WHEN one has to give pills or tablets to a cat this disturbs holders much more than any other procedure. The reason appears to be the lack of experience, since most holders have healthy cats, which scarcely need taking drugs.
Look at this procedure with confidence and it will occur to be easy.
- If relying on your former experience you are sure that your cat will show strong resistance, limit its' activity by wrapping it in a towel or in a blanket. This will considerably lighten your task. Ask somebody to hold the cat, whether it is wrapped in something or not.
- It will be easier to make the cat take a tablet if you put the cat in unordinary conditions. Instead of adapting to a cat especially since this always complicates the situation, just put it on the table. Cats doesn't like to stand on a smooth, sparkling surface, where there is nothing to catch on, so it will be at your full disposal.
- Take the cat's head with one hand, push the jaw from one side with a thumb and with a forefinger from another side, and lean it's head back. If this will not open cat mouth, put the nail tip of the forefinger of another hand on the lower teeth and push them down.
- Pull the tablet down into the back part of cat mouth. Close it's mouth and keep it closed tenderly (trying not to close the animal's nose) until the tablet is swallowed. In order to help cat swallow the tablet, stroke it's throat or touch the tip of nose lightly, or blow in cat nose. You will know that the cat has swallowed the tablet when it will lick its lips.
- If you have tried to give a pill as described above and failed to manage the procedure, try to play a trick as follows. Cover the tablet with a creamy cheese, which most of cats like, and put it in its mouth. Even if your cat doesn't like this kind of cheese it will hardly spit out the tablet packed this way, for creamy cheese sticks to mouth. One may also cut the piece of meat up, hide the tablet inside and put meat in cat bowl with other pieces hoping that his trick will have a success. If you are going to hide the tablet this way, it would be better to freeze meat or cheese in order to weaken a tablet taste. If your cat likes yeast extract and the tablet is able to be splitted (some tablet are to be given only intact), pound it, blend with a yeast extract and spread on the pads of fore paws of cat so as to make it lick them under your observation.
Translated by Tatiana Karpova (Moscow)
(MSU, Biology faculture, Dep. zoology and ecology).