My 18 year old cat Rosie is on Vitalda for Hyperthyroidism, she's also on meds for kidney failure. For over a year she'd take her pill cut in half and put in cheese spread.

She refuses to do that now, and is too frail to have it put down her throat,as she puts up an awful fight .

I know I shouldn't do it, but I've had to resort to crushing it and sprinkling it on Whiskas cat milk ,

it's the only way she'll take it.

Any other suggestions ?

Sounds like to carry on doing it with the milk. Is she very thin?

Yes she is thin I'm afraid, she used to be such a little fatty. I know the pills don't work so well if you crush them, but if I put them in cheese spread or fish paste she just spits them out !

My female cat had the same condition. She was nearly 18. She was never a fat cat but just a healthy normal weight one. Then the thyroid problem took hold. The medication helped but she never she was the same cat physically. I used to pop the pill down her no problem. Towards the end she started to struggle with them. I could see she was going downhill fast and made the decision to have her put to sleep. The quality of life had all but gone and it wasn't fair on her to keep her going.

I'm really sorry, I'll keep going with Rosie while she's still happy and eating.

I've not heard that pills don't work as well if you crush them. Surely if she's getting the whole pill crushed & correct dosage, this is better than intermittently getting a pill when you can get her to swallow them. I had a cat with hyperythyroidism & he lived for several years on medication, put back a lot of the weight he lost & was almost back to normal. I used to crush the pills between 2 teaspoons then mix the powder with some fish paste & he licked it all up quite happily.

Good luck with your cat ~ i hope she starts to feel better soon.

Thanks , they did tell me not to crush her thyroid pill, but as you say it's better that she gets her pill crushed than not at all.

That is correct, you should not (I was told MUST not) crush carbimazole (Vidalta) because they are slow release tablets, they are given once a day. Crushing them destroys the slow release element.

My 13 year old had hyperthyroidism, she has now had the op, but before that we were medicating her for several months to reduce her T4 levels. She is semi feral so the only option was to crush the tablet and give it to her in food. I discussed this with my vet - you can get a different tablet which you give twice a day and that is fine to crush - neomercazole (also called methimazole I think). I used to give it morning and evening crushed up in a small 'appetiser' of finely chopped prawns or cooked fish. Worth asking your vet if he would recommend changing to neomercazole in the circumstances.

The neomerc worked absolutely fine for my cat, it got her levels right back down to normal and she could have continued on that regime long term. However she was an ideal candidate for the op so we went for that, which was very quick and easy - I realise that is probably not an option with such a frail elderly cat.

Thanks lippincote , that's a good idea, she takes one and a half tabs a day, and I spread the doses out throughout the day as I crush them .

An overractive thyroid is incredibly common in older cats, mine I had it and I know a few people who had cats with it.

Do you have a cat 'pill popper' it worked well for us, and is by far the quickest and most humane way of getting a whole tablet down an un co-operative cat. After a while you get so quick at doing it the whole procedure takes about 10 seconds.

http://www.gundogsupply.com/trophy-pet-piller.html

Thanks I might give that a try , although Rosie usually manages to bite my finger just trying to open her mouth !

Does she like ham? Because we tell our clients at work (in a vets) to wrap it up in a treat like ham for example. Or even tuna/a small piece of chicken?

I agree it's less stressful for the cat (and yourself!) if you manage to conceal the tablet in food. Fortunately the meds obviously didn't taint the taste of food as my cat was happy to eat it in various 'appetisers'.

Thanks both of you, I'll try that as well .