I have a cat with
I have a cat with a congenital heart condition and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She recently had her fourth birthday and has been on a strict medication regiment since she was about nine months old. Her medication cocktail makes every vet that sees her look at me like I'm crazy; she takes four pills each morning and six each evening, but her cardiologist in phenomenal and so far, despite the severity of the disease progression when she was diagnosed, it's currently considered compensated and she has no outward symptoms.
The catch - medicating her is absolute hell. She's by far the fussiest creature I have ever had the misfortune of trying to give meds too, and she's damned smart, too. She won't eat the same treat or the same wet food for more than a few days in a row, which means I have an entire shelf stocked with opened bags of treats she will no longer touch. Believe me when I say we'd gone through just about every brand and variety of treat and pill pocket to tempt her. After three years, she was done with all of it. Recently, I had nearly given up and just started crushing her pills up, mixing with a touch of milk, and shooting it down her throat. Of course, this came with her being avoidant and suspicious and generally unhappy, which to me, seems to defeat the point of trying to keep her healthy. What does it matter if she's healthy, if she's miserable?
I stumbled upon these recommended in a facebook group for cats with HCM. Inside one of the capsules, I recognized one of the pills as clopidogrel - which is probably the pill with the strongest scent and flavor out of what she takes, and the one we would fight over the most. I thought, what the hell, she won't eat them but we'll try. I've tried everything else, and they're not expensive. Can't hurt, right?
Well! The past two weeks have been the easiest in years to medicate her. She won't eat the capsules by themselves - they're more like toys than treats to her - but mixed up with some churu and a few crunchy treats to make her less suspicious, she gobbles them and doesn't even notice! And then she continues to beg for more. It's obvious they disguise the smell and taste of the pills perfectly, which I do believe it what tended to turn her off of her treats eventually. I don't expect the capsules to work forever, not when she's unfortunately intelligent for a cat, but I intend to fully enjoy medication time being easy for however long she continues to eat them for!