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Anyone have any tips for feeding pills to a cat? One of our cats has a UTI and we need to give her medication twice a day.

If you're having trouble getting her to sit still/not claw you to death, wrap her in a towel first. Gently apply pressure to the corners of her mouth, and she should open up (you can try tugging on her chin with your thumb too, but I don't find that as effective). Drop the pill down and keep her muzzle shut until she swallows it. It may take a couple of tries to get the hang of it. You can also squirt a little water in her mouth too, to encourage swallowing. I didn't find that necessary though.

It depends on the cat. If the cat will devour anything presented to her, sticking pills inside of pill pockets is, while a little pricy, very handy. Otherwise, swaddling the cat in a blanket and praying to Bast before you wedge the pill into pried-open jaws, then massage it down her throat, is the only way I know. Sometimes coating it in butter helps it go down a little easier; having two people, one on cat-clutching duty and the other doing jaws-and-pill, also helps.

This is the perfect method. Somehow growing up my family always tried to just have one person hold the cat and its legs and the other person try to toss the pill in and it was always a nightmare, but a few years ago we discovered the towel method and were just amazed at how well it worked.

If your cat accepts them pill pockets are a god send for both you and your cat.

Towels! Yes! I feel dumb for not thinking of that especially after just seeing it used at the vet yesterday. Thanks!

You could try putting the pill inside a little bit of raw mince and rolling it into a ball before feeding it to your cat. That has worked for me in the past (most of the time, anyway).

Instructions For Giving Your Cat A Pill

God, yes. Sadly, none of my cats have ever accepted one; we tried at the vet's office once, and the cat bit the pocket open, then spit it out, pill still inside. But pilling a cat becomes amazingly easy if you have a cat that'll nom anything tasty you put in front of it with minimal chewing.

Sadly her sister is the one that eats anything. Ironic that our careful anxious cat gets sick, while our go-anywhere eat-anything cat is just fine.

Pill pockets aren't necessary--just use any soft and pliable food that your cat really likes--cheese, fresh deli meat works great (just roll the pill up and press it hard to get it to stick together), even regular soft cat treats can work in a pinch if you push the pill in and then sort of mold the treat around it. You need to keep the overall package small (it doesn't work so well if the pills are large), and the food has to be something your cat loves, because the idea is to get them to gulp it down quickly.

Our old cat had hypothyroidism, and we gave him two pills a day for many years, usually wrapped in deli meat.

Without a general pet thread, I'm gonna ask here...

Anyone have suggestions on a good small furry stuffed toy that won't be destroyed within a month? I have no problem paying for quality. This is for a 20-lb Shorki (shitzu+yorki mix).

1. Take an old (but not threadbare) bath towel.
2. Tie a big knot in it.
3. Give to dog.

Great for tug of war, or just for the dog to chew on. A knotted towel will hold up a lot better than anything stuffed.

Yeah but that's no fun :(

The dog would probably disagree.

Maybe try something from the Kong line? It's hard for me to judge, because my dog is apparently the least destructive canine to ever grace the face of the earth--she managed to pull apart one weak, cheap toy that we were using for a tug rope, and looked downright embarrassed about it--but they seem to make pretty damn sturdy stuff, and some of their toys do come in stuffed-esque varieties.

(I buy dirty cheap stuffed animals that the grocery store sells for various holidays, since sometimes the dog does leave things outside and they get rained on. I don't care if I need to throw out a waterlogged $3 stuffed dog with pink hearts on it. But that's sort of the opposite of what you're asking for.)

o rly


Chew toys are pillows in this house.

If I could get my phone to take halfway decent pictures, I would so be putting up a picture of Pixel trotting around with her stuffy turtle in her mouth. She loves that turtle, and the pickle-esque alligator. She grooms them and takes them outside for some sun and plays fetch carefully with them and uses them as pillows, and gets alarmed and indignant if anyone makes them squeak, because maybe they're in pain, the poor dears.

(At this rate I may get a cheap camera just so that I can properly document how cute my dog is. Trying to take a picture of a frisky black dog with a phone is just asking for sad blurs.)

My dog destroys every toy within 5 minutes, it kinda bums me out because it feels like a waste of money ... but it's his 5 favorite minutes EVER.

Different strokes for different folks!

(Pixel is snuggling with her fox ball-with-tail again. I have got to get a better camera.)

This is Fizzgig, we got her from the pound today, she's still getting used to the house and us. She is a Cairn Terrier and her new life's goal is to pee on everything I own.

My dearly-missed cat Jackson had a little stuffed toy Grover doll he loved. He would sit on his hind legs, toss Grover up into the air, and then catch him in a hug. It was the cutest thing and I miss him...

Two pictures. A sadly low-quality one of Pixel grooming her chain of stuffy marshmallows with cute little embroidered faces on them, and a halfway decent one of her staring nobly off into the distance. Probably at a squirrel.

I think your dog stole mine's ears:

Also, cats:


The one on the left is Yumi. She was returned to the shelter by someone who claimed she didn't like people, almost never purred, didn't come when you called her name, and bit their daughter. The shelter people made us read the prior owner's statement so we'd know what we were getting into.

She's the sweetest cat you've ever known. She purrs constantly. As in, she'll sit down and start purring for no apparent reason. She'll happily snuggle up with you and purr for hours. She loves to sleep under the covers, nestled against your back. She's shy and takes a bit to warm up to new people, but she's incredibly gentle and would never hurt anyone. I have no idea what kind of crack the previous owners were on. I'm just glad they were on it so we got her instead.

The handsome gentleman on the right is Alonzo. He's got one eye, a stubby club-tail, and enough confidence for ten cats. He's utterly certain that he is lord and master of all that he surveys. He loves people and stalks out whenever someone enters the house to demand worship. He's also epically cranky and can go from purring happily in your lap to biting you in an instant...and then back to purring.

The two adore each other.

"Learning? NOPE."

My last cat was a wily one. You could pill him with a new foodstuff once, then he caught on. He was also able to lick/chew off whatever we had covered the pill in and then spit the pill out -- he got some distance on it -- no idea how he managed that without lips.

Eventually we got a pill shooter and it worked well.

There are two cats in this picture, taken five minutes ago.



Elvis loves sleeping under blankets. He's so weird. Oboe is so very normal by comparison.

Lucas is very regal sometimes.



Right after taking this picture he sat down in the middle of the floor and stayed there for two hours, because my life needs more floor hazards.

My sister's collie is like that with his toys, he gets visibly upset if one of his toys squeaks. He gets all OH NO DID I HURT YOU :((((((((((((((((( and it is goddamn adorable. <3 <3 He also very carefully piles his toys up. What I find oddest is he uses specific toys to play with specific people. Person A might be his lobster toy, person B gets the sheep toy, etc.

And my other sister's dog, a mutt (and technically her husband's but whatever, it's THEIR dog now!) is exactly like this! I watched her utterly dismantle this toy my mother got her for Christmas in about five minutes. Nothing but shreds remained, but you could tell THAT WAS THE GREATEST THING EVER as far as the dog was concerned. <3

My beagle has enjoyed utterly destroying every single "indestructible" toy we have ever bought him. The worst was the rope though. He shredded it, then ate it. And when it passed, it got... well... let's just say I had to put on a glove and help. No more ropes. Ever.

Heh, my dog ate some aluminum foil christmas before last, and he had sparkly poop for weeks.

The only toys I've found that he doesn't completely destroy are Kongs, and these big rubber things with feet called "Cuz." If it squeaks, he will murder it enthusiastically.

Been there, done that, still have the flashbacks. It was a race against time late at night when the rest of it would come back up and I'd have to wake up and dive into the crate to get it. The other thing I'd say is that I underestimated how much the harder toys were damaging my young terrier's teeth. She's worn them down quite a bit just in the last year, and I think it's mainly from using harder balls for fetch that she tries to mangle. So now I just use cheapo squeaky balls that last about 3 weeks on average before they are too shredded to be safe; I miss being able to throw for serious distance but hopefully it does more to protect her teeth.

Hermes has decided that he is now a nesting cat.

We have two boxes like this that are filled with packing paper, and he loves sleeping in them.

My mom's cat, Queenie. Who is old as dirt and will fucking maul you if you touch her when she does not want you to.

Got some excellent pictures of my cats tonight at dinner. Click to embiggen.

Juhani, amazingly visible for once.





Don't let Dahlia's nonchalance fool you. She's a scaredy cat.





Bengal and Juhani don't really like each other, but I caught them touching noses...



... and then Juhani walks off.

Update: this also apparently means that Hebe, the other cat, is not allowed to sleep in boxes anymore.

He just found her in one and got really upset and started to get vocal, jumped up onto the recliner, caught a glimpse of his lashing tail in the corner of his eye and scared himself to get poofy bottle tail, and proceeded to chase his tail and generally horse around on the recliner for the next ten minutes, jumping from the seat to the back to the arms to the back and all while still randomly meowing his utter disapproval over everything happening.

Cats are crazy.

Four of these nice little ladies are adorning my desk at work from today onward.

And yes, they have their own little glass home.

The only time our two dogs sit close together is when my wife is using them as a source of warmth on cold nights.

Correction - ten, and they are kept in a large plastic home with shared care by me and all my office mates. Well, all except for the one guy who is sick at the moment, but I am sure he won't mind.