I'm really sorry, Melinda, I got called away after posting my vanities and just found your serious question. On getting cats to swallow pills (don't know if adding anything new): It can be done with one person, but if you can find a quick helper it's easier. One person to hold the cat, wrapped up is good. Then I reach around their face from above and use thumb and middle finger to pry open their mouth near the back, coming in from the sides. Pop in the pill, and here comes the key tidbit: if you stroke their throat downward, gently with a finger, they swallow, instead of spitting out.
Always works; every single time. Yuh huh.
The vet does that, and for Dozer he had a sticky rod he stuck the pill to, and did the same thing ~ just crammed it in there, and then the throat stroke.
If the pill is water soluble, you can get a non-needle wider mouth syringe, I think ours are 10 cc, and crush and squirt. This also hydrates them, which we do whenever they look especially pekid on a hot day. They can look (and be) horrible sick, sometimes, just needing water they lose the sense to drink. Ours will take four syringes before they flip out. Just squirt, fast as that, right down the gullet. You can just jam it in from the side, you don't even really need their mouth open.
You can, actually, done-it-honest, do all this holding them under your arm in a blanket/towel, by yourself ~ if you have the.....uhm......parental aggression. I just get MAD, and they're freeking stuck. There's a lot of satisfaction in "making" a cat.
But a helper helps, even a kid.
PS: When you've pried their mouth open from the sides, just shove the pill as far back in there with your finger as it will go. Yah, shove.
It catches em off guard; and the stroke, do that quick. Bingo. |
