I need to give my cat a pill-what flavors should I use?
An interesting study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine by Dr. Amy Nichelason found that cats favor certain flavors over others. Flavoring medications for cats is preferred over “dry swallowing”. The danger of forcing medication down a cat’s throat are many ranging from the cat not trusting its owner, causing irritation and inflammation of the esophagus (can especially occur with doxycycline and clindamycin), and make the cat fear the owner when approaching with further medications.
Dr. Nichelson’s article was published in JAVMA where her group looked at various flavored oral liquid medications to see which ones cats favored most. Fish, liver, and meat flavors historically were felt to be liked by most cats. In the study, owners gave cats different flavors at home using either oil-based or water-based compounded formulations. Cats lack the gene for sweetness so sweet flavors were NOT favored by cats. Oil-based flavorings were preferred over water-based.
When owners claimed their cats “liked chicken” they were often surprised when the cat selected fish instead of chicken flavoring. (So typical of cats to not be predictable!!!) Just goes to show we can’t predict what cats like!
Overall, not all the cats liked all the flavors. 60% of cats did NOT prefer oil-based where 85% disliked water-based flavorings. So even though oil-based flavorings were preferred, not all cats liked them! Cats are cats and can be picky!! Dr. Nichelason’s advice is to try various flavorings initially without medication in them to see which one your cat prefers then have the pharmacy compound that flavoring with the desired medication.