Have you ever accidentally tasted your pills before swallowing them? It’s hard to swallow them after tasting them because our innate reflex is to spit them out down the sink. The taste also lingers on our tongue for ages afterward. From an evolutionary perspective, we’re programmed to spit out anything that tastes bad in order to avoid getting sick, to protect ourselves, and to survive.
Taste is therefore crucial. If a medication tastes bad, we won’t want to take it. From an evolutionary standpoint, this makes sense! Our sense of taste has evolved to help us avoid foods that are bad for us because they’re toxic (spoiled, contaminated, etc.). If something tastes strange, we’re less inclined to swallow it because our body is telling us it might be dangerous.
Since humans and cats don’t have the same diets or nutritional needs, what tastes dangerous to THEM isn’t necessarily what tastes dangerous to US, but the principle remains the same. We don’t want to eat something that seems to have the potential to make us sick. Therefore, medications that don’t taste good are quite naturally rejected by cats.
Hiding the medication in food
Our first instinct is to hide the medicine in food, but this is a bad idea. Why?
If I offer you a delicious piece of chocolate cake and on the third bite you find a bit of salt I’ve hidden inside, what will your reaction be? You’ll instinctively spit it out and won’t want to finish the cake. We’re not even talking about something you never want to eat (salt isn’t a dangerous compound, and you happily put it on your fries), but you’ve been betrayed. You expected the cake to taste sweet and have a soft texture, and suddenly there’s sharp-tasting sand in it!
“You’re trying to poison me!”
If someone keeps offering us things that taste bad, thus triggering the danger alert in our brain, our relationship with that person will become increasingly strained, because we’ll perceive that they’re trying to poison us.
Not only will you never accept food from me again, but such a strong association may have just been formed that, in some cases, you may never want to eat chocolate cake again.
Food can be accidentally “poisoned” very easily by hiding medication in it, with the following unfortunate consequences:
- Loss of trust in the human who gave us the “poisoned” food;
- Avoidance of the situation where the “poisoned” food was provided (bathroom, kitchen counter, etc.);
- Avoidance of the person, especially at the time of day the food was given.
- Avoidance of the opportunity to eat near the person.
- Total avoidance of this type of food. For example, the cat will NEVER eat tuna again because it has associated it with hidden pills. We have just lost a very useful “tool” (the tuna). We can thus accidentally destroy a whole range of foods by trying to hide medication in various types. We then create a cat that avoids all new foods, and is therefore even more difficult to medicate and keep healthy.
So, you can imagine that we’ll want to avoid using our cat’s usual daily food for medication when we start medicating them, if possible. That way, if we make a mistake and accidentally “poison” a particular food, we won’t have lost the very thing our cat eats every day to survive.
How to know whether a medication tastes bad?
- Ask your veterinarian.
- If your veterinarian doesn’t have the answer, check with him and your own pharmacist to see if you can test it with the tip of your tongue (particularly if you are taking medication yourself).
- Don’t take any chances and use a gelatin capsule!
Some medications don’t taste terribly bad at first, but start to sting the tongue after a few seconds, and this stinging lasts for several minutes (this is particularly true of fluoxetine chews from compounding laboratories). This could explain why your cat eats the pill the first time, but not subsequent times, because the unpleasant effect was delayed. When in doubt, it’s best to simply eliminate the taste from the equation.
How to remove the bad taste of cat medications?
There’s a very simple way to solve the major problem of taste: gelatin capsules.
Gelatin capsules are edible, transparent capsules that have no taste. Humans use them, among other things, to prepare their own mixtures of supplements, medicinal herbs, etc.
Why use them? Because they mask the unpleasant taste of medications by coating them. If your cat can’t taste the medication, it’s MUCH more likely to self-medicate repeatedly without your permission. Gelatin capsules also prevent the pill from becoming slimy and starting to disintegrate if your cat spits it out four times covered in drool.
Choosing gelatin capsules
Gelatin capsules can be used with food without risk of poisoning it, as they are tasteless.
At a maximum of about $10 for a package of 100 capsules, or 10 cents per capsule, gelatin capsules are inexpensive individually when purchased in bulk (the smallest packages typically contain 100 capsules), but shipping costs and delays are a bit of a nuisance. Buying 1,000 costs less than $25 (plus shipping and taxes), so it becomes increasingly cheaper the more you buy at once. At one capsule per day, that’s enough for 2.7 years, and each capsule costs less than one cent. Hopefully, veterinary clinics will start carrying them soon, and you won’t have to wait several days for delivery of an online order.
Gelatin capsules are sold in sizes such as 0, 00, 000, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. The size of the capsule is inversely proportional to its number. A size 5 capsule is therefore smaller than a size 4 capsule. For most cats, a size 4 capsule is appropriate. The smaller size 5 capsules are smaller than most medications. Sizes 3, 2, 1, and 0 are larger to swallow, but many cats don’t mind! The advantage is that you can put several medications in them at the same time.
Besides the size, the other important point before ordering them (because unfortunately, to my knowledge, veterinary clinics don’t yet stock them) is the brand. Some capsules bought on Amazon may deteriorate very quickly in water or wet food. Since your cat might not always eat its pill within 10 seconds, it’s best to have a capsule that maintains its integrity in food while disintegrating quickly in the acidic environment of the stomach.
Another advantage of a “long-lasting” gelatin capsule is that you can leave it in a liquid treat (canned food, tuna, etc.) for 2-3 minutes before offering it to your cat. It will then soften, enveloping the pill inside. This makes the capsule smaller, less hard, and therefore easier to swallow, and better camouflaged within the treat, reducing the contrast.
Capsules of:
They are perfect. They are recommended by Ontario veterinarian Kris Chandru in his feline medication course.
Another company whose products I have tried is
- Capsuline (available on Amazon) :
Their capsules don’t maintain their integrity quite as well as Thriving Pets’ capsules, but they’re acceptable.
Here are some of the advantages of Thriving Pets’ gelatin capsules:
- They soften quickly in soft or liquid food, conforming better to the shape of the pill and becoming smaller (when the pill is initially smaller than the capsule).
- As they soften, they become easier to swallow because they slide in more easily.
- If removed from water after softening, they dry while maintaining their integrity, meaning they continue to coat the pill, eliminating its unpleasant taste. This is especially useful for a cat that doesn’t eat wet food and for whom you want to make the capsule smaller for swallowing!
- They maintain their integrity for several minutes in food, which is very convenient, particularly if you need someone to come and administer medication to your cat, but the cat hides when the person is there. The person can leave, leaving the pill in the food without the “taste-blocking” coating of the capsule losing its effectiveness before the cat eats it.
*** Please note that we are not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned. ***
*** Be aware of potential customs fees if you order online from an international company. ***
It should be noted that, like any product, these capsules are not completely effective. They are not always as practical for liquid medications, because if the cat chews the capsule, the liquid is more likely to spill into its mouth. For pills, however, they are very effective. Whenever possible, ask your veterinarian for medications in pill or capsule form, never liquid.
If your cat is sick and has a poor appetite, it becomes even more important to avoid an unpleasant taste when administering medication, and gelatin capsules are invaluable in achieving this.
Filling up capsules
If your veterinarian approves, you can usually easily cut or crush an oversized pill with a pill crusher from the pharmacy or by using two spoons (one holding the pill and the other used to crush it in the first spoon) and then place the pill inside one or even two capsules. (Check with your veterinarian to confirm if you can cut or crush this particular pill.)
I’ve even once stuffed some supposedly chicken-flavored chews that were indigestible for my cat (I tasted them to confirm…) into three capsules, which saved me from wasting the 30 days’ supply of inedible chews I had to buy from the compounding pharmacy. My cat ate them without any problems once the gelatin capsules had rendered them tasteless.
You can also put more than one medication in a single capsule if your cat takes more than one medication per day, there is room in the capsule, and your veterinarian sees no contraindication to administering these different pills at the same time.
If the pill is smaller than the capsule, you can cut part of the capsule’s length, making it even smaller to swallow. You could also simply cut the pill into pieces short enough to cut the capsules as well, making everything very small. It may be easier for your cat to swallow three smaller capsules than one larger one.
Introducing gelatin capsules
Before you even begin medicating your cat, you can get some gelatin capsules and start “medicating” your cat with these empty capsules. Once you know the technique works, you can simply add the pills. Practicing with empty capsules reduces stress for you while allowing you to test what works and what doesn’t, and to start creating a positive routine.
You can also practice with edible “dummy pills” inside the gelatin capsules: cat kibble, green peas, etc., if you want to enhance the visual appearance of the final product. This also helps to weigh down the capsules, making them heavier and easier for you to see, preventing them from flying around because they are too light, and can also facilitate their passage to the stomach.
Since the medication inside the capsule tastes unpleasant, you should avoid transferring the odor of the medication to the outside of the capsule. Fill your capsules with dry fingers and be sure to clean your hands after adding the medication to the capsule before handling it to place it in food. You may also need to wipe the capsule with a dry tissue to ensure there is no medication residue on its outer surface.
Common worries of veterinary practitionners
Here are some answers to common concerns of veterinary staff.
“The pill cannot be cut.”
Since the pill is administered entirely within a few minutes, whether in a single capsule or several, there is generally no reason not to cut it.
Veterinary professionals are often concerned that some pills cannot be cut to create two doses because the medication is not uniformly distributed within the tablet. Cutting a tablet in half could therefore create a 27% dose and a 73% dose. This is not a problem, however, if the intention is to administer the full dose anyway and the tablet is only being cut to fit into the gelatin capsule.
On the other hand, the pill may have a special coating designed to ensure it reaches a certain point in the digestive system intact. In this case, it might be important not to cut it. You could then potentially use larger gelatin capsules, even if it means cutting them lengthwise.
Explain to the veterinarian why you are asking the question, specifying that you intend to give the entire pill, not reduce the dose. They will then be able to guide you.
“The body will not absorb the medication if it is contained in a gelatin capsule.”
Gelatin capsules are specifically designed to disintegrate in the digestive system. They are increasingly being mentioned by veterinarians at conferences and webinars, including icatcare.
“The cat should not receive any food before the operation/anesthesia.”
The veterinary community’s concern stems from the risk of food reflux during anesthesia. However, some studies suggest that a small amount of liquid food could actually have a beneficial effect on this issue.
If you need to use a small amount of food to medicate your cat before taking them to the vet for a procedure they shouldn’t have eaten beforehand, discuss it with your veterinarian. If you practice in a clinic, consult the available information before saying no. The organization Fear Free for Pets has not recommended avoiding food at all costs in this situation for several years now. To minimize stress for the cat, and therefore the procedure itself, and thus the need for the least amount of anesthetic, it is important to limit the cat’s stress. Giving medication without force is therefore a crucial piece of the puzzle.
If taking a pill is necessary, it may sometimes be possible to use non-food rewards such as play or grooming as a consequence of administering the medication.
Liquid treats like Churu tubes or tuna water sometimes make veterinarians less concerned, provided they are always in small quantities.
Medication doesn’t really require much food to be effective.
You can also potentially soak your gelatin capsules in the jar of dry treats to give them a pleasant aroma.
Here are some links if your veterinarian is interested:
