Much like giving a cat a pill, giving oral liquid medicine can be easy or hard, depending on how you try to do it. The goal for this page is to teach you how to get a liquid medicine into your cat with as little effort as possible.
Before we get into the details on how to give liquid medications, there are a few key points we need to cover.
Key Points
- Some liquid medications taste absolutely awful and you may always struggle to use them
- You may be able to improve the taste by having them prepared at a compounding pharmacy. These pharmacies can add cat-friendly flavors that will help to mask the taste of the medication
- You may want to attempt the medication in a pill form instead. See Pilling Cats for all the tips and tricks on administering pills.
- Certain medications are also available in injectable or transdermal forms which may be easier to use.
- Transdermal medicines are a gel that is applied to the inside of the ear.
- Teaching your cat what to expect goes a long way for establishing trust and routine
- My own cats have been taught “in your mouth” as a cue that the syringe I am holding is for oral medicine – and they definitely know the difference versus when I say “tiny poke” for injections.
My Favorite Videos
This video (also shared on the Pilling page) includes a section on how to make a “parfait” with liquid meds.
This video is about training a cat to accept pills from a pill gun, but the same principles can be applied to training a cat to accept liquid medications from a syringe too.
Feline Disease Management 