Nearly everything alive becomes ill at some stage in its life,
and pets are no exception. I have been very fortunate in that my
two cats have been very healthy for most of their lives.
Recently the oldest cat become ill and had to go to the vet.
Unfortunately she was diagnosed with a form of cancer. The
treatment options were pills or radiation 'therapy'. The
radiation therapy was very expensive so that left the pills.
Pills are fine for humans, but if you have ever tried to
administer pills to your cat then you would know some of the
problems I have had.
I usually feed my cats on a dry 'all in one' biscuit diet.
This diet and a supplement of fresh food has kept them very
healthy for over 14years. But now I need to add pills to her
diet every twelve hours. So what do I feed her that will hide
the pill well enough for her to eat it without complaining? Well
after some experimentation I came to the conclusion that hiding
a whole pill was not the answer. Not the answer at all. Whole
pills are located and removed from the food with amazing
accuracy. The simple answer is to crush the pills before adding
them to the food.
( Note : The pill should be added to a
small quantity of food - half a normal serve or less, and that
small quantity should be given to your pet BEFORE the rest of
the meal. This helps to ensure your cat is hungry enough to eat
the entire pill. Once the pill food is eaten you can give them
the rest of the meal.)
Pills are usually quite easy to
crush into powder, I use two spoons, one small teaspoon as the
crusher, and a larger desert spoon to hold the pill. Place the
pill into the larger spoon and using the edge of the small spoon
as a blunt knife, carefully break the pill into smaller chunks.
Now use the small teaspoon to gently crush the chunks into
powder. In less than two minutes you should be ready to sprinkle
the powdered pill onto a small serve of food. Crushing the pill
gets much easier once you have done two or three.
This is
how I prepare chicken or fish for my cat at pill time :
Chicken : Cooked (cold)
Cooked chicken is a favorite food
of my cats so it is a good pill food for them. To make the most
reliable pill hiding food from cold chicken is really quite
easy. First of all you need to prepare the pill by crushing it
into a powder as described above. Then you need a small serve of
chicken that you can breakup into smallish pieces - use your
fingers, it gives the best results. Once you have broken up the
chicken add a small quantity of water to the serving plate and
roll the chicken in the water until it is wet all over. Now
drain the excess water from the plate - too much water will
leave the pill on the plate and not on the food where it needs
to be. The next step is optional, but it makes a big difference
for my pets. The next step is to place the food in a microwave
oven. All you want to do is VERY GENTLY warm up the food, I use
about 6 SECONDS on high. What you are looking for is to remove
the coldness of the food - which activates the SMELL of the
food. Do not make the food hot! ( The heat could damage the pill
that you are trying to feed them, and not many cats will eat hot
food anyway.) Now that you have a very gently warmed serve of
food it is time to add the pill. Just sprinkle the crushed pill
over the wet, warm chicken and serve it up!
Note : Always
add the Pill LAST!
Fish : Raw
If you want to use
raw fish as a pill serving food then it pays to make sure that
the cat in question likes the fish that you are going to use. (
Cats are fussy!) I have two cats, one eats fish at every
opportunity, and the other will walk right past it and ask for
something else..
So get a small piece of fish to test the
cat with, and assuming that the fish is accepted it is easy to
prepare. I use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the fish into
small pieces. A sharp knife is ok but the skin on fish is very
tough, so for safety and ease of preparation I use scissors.
Once you have the fish cut up all you need to do is sprinkle the
powdered pill over the fish and serve it up. Raw fish is usually
wet and quite smelly, so it doesn't require water to be added or
the microwave to warm it up.
Fish : Cooked (cold)
To prepare a cooked cold fish you basically follow the steps
outlined for cooked chicken. Prepare the pill, get a small bit
of cooked fish and cut or break it up into small pieces. Make it
wet, drain off the excess water and zap it in the microwave for
a few seconds - do not make the food hot! Add the crushed pill
to the warm wet fish and serve it up.
Note : Always add
the Pill LAST!
The purpose of warming up the food is to
make it smellier. Most food has a much stronger scent or smell
when it is at room temperature than it does straight from the
fridge.
If you need a small quantity of fresh raw fish it
can usually be purchased from your local take away food shop. If
you want to use cooked fish from a take away shop bear in mind
that the batter or bread crumbs should be removed before it is
served to the cat. (Well, it should be removed if your cat won't
eat the fish with it still on there..) Also remember to cool the
fish down to about room temperature before you add the pill -
otherwise the heat may damage the pill.
Never microwave
any pill - it could damage the active ingredients or even make
them toxic to your pet.
For those that are interested, my
cats name is "Eff-Gee" ( "F"+"G" ) and she can tell the time as
well if not better than I can. Every 12 hours (+ or - 30mins)
she is asking me for her pill food :-)
My other cat -
that doesn't like fish, is called "Sox". He doesn't really
like chicken either.
Actually he prefers the biscuits over most other foods -
unless it is meat with chili on it. He is a nice cat :-)
About the Author:
Colin Visser is the owner of
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