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HELP! can't pill (worm) my cat!

hollyhocks
11 years ago

I have a big tom cat. when he was semi-feral he gobbled up the wormer (paste form) in his wet food. now friendly but suspicions he won't eat wet food for fear it's tainted w/wormer. so then he ate the pill cut in 4 pieces and covered in reconstituted dry cat food (pounded, water added to make a paste). doesn't work now. used all flavors of Pill Pockets. doesn't work now. tried Chicken Flavored capsules in wet food. didn't work. tried covering in tuna, chicken, cheese, etc. didn't work. tried crushing & mixing w/Karo corn syrup and putting on top of paws. didn't work. tried oral pilling many times. NO WAY (I've oral pilled many cats so know how to do it). what now? I'm a little afraid of the topical wormer for fear of some weird skin cancer popping up later. anyone ever try it? any other ideas? He can't be wrapped like a burrito. Can't even get him to the vet (can't crate him, needs to be sedated). help!

Comments (12)

  • homebodymom
    11 years ago

    Do you have a pharmacy that compounds? If so, ask them to compound it into a LIQUID flavor you think he will like- mine offers fish,liver, etc. I am sure you can find something he will eat that you can put it on :)
    Good Luck !

  • laurief_gw
    11 years ago

    Take a needleless syringe and fill it with water. Coat the deworming tablet with butter and put it in a pet piller. Sit down with the cat between your knees and grab him by the scruff. Lift only his front feet off the floor an inch or two. Squirt a few drops of water into the side of his mouth. This will wet his throat and make swallowing easier. Using the piller, immediately place the wormer as far back in his mouth as possible. Immediately follow that with more water (a few drops at a time) from the syringe. The water will force swallowing before the cat has time to spit the pill out. Keep giving a few drops of water at a time until you are certain the pill has been swallowed. ONLY AFTER THE PILL IS SWALLOWED, lower the cat's front feet back down to the ground.

    I, personally, don't usually use a piller when using this technique. I wrap the pill in a Pill Pocket and place it in his mouth after the "pre-wetting" drops of water, then immediately chase it down with more water. I find that if the pill is in a Pill Pocket, the cat won't generally fight as hard to spit it out. BUT, it is easier to get bitten when not using a piller, which is why I described its use above. The water and holding the cat's front end off the floor an inch or two are the real keys to the success of this method.

    Laurie

  • anicee
    11 years ago

    Are you using Drontal as the dewormer? If so, cats absolutely hate the taste of it. You should ask your vet for Milbemax...a fairly new dewormer in pills, small, manageable, easily inserted in a piece of cheese or wet food, or in a piece of fish or chicken.

    Anicee

  • hollyhocks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I was using Drontal but got Tradewind since it is only one pill. also tried chicken flavored wormer capsules. no luck.
    thanks for all the advice. but:
    He won't eat Pill Pockets (Duck, Salmon, Chicken all flavors), any wet food (several brands), his regular dry food or treats pounded/mixed w/water & wrapped around pill (cut into 4 so it is small), cheese, chicken, human tuna, steak, pill ground/mixed w/Karo corn syrup/put on back of paw (shook it like crazy and left it there for days! dried hard), can't hold, scruff, put between my legs, confine/restrain in anyway let alone use a piller(!) since he was once semi-feral (took 2-1/2yrs to pet him). if I have the pharmacy compound it, don't know what to mix it with. guess I will resort to the prescription topical wormer. (hope there is no weird skin cancer from it). Will try to see if he will use a litterbox (used 1x in 4 years!) and stay indoors always if he can be confined indoors so he won't hunt.

  • anicee
    10 years ago

    Best thing for a cat like this would be that he gets dewormed by needle at the vet. I think it's good for several months.

    Anicée

  • lzrddr
    10 years ago

    Do you know what worms you are trying to get rid of? Ivermectin works fairly well topically for some worms (rounds and hooks), but not at all for tapeworms and barely for Whipworms. But at least topical is a lot easier than oral in a cat. IT can also be given injectably... and its relative, selemectin (in Revolution) is topical as well and also has pretty good effectiveness against the more common nematodes.

    For tapeworms, which are much less serious (at least the common tapeworms carried by fleas), you can have your vet give a praziquantel injection (aka Droncit).... LOTs easier than oral deworming in a cat.

    Trying to hide a dewormer, or just about any medication, in something for a cat is difficult, if not impossible for most cats (they are just too picky about what they eat, and most do not tend to 'gobble' things down like dogs do). I have a lot of experience pilling cats, yet one of my own cats is nearly impossible to pill, so I use injections or topicals whenever I can. And I rarely deworm my cats unless I know they need it (but I don't live in a climate where internal parasites are rampant, thank goodness).

  • hollyhocks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    thanks Izrddr for the useful info. good to know topical Ivermectin doesn't work on Tapeworms since that is what is coming out of his rear. what little he ate of the crushed, over the counter Tradewind tapeworm pill mixed w/Karo corn syrup on the back of his paw didn't seem to work since he still has a pretty fat belly. (normally use prescription Drontal but takes 1-1/2 pill). tried to get him to the vet but it was an unsuccessful nightmare trying to blanket him & get him into a carrier. we are moving in 1 month so I will need to get him to a vet come rain or shine!

  • hollyhocks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    p.s. sadly he gets his tapeworms from eating flea riddled small animals since he is topically/regularly flea treated. this was how he survived

  • Antoinette Crawford
    4 years ago

    i had my indoor outdoor feral cat for 5 yrs i tried many many different ways to deworm him , no luck . he passed away yesterday due to worm complications. im heartbroken

  • Stax
    4 years ago

    No cat can prevent a properly schooled human from giving it a pill - for de-worming, antibiotics, or other.

  • Stax
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Angry/Aggressive Cat at Vet

    At Youtube you can search for and find many videos showing how to give medication to aggressive cats.