Advice needed: giving a kitten medicine

I have been given the horrible task of giving Kyra liquid medicine. I thought that would be easier than a pill, but NOOOOOOO. I can only assume it tastes like the most vile substance on earth because Kyra spits it out and/or foams at the mouth...and has to be wrapped in a towel to even get that far.

I'm worried that she's barely actually swallowing any of the meds, though I can't be sure of the spit to med ratio. I KNOW she's not getting the full prescribed dosage, and she really needs this medicine.

Any ideas? How can I stop the foaming and make her actually swallow the medicine?

I've tried shooting it quickly into her mouth...with disastrous results. I've tried giving it to her *very* slowly...with only slightly less disastrous results.

Help!!

because ususally you can fill the eyedropper and then lean it far enough back in the throat to dose the cat. Release the fluid and stroke the throat to help her get it down. And I like those better than the pills.

Also if you can catch the cat when she's sleepy that helps too.

that I'm supposed to use to squirt it in her mouth. The problem is that it's a rather large amount of liquid...1.2 cc's, so I can't shoot it all in there at once or she chokes. I can get the first bit in relatively easily, but then she starts with the salivating and foaming, and the rest of the dosage is basically wasted.

I talked to the vet this morning and we're going to try switching her to a pill that I can try to hide in various food items. Hopefully that'll work better.

so that only the head pops out. Wrap tightly so the cat doesn't escape. Then try giving the medicine and stroking the neck.

Or have you tired mixing the medicine in a tiny bit of canned food, or tuna fish, then have the cat eat the medicine that way.


I had a cat that loved canned food or tuna, but if there was a pill in it, she ate all the food but left the pill. LOL
I had to resort to the towell method.

After she knocked over the medicine bottle, I wrapped her in a towel.

The thing is, it's a liquid, so I can't really hide it in food. And it's not that she's spitting out a pill, the medicine is mixing with her saliva, which is creating foam. Seriously, she looks like a rabid St. Bernard, with spit goo practically in free-flow out of her mouth.

I'm getting pills from the vet tonight, so hopefully I can use the tuna suggestion if she won't swallow that either.

from the side of mouth, kinda angling the eye-dropper to get deep in the throat. Then somehow grabbing the head to keep the mouth closed and stroking the neck.

My dog is much easier. I can hide the pill in peanut butter, cheese, or even soak liquid medicine on bread. My dog will eat anything.

Cats are sure tricky. Every time I put the pill in the tuna, my cat would eat food and leave the pill. I would have to push a pill into the cat's throat then holding head and stroking the neck to make the cat swallow. Might work.

Good luck!

Take the cat, force her jaws open and stick the pill way back into her throat. Stroke the neck to make sure the pill goes down properly.

You need to relax and be very gentle when you do this but very fast!

I've given adult cats pills before (I lost a cat to FIV about 4 years ago, and got really good at the pill-giving), so I employed those techniques, just like you described above and it's completely smooth. ;)

Thanks for the advice!

harder to work with than cats. You have to be so careful so they don't strangle on the liquid. I have a friend who gave her cat meds mixed with salmon juice and it seemed to work great for her. She got a large can of (human) salmon, and blended the whole thing together, then she mixed the meds in the salmon juice and her cat ate it up with no problem. My cats would spit that out in a heartbeat.

I have used a glue syringe that I got at a crafts store (it's used for apply glue to furniture joints, and small crafts). It has a 1/4 to 1/2" curved tip that you can work into the side of the cat's mouth while their head is pulled back, then you have to push the plunger down pretty fast to get all of the liquid down their throats before they have time to react.

I have found that by the time the cat is about 15 yrs old, they become resigned to taking medicine occasionally. The best technique is to have everything ready and work quickly, and that takes lots of practice. By the time Kyra is a few years older, you'll be a pro! Sorry I can't be more helpful. Keep on trying. A friend who works for a humane organization told me that vets usually over prescribe antibiotics and if you get 1/2 to 3/4 of the total prescription into the animal, that's probably enough. Would be interested in hearing from professionals if that's true.

I was at my wits end. She's a smart little monkey though...I crushed the pill and put it in wet food tonight and she totally caught on. I'm going to have to get creative. ;)

I've had to give it to my cats now and then, and they totally hated hated, I mean HATED, the stuff. So I tasted a bit myself, and it's really, really nasty. It's not surprising they acted like I was trying to feed them battery acid or, I don't know, Miracle Whip (:puke:). I don't know what to tell you. Maybe mix it with tuna juice?

I am having a similar adventure with my 6-month-old kitten, Pixie. The other day she scratched her cornea somehow, and her eye turned all red and swollen, so at about 10:30 p.m. I hauled her little butt across town to the emergency vet clinic. Now I have to put ointment in her eye three times a day until Tuesday. The vet showed me how to do it, and it didn't look all that difficult.

Wrong. The vet had an assistant. I don't. So I wrap said kitteh in a towel with just her little head sticking out, and then the battle ensues. Did you know cats can grow extra arms and legs? Did you know they can extricate themselves from any restraint you could possibly devise? It's more fun than rolling in nettles.

Her eye is getting better, fortunately.

Good luck with Kyra. I hope she gets better soon so you can stop feeding her that evil medicine.

it's not a typical antibiotic. The poor thing is being treated for what we think is colitis.

I called the vet today and got her the pill version. She's still fighting me, but at least this way I'll know for sure that she's getting the entire dose.

Good luck with Pixie...I'm glad she's getting better!

A vet showed me how. Put your hand behind kitty's head and with your thumb and fingers press the jaws open from behind. If you do this right, the kitty's jaw has to open. Once you have the jaws open, toss the pill to the back of the tongue where they have to swallow it. The worst thing that has ever happened when I did this is that the cat didn't swallow it and spit it out, so we tried it over again.

I think this could work with liquid as well, only I would do a small amount of liquid several times to keep kitty from choking. Hope this helps and I hope your little one is better soon.

our 21 year old snowshoe (Kudra) was a bit congested last year so off to the vet...

(side note: a snowshoe is a siamese mix, basically looks like a siamese but has white feet, and they are big talkers)

on the drive over, Kudra talked. Noooo, oooouutt - all the way to the vets office

we arrive, and are checking her in with the receptionist. A woman walks by us, Kudra snakes a paw out of the carry crate and very clearly says "Ooouuut!". the woman whirls around, looks at the crate and asks "Did that cat just say Out?"

the vet examined her, she wasn't running a temp, but yes she sounded a bit 'clogged' - we were given some liquid anti-biotic and told if no improvement to bring her back. the drive home we listened to her cry "oooout, hoooommme, nooooow"

about a week or so later - no improvement - back to vet. and yes we were serenaded by Kudra.

the vet agreed she was still clogged - but it wasn't from a cold or respiratory infection, could be a allergy. Vet says we have a choice of a liquid or pill - we could get the pills today, but she was out of the liquid form and more would be in later in the week, we could come back in a couple of days to pick it up.

my partner and I talked about giving Kudra pills VS liquid. It's much easier with liquid, but did we want to wait...

the vet asks "you'll go with the pills?"

Kudra looked right at the vet and said "NO"

we waited the couple of days and went back for the liquid version.


regarding her talking - she's also been known to come into the bedroom and ask "hoooow rrrrr uuuu?"

Pad Thai my Siamese says "Mommy" and "go out" when he meows all the time. Mommy for when I leave for work and Go Out for when I come home and he wants a walk.

My reaction would have been something like, "Oooohkaaay... whatever you say..." and then I'd have dashed off to start writing my article about talking cats for a veterinary medicine publication.

What a great story. My cats just communicate in trills.

vet and vet assistant just looked at cat with open mouths... we just chuckled and I said "I guess we're going with the liquid meds..."