Question
The problem of pilling a cat is well-understood, but I've found its solution to be evasive. I understand that in principle I should be able to open the cat's mouth, toss a pill in (or use my finger to push it in the back of the throat), hold the mouth shut, and massage the throat until I see a swallow. My vet can do this, but so far I can't. The cat manages to spit it out anyway, either during the pilling process or after having hidden it in the corner of his mouth until I let go.
I've tried pill plungers, where you load a pill into a plastic plunger-like device and then push it in, but they tend to not work well with very small pills (like methimazole) or capsules.
Short of recruiting another person to hold the cat (so I can easily use both hands), or getting out the duct tape, how can I effectively give a cat a pill? It's not always medically advised to crush the pill (or open the capsule) into a can of food.
Answer
Update : Zaralynda's answer below contains very important advice I wasn't aware of when writing this answer. To summarize, you must make your cat drink water after pilling him/her, or s/he may suffer esophagus damage. I believe the best is to wait for the cat to be thirsty or hungry before pilling him/her.
After about one month of daily giving several pills to my cat, I managed to find the process not so difficult after all. Only one person (with two arms) is required.
First, firmly catch your cat by the neck's skin with your left hand (mirror this howto if your left-handed), where it is insensitive (you know, just as the cat mother catch them with her jaws to move them), while he's still on the ground. You don't want him to be too uncomfortable, so if you feel your hand is not at the right place, move it until you find the right spot.
Edit : be cautious with this technique. You may prefer alternative ways of handling your cat (like the towel technique, handling your cat with your arm under his throat, or help from a second person), especially if s/he is old, fat or becomes aggressive. However I feel in most cases this technique is the most appropriate for pilling a reluctant cat.
Edit2 : I tried several times to handle the cat without scruffing him, but the results were always terrible and most of the times I ended up scruffing him anyway. I feel it's much more comfortable for the cat to be scruffed during 15 seconds (actually less than 5 seconds when you're used to it and everything goes well) than to be gently tortured during 5 minutes or more.Then, bring his neck up so that he's on his back paws.
Take the pill between the thumb and the forefinger of your right hand.
Use your middle finger (or others if you find it easier) both to open his jaws and to keep his muzzle up. (Now that our cat is used to this procedure, I find the opening of the jaws the most difficult part of the whole procedure, as he won't open his mouth willingly — in particular after the first pill…)
Once the jaws are open and the muzzle up, release the pill, aiming at the oesophagus. You may have to wait for the cat to flatten his tongue before.
Finally, and it took me a while (and many many spitted pills) to figure this out, the key is to keep the cat muzzle up until he swallows. This reduces drastically the spitting (thanks to gravity, I guess). On a side note, actually I managed to give my cat a pill yesterday while he was laying comfortably, without steps 1 & 2, just by ensuring his muzzle stayed up.
Caress his chest and release him. Make sure he drinks something to help the pill get into the stomach (see Zaralynda's answer below). If he doesn't, use a syringe to force him.
Of course the cat may still spit sometimes, but just take the pill back and try again.
Tip : if you have several pills, have them ready and don't release the cat until you're done.
PS : I didn't invent anything, it's the way my vet taught me.
Answered By - Skippy le Grand Gourou