Tricks to Get Your Cat to Take Their Medicine
Sometimes it is difficult to determine if your feline family member is not feeling well, but there are ways to tell if you have a sick kitty. Once you know what medicine they need, how can you get them to take it?
As a veterinarian, I work in situations where I need to administer treatment to animals every day and cats can be some of the most fussy. Here are a few tricks that just about anyone—whether you are a suspense writer with cat companions or a college student with a rescue—can use to help the medicine go down.
Most medication given to cats are either in pill, capsule or liquid form. Some medications require more work to administer than others to avoid being bitten or injured in the process. Liquids and small pills that can be hidden in foods are generally the easiest to work with, and should be a consideration when sourcing pet supplements and medicines. But with practice, you should be able to work with medicines of any type.
For oral medicine that can be taken inside food
Try putting the oral medicine inside a rolled up ball of wet cat food, but do a few test portions first as most cats will eat around the pill or capsule. Get them comfortable with eating the test portions so that they’ll be more trusting when it actually contains the medicine they need.
For pills or capsules that can’t be taken inside food
This can sometimes be a lengthy process and requires a few essential steps to work more effectively.
If you are right-handed, hold the top of the cat’s head with your left hand utilizing the cat’s cheekbones as a leverage handle. This process will allow you to safely maneuver the cat’s head without causing the cat any discomfort.
The next step is to tilt the cat’s head back and the cat will usually drop their lower jaw in the process.
Place one of your fingers of your right hand on the cat’s lower small incisors (small teeth at the front), not over the sharp fang teeth, to keep the jaw open.
Place the capsule or pill as far back in the mouth as possible and immediately close the cat’s mouth.
Gently hold the mouth closed and blow on the cat’s nose or stroke the cat’s neck gently, which will encourage the cat to swallow.
If the cat does not drop their jaw when tilting their head back
Hold the pill or capsule between the thumb and index finger. Using the middle finger of the same hand placed over the small incisor teeth, gently pull down on the cat’s jaw to open the mouth.
Drop the medicine as far back on the tongue as possible or using your index and thumb push the pill behind the tongue, but be careful because your fingers will be in the cat’s mouth and you could get bitten.
Quickly close the cat’s mouth and either stroke the cat’s neck gently or blow on the nose to encourage swallowing.
Using pilling devices
If you want to avoid placing your fingers in the cat’s mouth, then pilling devices, which resemble syringes, can be quite handy when administering pills to cats.
Put the pill at the end of the device and follow the same steps mentioned above to open the cat’s mouth.
Place the pilling device over the base of the tongue and make sure the pill is set to drop as far back in the cat’s mouth as possible.
Push the top of the device to drop the pill and immediately close the cat’s mouth. Follow the steps mentioned above to get the cat to swallow the medicine.
Giving liquid medicines to cats
Liquid medicines—including many of the natural remedies for cats we use at NHV—usually come with an easy-to-use dropper, but there are still precautions you need to take.
Do not tilt the cat’s head back because the liquid can be inhaled easier than pills or capsules.
Give liquid medicines in the pouch area between the cheek and teeth.
Once the medicine is squirted into the pouch area, quickly close the cat’s mouth and follow the same steps to stimulate swallowing.
Talk to your vet about ways to keep your kitty healthy and safe. Get the facts about vaccinations, grooming and parasite prevention.
Exploring preventative measures can help reduce the chance of your kitty getting sick in the future. Knowledge is the key to understanding what we can do to keep our felines feeling purr-tastic and enjoy a longer and healthier life.
Dr. Amanda Nascimento, DVM, MVSc., PhD., is the Head of Integrative Veterinary Medicine and Research at NHV Natural Pet. Dr. Amanda completed her undergraduate degree in veterinary medicine in 2010 and her graduate studies in veterinary pathology (MVSc. 2012 and PhD 2016) at the University of São Paulo and University of Saskatchewan. She finished her post-doctoral training at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine – University of Saskatchewan in 2018 at the same year she was qualified to take the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology certification exam.
