Amitripyline & Cat that will not take pill

Question
I have a 13 yr old cat and he was prescribed Amitripyline.  I have tried finding it in food by grinding it up and but he will walk away from it.  I have a recipe for homemade treats but my worry is that it will make the drug ineffective.  Will baking the Amitripyline in a recipe at 350 alter, reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the drug?

Answer
Dawn,

I would not bake any medication or do anything that alters the chemical composition of the medicine.  If you put that medicine into a hot oven, the heat will inevitably change the chemical properties of that med, and you could end up with a totally different drug altogether---one that is dangerous for your cat, or one that does absolutely nothing.  Don't take that chance.  

Have you tried Pill Pockets?  I have found they work great, as there's quite a bit of the Pill Pockets in which to hide the pill, and if I remember correctly, elavil (amitriptyline) is a small pill.  It should fit in the Pill Pocket nicely.  If that doesn't work, you may just have to resort to pilling him.  If you don't have a piller, I'd get one.  I have one of those ones with a long handle, and a rubber tip.  The rubber tip separates in the middle and allows you to put a pill in there.  Then, you just depress the plunger into the cat's mouth, and the pill is down the hatch.  

Your cat walks away from food where you've ground the med up or crushed it because he can smell it.  Cats have a very strong sense of smell--7x stronger than ours, and he can smell that in the food.  Crushed meds can sometimes have a bitter smell.  

I would try Pill Pockets, but keep in mind that you should handle the pill in one hand only, and handle the Pill Pocket with the other hand only.  That way, the hand with the smell of the pill won't be touching the Pill Pocket, so he won't smell it on the Pill Pocket and snub it.  

Hope this helps.

Savannah