Giving Pills

[alice]

Our cat, Kathleen, has recently been diagnosed with a thyroid condition and requires daily pilling. She has always been difficult -- no, impossible -- to medicate. But we have found a trick that works and I want to pass it on hoping that it might help others with a similar situation.

As much as Kathleen hates to be given pills, she just loves to be brushed. So now at pill time we begin by brushing her. She gets happy and starts to purr and becomes relaxed. We have the pill ready and when she least expects it, her little mouth is pried open and the pill is popped! Then the brushing is quickly resumed. After a couple of weeks of this ruse, she doesn't even seem to realize that she has been given a pill -- she will actually purr though the whole thing.

What a difference from the previous nightmare of pilling! We are ALL much happier.

[purrley]

Smart - sounds like you've found an excellent stress-free way to do the impossible.

[cr7clark]

I think this is a good illustration of the right way to train a cat. In dog training, negative reinforcement is used as much as positive. In cat training, you must use a lot more positive reinforcement than negative, cats are so wilful that "just saying no" doesn't work with them. Bo used to growl at me when I clipped her nails, but when I started to brush her after the clipping, she purred throughout the entire procedure. She just loves to be brushed.