Do you think he would eat Pill Pockets? It worked at least for a while with our pill resistant cat. I think they are available at most pet stores now.
Otherwise I would try to wrap him in a towel and put him between my legs on the floor. Here is another site with pictures. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/pilling_a_cat.html
Katharina

Here is a link that might be useful: Pill Pockets

I also fancied myself as a good at medicator of felines until my current cat came along...it turns out that my previous cats were very good patients. Odessa just freaks out when being given liquid meds and doesn't like being pilled much better. I use a combination of gelcaps and PillPockets:
Put the meds (cut the pill in pieces if necessary)...and put them into #3 empty gelcaps...they are available online or perhaps your vet can supply a few to see how they work. Then wrap the gelcaps in the pillpocket (1/2 PP works fine). This way, Princeton won't accidentally bite into the medication. However, if he doesn't feel like eating, he might not go for the Pill Pocket, but its definately worth a try.

There is also a pill gun available (under $5) called the Bullseye...which is a two piece syringe design that works much better than the more common one with the rubber tip at the end. But, again, any pill gun works better when the med is loaded in a gelcap. I would sneak up on Odessa while she was sleeping, "mount" her between my legs, and shoot the pill down her throat. I did this until I discovered Pill Pockets.

About the force feeding...that's a tough one. I once had to force feed one of my elderly cats during what turned aout to be the last weeks of her life. In retrospect, I sort of regret it. It is said that cats bear their pain stoically...and if a cat has to be force fed, and if their condition is chronic and terminal, you should ask your vet about the ethics involved in prolonging his life. What are the chances that the meds and trauma of force feeding will return him to a comfortable and normal level of health? I don't blame you for wanting to keep him around ...he's a cutie pie.

LF

wrap him up in a beach towel or towel large enough to wrap him completely so he can not scratch you, and as quickly as possible just poke and squirt and let go. Most cats will "feel" you coming and hide or put up a fuss, as soon as you tighten up they sense it. You might just want to have him on your lap and pet him until he is really relaxed, then squirt him...good luck

Hi - I've been exactly where you are...My cat Bo was really, really sick with IBD this last winter and also last August. Pilling stressed him out, he vomited everything up, and he does this thing with his tongue...No matter how expert of a piller you are, the darting tongue made it very difficult.

We gave Bo injections of pepcid and an antiemetic....However, that doesn't help you out with the drugs you are using.

We do give Bo prednisolone in the form of a soft tuna chew and he eats it very reliably. They cost a little more, but it works really well with a cat that doesn't like pilling. The compounding pharmacy we use is VPA (Veterinary Pharmacy of America), but there are others. VPA had really good prices and Bo liked their chews better than a local compounding company we tried.

As for the antiobitics, they are a bit more tricky. Depending on what you are using, it may still taste awful even it is compounded. But maybe if you can reduce it by one pill?

Good luck!
Jenny

We used to use pill gunss for the wild birds we treated (specifically ducks and geese). It helps shoot the pill in the mouth.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pill gun

The pill gun and the pill pockets are good ideas to try. As excitable as your cat is... it might be worth trying to medicate him when he least expects it. Just come upon him when he is relaxed and as quick as possible medicate him. Let him run away until he settles down and then try repeating the process. I've been pilling my cat for over two years with a low dose of prednisone for indolent alimentary cancer and also for an over active thyroid and he still hasn't gotten used to it.

I don't use liquid antibiotics anymore because they taste vile and almost always elicit a major battle. Instead, I request tablets or capsules and use a piller to place it as far back in the mouth as possible. First, though, I offer the cat some canned food gruel or tuna juice or chicken broth or maybe even a tiny bit of milk - just a few laps to wet the cat's throat before I administer the med. That makes it MUCH easier for the cat to swallow the pill (just like a drink of water makes it easier for us to swallow pills). As soon as I've given the pill, I let the cat lap up some more of the desired liquid to wash down the pill. It also helps to coat the pill with a tiny bit of butter which not only masks and taste of the pill, but also helps it slide down the throat easier.
Since you're also syringe feeding, you can simply load the med into the piller and have it handy to administer between syringes of food. The syringed food will wet the throat and wash down the pill.

With a very skittish cat, your best bet is a firm towel wrap, then sitting on the floor with him between your knees. With one of my boys who required syringe feeding, I was able to keep him adequately controlled and prevent him from hooking me with his front claws by simply pinning a hand towel around his neck and letting it extend down his front like a long bib. Your boy may require a more encompassing wrap, though. You just need to experiment to see whether more or less restraint works best with him. With his extremely high WBC count, it is imperative that he gets the antibiotics every day as instructed, even if you have to take him back to the vet or hire one of the vet techs to come to your house to help you administer them.

As far as the food in concerned, keep trying to tempt him to eat on his own. Eating the veterinary diet would be best, but it's more important that he eat something - anything. Try some baked chicken torn into small bits for him. Try small amounts of tuna. Or perhaps deli ham. When a cat is inappetant, he is easily overwhelmed and put off by large meals. Offer him only very small amounts at a time, but offer them every couple of hours. Warm his food to really bring out the aroma.

If all else fails, make yourself some Tuna Helper or a nice salmon filet and sit down next to him to eat it. Even when my CRF boy, Billy, won't eat anything else, he'll sometimes try to "steal" something tasty off of my plate while I'm eating. And of course, under the circumstances, I let him.

Once you get his infection under control with the antibiotics, I expect his appetite will return. You just have to do whatever it takes to get food into him until he's feeling well enough to eat on his own again.

You can figure out a way to handle this. I know you can!

Laurie

Thanks, everyone, for the excellent suggestions. I contacted VPA, and they said they would give me a quote on the tuna flavored pills once the vet called them with the prescription. The vet is supposed to contact me on Monday, so I'll ask about it then.

I didn't think the Pill Pockets would be useful at this point because Princeton had so little interest in food. BUT I've been successful in getting the antibiotics into him, and as Laurie predicted his appetite seems to be improving. So that's a possibility now.

The force-feeding was a complete dud, compounded, no doubt, by the fact that I had surgery on my hand this month and am quite wary of getting another cut and/or infection. However, as I said above, he's beginning to eat moreÂnot the prescription food, but the soft mix I'm offering him: "pates" in those small cans stirred up with a few drops of fish oil and warmed.

So the only thing that hasn't happened yet is the administration of the pills. But I'm working on it.

Thanks again!

Susan

Given his potential diagnosis and that he hasn't been started on pred yet, eating even just a little bit is a MAJOR good sign. I hope Princeton continues to feel better. Good luck with the medications; I can't really add anything to what everyone else has already suggested.

I got tired of trying to shove those pills down the cat's throat and then having him play games with me, letting me think he had swallowed it when he hadn't - they catch on pretty fast, especially when you are doing it every day. Add to the fact that we have a very large and tough cat, and it became a major daily issue for us!

With the daily pill, I crush it up and mix it with a tablespoon of very yummy expensive canned cat food - sheba in the chicken/duck flavor. For some reason, the small amount of food he gets with the pill makes him treasure it more, he really looks forward to this little "treat" and actually begs for it at the time of day he usually gets it. Is there any way you can do that?

Also, with the food you have to force feed him, isn't there anything that he really enjoys eating that you can mix it with? It seems to me as if forcing him like that is just going to create alot of stress for him, and for you, especially if you are trying to do this alone with a bad hand. All the toweling advice you have gotten is good advice when working with a stubborn cat, but it would be so much easier to just give him something tempting to eat with the necessary food mixed in with it. It may take a while to find a food he will never turn down, but I bet you could do it.

good luck to you!