79 yr old mother with dementia, has cat with health problems. What can I do to help this situation?

I used to get liquid form in the taste of liver.

I can’t even imagine professional and compassionate vet techs calling any animal by such a derogatory name, even if your mom’s cat is ornery. If they must act so unprofessional, they should not have told you what they call her cat; you should not have found out. I would be devastated if I’d found out one of my pets was known by such an insulting name around the vet’s office.

Animals have their own personalities just like we do. We tend not to be happy and joyful when we don’t feel well. If the cat is a rescue by your mom, maybe he was abused as a kitten. He has a reason for being ornery, whatever it is.

My 4 cats are impossible to pill too. Take the prescription and do what Dorianne says. And then find another, more professional vet. Good luck. Hope kitty feels better fast. Poor thing.

I agree with Dorianne above about using liquid meds. If you don't have a compounding pharmacy in your area, I have used a company called Stokes Pharmacy that will do mail ordering. The vet will call with the prescription order, and Stokes will call you to verify and get your address and credit card number. Stokes has all different flavors they can use. One cat preferred chicken. Another wanted tuna. http://www.stokespharmacy.com/veterinary-rx/pet-owners/

Now what I had to do with a feisty cat was I had to straddle the cat, like I was sitting on a horse, but gently, and quickly squirt the meds into the cat's mouth. It's a learning process to do it quickly. Then after the cat looked at me thinking all sorts of mean things, I would give the cat treats.

Oh, another cat I learned how to give her a pill. If the pill is small, I use to give her treats, then rub my fingers on the treat then rub the scent onto the pill, thus she would eat up the treats along with the pill. If the pill is large, break it in half and do the above twice.

Contact Jackson Galaxy (Cat Daddy) from "My cat from Hell"

Most vets won't tell you this, because they want you to buy the meds from them, but your pet's prescription belongs to you - you have the right to take it with you and fill it at any pharmacy. Take it to a compounding pharmacy.  They will suspend it in a fish liquid that cats love. You just suck it up into a dropper and squirt it into their mouths.

I had to do this with a girlcat that had hyperthyroidism and had to be medicated twice a day for the rest of her days, but would not swallow a pill for the life of me.  Also did it when my previous boycat had a cancerous tumour in his jaw, and I was terrified of hurting him.

Edit:  another thing I learned when my boy had cancer....some veterinary medications are available in transdermal (skin) patch form.  I had to go looking for the info online myself, when he wouldn't take liquid painkillers (they were bitter).  But I wound up getting my boy fentanyl for his pain via a patch.  The patch may have to be applied by the vet, depending on what it is (for example, fentanyl is a highly addictive opioid that's heavily regulated).  In the case of the fentanyl, the patch had to be replaced every 4 days, but the vet only charged me for the patch, not the visit.