How difficult can it be to give a mad dog and a big fat boy cat, a worming tablet. The answer is VERY, it took ALL DAY…. In my defence it took the Vet 20 minutes to give the boy cat his last tablet. It goes in, but then comes straight out. The mad dog has an unusual ability to get his tablet stuck in his ear fur. In my defence the Vet also encountered that skill.

Today I tried everything. Putting the tablet in food. In treats. Chucking it down the neck. Seconds later the pesky tablet was back on the floor or stuck in the dogs ear.

Nothing worked until I went for the nuclear option. The dog was eyeing up a pack of donuts on the kitchen table. Well worth a go. So the tablet was rammed in half a donut and unbelievably this time it was swallowed in a nanosecond. Just the cat now. Sadly the donut trick is not going to work for our fat cat. But finally feline success. Hawklad was eating toast and the boy cat was doing his usual trick of trying to eat the butter. Worth a go. Coat the tablet in a dollop of better and within seconds job done.

So Pet tip of the day – have plenty of unhealthy food in the house for administering medication.

78 thoughts on “Bad Pet Care”

  7. Louis Catorze’s anti-pill Dark Arts are terrifying. He once spat out a pill and rolled on top of it, then when he eventually got up THE PILL HAD GONE. 😱😱😱

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  9. Oh my gosh, my lab is a Houdini in getting hidden tablets out of food. I have even broken the pills up and put them in batter and made her a waffle. She ended up eating the waffle and spitting out all these tiny pieces of pills. It was kind of impressive that she was able to get them all out – BUT – I am always left trying to find new ways to get these monthly’s down. I’m straight down the back of the throat and hold the snout shut for a minute now. It’s the only way for us!

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    1. You want impressive, mix a bunch of healthy powder into slightly wet grain so it sticks to the individual seeds, and give it to your horse. No way the horse can avoid eating it, right. The horse loves it’s grain.
      Twenty minutes later the feedback is empty. Well, almost empty. There at the bottom of the bag is a mushy mess. Measure it, and it is exactly the size of the healthy powder you tried to administer to her. Not a drop of powder eaten. Eventually we had to add a teaspoon to a gallon of tepid water so it was completely dissolved. Then we threw in some hay, because she likes hay tea. We let it steep for an hour before we gave it to her, but it went down wonderfully. Now she takes the powder right out of our hand like sugar. She realizes it helps her. Don’t ask me how.

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  10. When my sons lived at home and we had a cat, my husband would hold the cat in a vice-like grip, one son would hold the cat’s jaws open, and the youngest son would pop the worming pill in at the back of the cat’s throat. As soon as it was all done, the cat would shoot off at a rate of knots.

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    1. Not quite how we do it, but two people is a must. One to hold, one to administer. The pill goes into a syringe-like injector, sans needle of course, and is applied right into the back of the throat. It takes a super-feline effort to not swallow it from there. Immediately follow up with cat treats whenever successful. They learn quickly the reward is more important than the risk of downing something foreign to them.
      Dogs, I don’t know, but something similar should work, one would hope.

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      3. Do the syringe thingies work for dogs? Being a cat person, though I love all animals, all living beings to be more accurate, I have never tried to pill a dog. But from the horror stories I hear, I don’t think I want to try.

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      5. Just press the bottom jawbones of a cat together, and they open up. But be quick to get the syringe in and shot. With practice it becomes quite easy.

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  13. Good job, Gary! Deceit will generally work, once, so you may have to use other appetizing items next time unless there is a big time gap! You won’t believe it, but my cat Willow actually taught me how to administer her liquid med and she takes it voluntarily…comes looking for it. Yes, she gets a reward, but that wasn’t the original appeal. She’s just very unusual. in many ways!

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  15. Here’s a similar story:
    So, I decided to give the lively cat it’s meds outside. There’s me kneeling sat on the pavement, cat between legs held tight with all my limbs and elbows, pill in fingers poised, cat facing away ready to scarper yet unable to. I was in control, so I poked the pill right down into the cat’s pie hole, all the way ignoring the growling meow sound it was shouting at me and just as it was sorted, all of a sudden, the next door neighbours fat cat jumped on my back and laid into me! “Really Zebs?” So, of course I let the pill cat go, job done after all and the neighbours cat felt the same, the bloody bar…

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      1. You know, I’m so not into being famous, infamous comes unintentionally with that it seems (I’ve known a few famous people…) and anyways, privacy is worth the price of not being loaded (you only have to spend the money on security me thinks). Poor is rich.

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  17. Worming day is always fun, but I’m wondering which tablets you use? I know there’s a bone flavoured one (I think it might be Droncit) and my boy will usually take that no problems. Failing that, I usually wrestle him and then ply him with treats afterwards. It’s a hit heavy handed, but hey, it’s once every six months and I’m careful not to harm him. I’ve got to do flea spot-on treatment at some point, you’d think that I’d dragged him through a sheep dip once a month for the dirty looks and sidestepping he gives me.

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      1. Oh yes, and if you tell the vet that it’s a struggle, it’s like you and your dog are the problem. I tried telling our vet that our dog will side step me on spot on day, she looked at me like I should have rugby tackled him to the floor. If you ever find an easy way, let me know.

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  19. Oh this post did make me laugh! 🤣 (And reminded me that my cat needs a wormer. She hates me for a week after I do that. The hating isn’t too bad most of the time, but I do dislike the way she sits in the bath and stares malevolently at me when I am using the facilities! It’s fairly off-putting.)

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  20. my boys would not eat them in prawns or chicken so went for vice like grip – no chance spat them straight out. Disguised them in their cat food – worked a treat then saw that one cat had thrown it all up! Next day thrown up cat food gone so I now have a wormed hedgehog!

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  22. Last time I tried t give our cats a tablet it ended in a serious conversation with Julia about whether I should go to A&E with a view to getting stitches. Never gave them pills again – they both lived for another ten years plus and died at the age of 20. The scars took years to fade.

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