Answer: Some cats may accept the tablet or capsule sealed in a titbit of minced meat or fresh, especially if they are hungry. This is unusual, but worth trying first. Simply placing the tablet in the dish or food usually means that the food gets eaten and the tablet left! Crushing a tablet and mixing the powder in with the food is often unsuccessful (especially if the tablet tastes unpleasant) though disguising the flavour with strong-smelling substance, such as fish oil or yeast extract, may work. Some people find a tablet crushed in evaporated milk occasionally works. Again you could try it but always prepared the disguised tablet out of the cat’s sight!
If your vet tells you not to crush or break a tablet before giving it, do follow this advice. Certain tablet (for example, some worming and antibacterial tablets) contain very bitter drug surrounded by an inter coating. If this bitter material contacts the inside of the mouth, the cat will salivate profusely and breathe rapidly so that its mouth becomes filled with froth, causing great distress. (Some degree of extra salvation normally occurs when dosing with tablets, but not as marked as this.)
In most cases, the tablet has to be placed at the back of the mouth before the cat will swallow it, particularly where repeated dosing is required. If the cat is reasonably good-tempered, you can possibly do this single-handed, although someone else’s assistance in holding the cat is often useful. Where the cat is difficult to handle, someone is assistance is essential. First place the animal on a table or worktop counter about three feet high and where there is a good source of light.
Method 1: This is usually the most effective. If you are right-handed, grasp the cat’s scruff (the loose skin at the back of the neck) generally but firmly in your left hand and hold the tablet or capsule between the thumb and index finger of your right hand. If you are left-handed, reverse these instructions. Hold the animal so that it is lying or sitting upright. Your assistant should prevent the animal from scratching by handling its front legs down on the table. Alternatively, the cat can be firmly wrapped in a towel with only its head protruding; then held down on the table. Have a pencil or ballpoint pen within reach.
Rotate the hand which is grasping the scruff so that the animal’s nose points upwards, while at the same time pressing downwards to prevent the cat rising. Usually the mouth will open; if necessary the second finger of the hand holding the tablet can push the downwards slightly on the lower front teeth. Now place the tablet as far back into the mouth as possible.
Now take up the pencil or pen immediately, and with its flat end quickly, but gentle, push the tablet over the back of the tongue, i.e. into the throat.
Relax the grip on the scruff, close the cat’s mouth quickly and stroke its throat. Wait for it to gulp and lick its nose, which indicates that the tablet has been swallowed. Don’t let the cat put its nose down before swallowing he’ll simply spit the tablet out again.
There are other ways to place the tablet right at the back of the throat; on which is very simple to hold the tablet in a pair of artery forceps. This is specialized instrument, but easily ordered from a pharmacist, and it renders tablet administration as easy as it ever could be. Another is to use a plastic ‘pill giver’, sold in pet shops, which will both hold and inject the tablet.
Method 2 Some people prefer this method. Again your helper restrains the cat so that is a lying or sitting upright. You can then open the cat’s mouth by putting on hand over the cat’s head, placing your index finger and thumb will behind the large canine teeth on either side, and then pushing down on the lower teeth with the index finger and thumb. Introduce the tablet into the throat with the other hand, as described in Method 1. Close the jaws quickly afterwards and stroke the throat.
Whichever method is adopted the aim is to be firm, quick and efficient. With successive attempts the animal will become more restless and the job more difficult, so try to get it right first time. Watch the cat afterwards to check that the tablet isn’t spat out; if it has been, the procedure will need to be repeated. (Occasionally the owners move the furniture to find a dozen antibiotic tablets behind the settee. Before then, they had thought their technique was flawless.)
Giving a tablet is much is much simpler the giving a capsule. The outer gelatin shell of the capsule becomes sticky on contact with moisture so usually, unless its put down the throat at the first attempt, the capsule will stick to your fingers or to the inside of the cat’s mouth, and successive attempts will become progressively more difficult.
Occasionally owners attempts to put powdered drugs directly into their cat’s mouth. This is almost Impossible to do successfully and shouldn’t be attempted. Cats usually produce a lot of salvia being dosed by mouth, and if you do succeed in getting any powder into the mouth, most of it will be washed out again in the flow of salvia.
