Giving cats meds

Question
I am fostering for two sick cats with URIs, and am having trouble giving them their meds. They are supposed to take a pill a day, and they won't eat it when it's mixed with other food, even if I don't feed them anything else over night to make sure they're hungry the next day. I can't seem to get it down their throat no matter what I do, so I've been putting it in oil and rubbing it on their fur, so they will lick it off when they keep themselves clean. Is there a better way to do this?

Answer
Hi there.  Have you tried coating the pills with some cold butter?  You'd still have to pry their mouths open and get the pill in, but once in, cats like the taste of butter, so it's not as traumatic for subsequent pillings.  And it's greasy, so it goes down more smoothly.  I use a product called Flavor Doh for all my pilling because it's not as messy as butter, but it's mostly available online, so it's too late to use that for this round of antibiotics.

If you're crushing up the pills, though, it could be easier to give the medication with a syringe.  For this, you would need a 10 ml syringe, available at most larger pet stores, as they're used for hand rearing baby birds and other small animals.  30 ml syringes are also available, but with this, much of the dose will be lost in the big tip of the syringe.  

I would ask the vet who prescribed the antibiotic if they could give you a couple cans of Hill's a/d or Royal Canin Recovery Diet.  These are two cat foods that have a creamy consistency with a delicious aroma (to cats, anyway!).  I dilute 3 mls of the a/d or Recovery Diet with 1 ml of water to make it easier to feed with a syringe.  Then mix in the crushed up pill, and use a flat utensil to load the mixture into the open end of a feeding syringe, while using a finger to cover the tip of the syringe.  Place the plunger just at the back end, hold the syringe point up, and (carefully) push the plunger in, and you shouldn't lose any of the mixture.  My cats actually think the mixture is a treat and swirl around my feet while I make it.  You could also use human baby food instead of Hills a/d or the Recovery Diet I mentioned.  You'll want to get stage one baby food, which will contain the meat and water or broth only - no pasta or veggies or anything else.  

On paper, it sounds like a lot of work, but once you've done it, it takes me less than 3 minutes to prepare - far less than struggling with a cat who doesn't want to take his medicine.