Why Capsules? By Certified Cat Behavior Consultant, Ingrid Johnson
Capsules are magic when it comes to medicating cats. Capsules disguise any unpleasant taste the medicine may have, allowing you to give multiple medications at once. The medication then can glide down smoothly creating a more pleasant experience overall for your furry little feline. Let’s break that down a bit and take a look at the details.
Cats are the connoisseurs of the animal kingdom; we all know how finicky they can be to certain tastes and smells. Unfortunately, this tends to give them a bad rap, but it is actually how they have survived for millions of years... survival instincts! Their amazing sense of smell and delicate palette ensure that they do not eat something toxic. Most of the medicine we try to convince them they need tastes and smells terrible and say to your cat, “Stay away!”. Chicken-flavored capsules from Capsuline change all of that. If the medicine is bitter it should go in a capsule. Period. End of story. Veterinarians need to embrace this and start sending bitter medications home with capsules, to ensure that pet owners are successful.
How about those senior kitties that need multiple medications every day? All of those teeny tiny tablets are so hard to hold onto. Your cats can then spit them out in the next room, because they taste bad, and you can barely tell the suspected small pill apart from a grain of cat litter. Did they get their medicine or not? Who knows? Your cat holds the secret. Chicken-flavored Capsules from Capsuline fix this problem too. All those tiny pills can be placed inside one empty gel cap and administered at once. This makes things SO MUCH EASIER, and less stressful for humans and cats. If you have larger pills or a lot of smaller pills, simply use a larger capsule. Here's an example of what I usually do. Just as a reminder, always consult with your veterinarian before giving medicine to your cat.
The jagged edges of cut pills do not feel good in the cat’s throat. Capsuline's chicken-flavored pet capsules fix that too. Many pet parents will gasp at the size of a capsule and think, “That’s too big for my cat’s throat”! I am here to tell you that it's rarely the case! A smooth gelatin capsule glides down so much easier than a dry, chalky pill. Most of my clients start off by using a size 3 capsule, but as their cat’s needs change and they grow older and have more medications, we can easily transition to a size 1 or 2 capsule. If you need help with the sizes we recommend you to check our capsule size chart.
Remember, your cat should never have to "dry swallow" a pill. With that being said, it is important to reward your furry friend with a syringe full of yummy food. Not only does this help the pill make its way to the stomach, it also acts as a reward for eating whatever may be in their capsule. Make it positive and keep them coming back for more because now capsule time is yummy treat time!
For more tips on medicating cats or information on their behavior, visit FundamentallyFeline.com.
