Ok, now those of you who know me at all know that I am seriously into REAL food and not a fan at all of processed or fake foods, at least for myself. But I am gonna go against every thing I believe in when it comes to good nutrition to make a simple recommendation that just might make the daunting task of pilling cats a whole lot easier for those of you brave enough to try it.
For a couple of years I have been hearing about the use of canned cheese food product as a vehicle for inducing cats to voluntarily consume pills. Every time I would hear it, I would say, "Wow, what a cool idea!" and then promptly forget all about it. But I had a Cheez Whiz moment today while talking about something completely unrelated with a client (don't ask what that's about - I have no idea - it just randomly came into my head) and figured I just HAD to blog about it.
So, here's what you do. Go buy a can of plain, original flavored Kraft Easy Cheese at your nearest non-Whole-Foods grocer. Start by training your cat to eat dots of it on a plate without any medication. This way you will know in advance if he/she will even eat the stuff, but from what I hear they almost all consider it on par with crack cocaine, if not better. Put three to five dabs in a row on a plate. A "dab" is probably about as big as the end of your little finger, but experiment around. You don't want to be giving kitty a meal of the stuff - it's little better than Elmer's glue or plastic in my opinion, though at least your cat won't live long enough to get sludged-up arteries from it.
Once the cat has come to anticipate the stuff and eagerly eats the dabs all in a row, then start putting the pill (or piece of pill) in the middle dab (just smush it in with your finger). From what I hear, cats are so excited by the idea of getting a couple more dabs of the stuff, they don't care that there is medication in the middle one.
Of course, this won't work with big pills like Tumil-K, but if your cat is on benazepril or famotidine or clavamox or prednisolone or anything smallish, it should work. Half a Baytril may or may not work - it's bigger.
So give it a try and let me know how it works. Just please don't take to eating it yourself. Seriously. Buy a hunk of brie if you want gluey cheese.
