thing you want to do is yell or scold your cat for not having their medications. Force feeding is also not a good idea. Creating a negative atmosphere would train your cat to associate the pills with fear. Your pet would likely try and scramble away if they spot you taking out the pill box.
Use positive reinforcement techniques such as rewarding your cat with tasty treats for having its medications. Refrain from showing signs of frustration or anger if a particular pilling strategy doesn’t yield any results.
Use a Tasty Liquid Food as Dips for Pills
Right from spicy ketchup to liquid cheese, dips make things taste even better. While you should never use human dips (they might contain ingredients toxic to cats), you can utilize this strategy to our advantage. Buy tasty liquid cat food and then using a syringe to pour some of it on top of the pill you want your cat to have. Make sure the treat is not too liquidy, you want a consistency that allows it to easily sticks to the pill’s surface.
Allow Your Cat to Trust the Treat
If you have already tried to force your cat to have pills, then your pet will naturally be suspicious of anything you give it. Now, if you give your cat a treat filled with a pill, there is a high likelihood that your cat is going to catch your bluff.
The best way to counter that is by giving your cat the treat a few times without the pill. Hide the pill only after your cat starts trusting the treat. It’s also important to quickly follow up the pilled treat with a blank treat to ensure your cat keeps on trusting the tasty snack.
Use Pill Pockets
If everything fails, Pill Pockets are a great way to administer cat medicine. These tasty treats have a hidden compartment for hiding pills. However, be sure to get the cat variety, as the ones meant for dogs are too large for cats.
Try and Find an Alternative Medication that Tastes Better
Ask your vet about alternative medications if the one he or she prescribed comes in an unflavored variety. Palatability greatly differs based on the brand and sometimes all it takes is finding a pill that your cat loves to have as is.
