Hi

My cat was diagnosed with liver problems last year. Treatement involves a number of pills each day, some of which are essential and some are nice to have if he would let you! We have had to go for essential ones only. I have tried every way I can think of to pill him so perhaps these ideas may be of use to someone. Thing is anything that stresses him out too much is ultimately a waste of time - you have an unhappy animal (so what is the point in trying to make them healthy - they need to be happy too) and in our case one which would stop coming into the house as he was so nervous, so didn't come in to eat properly etc etc. So you need the right balance for your own pet. I thought we would never find a solution which was really tough as he had to have treatment and I was desperate to help him. But we have sorted something in the end so do keep trying different things.

In order we tried....

1) Giving the pill directly - managed it a couple of times but there was a lot of blood (mine) and a very distressed animal by the end. I have given pills to many cats before but some of them simply won't have it, whatever nice calm instructions people give you. The simple descriptions of how to do this are all very well for most animals but if you have a feisty strong one you can't win.

We also tried the pill shooter things - same outcome. A few worked but the stress was counter productive. My vet also said he didn't like these - where the animal flinches suddenly (as a "fighting" animal may well do) he has seen cases where the shooter has damaged the inside of their mouths quite badly.

2) Pill in food - we tried freshly roasted chicken, prawns and white fish. Couldn't try anything more "tasty" as his liver problmes meant you could do more harm than good by introducing bad food to the diet. Worked for a while but soon he became suspicious - to the point where he wasn't keen to eat anything you gave him, even normal food, so this failed eventually - he needed to eat!

3) Pill pockets - as above, worked a few times then no joy.

4) Then tried ground up in tinned and fresh tuna, or mackerel, or sardine - stronger smelling food (in spring water - nothing salty). As above worked for a bit.

5) Ground up in marmite or cheese spread or baby food and spread on front legs - people say they like to be clean and this was a stress free winner for a while. Until he decided he would rather be covered in marmite than take his pills.

6) Where we are now - ground up in Dairylea light and spread on his teeth and lips. The texture of the light dairylea works just fine. He doesn't like it but is so intent on keeping his mouth shut that you can spread it on his teeth and face while he locks his jaw to prevent you getting a pill in there, so it is actually not a very stressful exercise. Make sure it goes on the teeth and upper lips / face - they can't lick their lower jaw. We have to give him a good face wash afterwards to keep him clean but I think he gets 90% of his powdered pill this way and we have been doing this every day for over 6 months now.

Hope these ideas help someone - it is so tough when they won't let you help them get better! But there may be a solution even for the feistiest of cats....