A few months ago, I noticed that Alice was losing the fur on her tummy, tail, and back legs. A quick Google search told me that this is usually caused by an allergy. Her vet and I decided to see if a daily dose of antihistamine would give her relief. (5mg of Zyrtec)
Alice is the most tolerant, easy going cat that we have ever had. I can do almost anything to her ... pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, wad her up like a baby in my arms, carry her under my arm like a football ... she purrs and is totally relaxed. This is why I was so surprised to find that giving her a pill turned into a battle royal.
That first day, each time I tried to open her mouth to give her the pill, she hissed and fought and snarled and bit, and it was awful. I thought about using a pill-popper device, but I doubted that I could get that into her mouth either. There had to be a better way. I have used Pill Pockets in the past for dog pills ... perhaps this would work with Alice. (Just so you know, the pill has little to no taste, so it wasn't the flavor of it that was the problem.)
This is what I do now to get Alice to take her pill ... no fighting, no hissing, no trauma.
A whole Pill Pocket is too large for Alice's little half a pill ...
... so I break it in half ...
... and mold one of the halves around the pill.
I place the concealed pill on top of her little bit of morning wet cat food ...
... and I cover it with a little glob of cat food juice, to make it extra tempting and tasty ...
... and Alice eats it all up without any fuss.
In this picture, you can't see that Alice's back legs look like little naked chicken legs.
For some cats, giving the little pill-in-the-pill-pocket like a treat may work. It didn't with Alice. She sniffed it and walked away ... and Dorothy raced over to try to get it for herself. (Jealous sister thing, I imagine.)
Early results seem to indicate that this may be working. Alice has been getting her little Zyrtec every day for about three weeks, and it looks to me like her fur is beginning to fill back in. She definitely seems to be a lot less itchy. (I have wracked my brain, trying to think of anything in Alice's environment that has changed and that she is reacting to. There's nothing. Same food, both canned and wet food, same laundry products for things around the house ... I can't think of anything that's different. All I can think is that this may be a new sensitivity to something.)
Anyway, this post isn't about Alice's allergy, it's about how I give pills to her. I put this out there to be helpful, in case you or someone you know finds yourself in the same situation that I was in, with a cat who totally refuses to cooperate and take a pill.
