Cats And Pills – Tablets.

Nearly everything alive becomes ill at some stage in its life,
and pets are no exception. I have been very fortunate in that my
two cats have been very healthy for most of their lives.
Recently the oldest cat become ill and had to go to the vet.
Unfortunately she was diagnosed with a form of cancer. The
treatment options were pills or radiation ‘therapy’. The
radiation therapy was very expensive so that left the pills.
Pills are fine for humans, but if you have ever tried to
administer pills to your cat then you would know some of the
problems I have had.

I usually feed my cats on a dry ‘all in one’ biscuit diet. This
diet and a supplement of fresh food has kept them very healthy
for over 14years. But now I need to add pills to her diet every
twelve hours. So what do I feed her that will hide the pill well
enough for her to eat it without complaining? Well after some
experimentation I came to the conclusion that hiding a whole
pill was not the answer. Not the answer at all. Whole pills are
located and removed from the food with amazing accuracy. The
simple answer is to crush the pills before adding them to the
food. ( Note : The pill should be added to a small quantity of
food – half a normal serve or less, and that small quantity
should be given to your pet BEFORE the rest of the meal. This
helps to ensure your cat is hungry enough to eat the entire
pill. Once the pill food is eaten you can give them the rest of
the meal.)

Pills are usually quite easy to crush into powder, I use two
spoons, one small teaspoon as the crusher, and a larger desert
spoon to hold the pill. Place the pill into the larger spoon and
using the edge of the small spoon as a blunt knife, carefully
break the pill into smaller chunks. Now use the small teaspoon
to gently crush the chunks into powder. In less than two minutes
you should be ready to sprinkle the powdered pill onto a small
serve of food. Crushing the pill gets much easier once you have
done two or three.

This is how I prepare chicken or fish for my cat at pill time :

Chicken : Cooked (cold)

Cooked chicken is a favorite food of my cats so it is a good
pill food for them. To make the most reliable pill hiding food
from cold chicken is really quite easy. First of all you need to
prepare the pill by crushing it into a powder as described
above. Then you need a small serve of chicken that you can
breakup into smallish pieces – use your fingers, it gives the
best results. Once you have broken up the chicken add a small
quantity of water to the serving plate and roll the chicken in
the water until it is wet all over. Now drain the excess water
from the plate – too much water will leave the pill on the plate
and not on the food where it needs to be. The next step is
optional, but it makes a big difference for my pets. The next
step is to place the food in a microwave oven. All you want to
do is VERY GENTLY warm up the food, I use about 6 SECONDS on
high. What you are looking for is to remove the coldness of the
food – which activates the SMELL of the food. Do not make the
food hot! ( The heat could damage the pill that you are trying
to feed them, and not many cats will eat hot food anyway.) Now
that you have a very gently warmed serve of food it is time to
add the pill. Just sprinkle the crushed pill over the wet, warm
chicken and serve it up!

Note : Always add the Pill LAST!

Fish : Raw

If you want to use raw fish as a pill serving food then it pays
to make sure that the cat in question likes the fish that you
are going to use. ( Cats are fussy!) I have two cats, one eats
fish at every opportunity, and the other will walk right past it
and ask for something else..

So get a small piece of fish to test the cat with, and assuming
that the fish is accepted it is easy to prepare. I use a pair of
kitchen scissors to cut the fish into small pieces. A sharp
knife is ok but the skin on fish is very tough, so for safety
and ease of preparation I use scissors. Once you have the fish
cut up all you need to do is sprinkle the powdered pill over the
fish and serve it up. Raw fish is usually wet and quite smelly,
so it doesn’t require water to be added or the microwave to warm
it up.

Fish : Cooked (cold)

To prepare a cooked cold fish you basically follow the steps
outlined for cooked chicken. Prepare the pill, get a small bit
of cooked fish and cut or break it up into small pieces. Make it
wet, drain off the excess water and zap it in the microwave for
a few seconds – do not make the food hot! Add the crushed pill
to the warm wet fish and serve it up.

Note : Always add the Pill LAST!

The purpose of warming up the food is to make it smellier. Most
food has a much stronger scent or smell when it is at room
temperature than it does straight from the fridge.

If you need a small quantity of fresh raw fish it can usually be
purchased from your local take away food shop. If you want to
use cooked fish from a take away shop bear in mind that the
batter or bread crumbs should be removed before it is served to
the cat. (Well, it should be removed if your cat won’t eat the
fish with it still on there..) Also remember to cool the fish
down to about room temperature before you add the pill -
otherwise the heat may damage the pill.

Never microwave any pill – it could damage the active
ingredients or even make them toxic to your pet.

For those that are interested, my cats name is “Eff-Gee” (
“F”+”G” ) and she can tell the time as well if not better than I
can. Every 12 hours (+ or – 30mins) she is asking me for her
pill food My other cat – that doesn’t like fish, is called
“Sox”. He doesn’t really like chicken either. Actually he
prefers the biscuits over most other foods – unless it is meat
with chili on it. He is a nice cat