GIVING medicine to a cat can be a tricky business. Treatment can fail simply because owners cannot get their cat to take pills, but some drug manufacturers have worked hard to make the process easier by developing products that are easy to administer.

The Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB), a charity dedicated to the health and welfare of cats, wants to recognise and reward these companies by granting them permission to use the FAB ‘Easy to Give’ logo when advertising the winning products.

“We hope to encourage more drug manufacturers to think about the special needs of the cat by running the Easy to Give campaign”, said Claire Bessant, Chief Executive of FAB. “If products are easier to give to cats, Life will be easier for vets, owners and feline patients alike”.

Based on their collective experiences, members of the FAB Feline Expert Panel, consisting of FAB lecturers and residents past and present, selected ten products to receive the FAB Easy to Give Award in 2005. Representatives from the companies with the winning products attended the FAB Fabulous Feline celebrations on the afternoon of 1 July, Kensington Roof Gardens, London, when the FAB Easy to Give Awards were presented by Phil Sketchley, Chief Executive Officer of the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH).

Dr Sarah Caney, co-ordinator of the Feline Expert Panel, introduced the FAB Easy to Give Awards. She summarised the reasons behind the selection of this year’s winners: ‘FAB’s ‘Easy to Give’ campaign is an innovative scheme based on understanding and accepting the difficulties most people have in giving medicines to cats - not many owners relish the idea of giving large strange-tasting tablets to cats. How often does this difficulty result in sub-therapeutic dosing, failure to give preventive medicine, injuries to owners and, of course, fearful cats?’

Spot-on treatments have revolutionised treatment and prevention of many parasite problems in cats (external and internal) and are genuinely easy to give because the medication simply needs to be placed onto the skin at the back of the neck. The flea treatments have made it possible to avoid having to use a spray anywhere near a cat - much to the relief of cats and owners.

Advantage, Bayer (flea treatment)
Advocate, Bayer (flea and roundworm treatment)
Droncit, Bayer (tapeworm treatment)
Frontline Combo, Merial Animal Health (flea treatment that also kills fleas in immediate environment)
Frontline Spot-on, Merial Animal Health (flea treatment)
Stronghold, Pfizer (flea and roundworm treatment)

Aerokat chamber (distributed by Breatheazy; manufactured by Trudell Medical in Canada) allows cats to partake of inhaled medication.

It is similar to the devices used for babies and small children who cannot inhale on command. A face mask at one end of the chamber is placed over the cat’s face and the medication is introduced via a slot at the other and the cat takes in the medication over a few breaths.

Thanks to the development of the Aerokat chamber, it has become possible for owners to treat their asthmatic cats with inhalers (in the same way that asthmatic people are treated) and there is less need for vets to give repeated injections or tablets containing anti-inflammatory steroid preparations. Giving medication via an inhaled route has several advantages: the drug is only delivered to the lungs rather than the whole cat which reduces the incidence of side-effects with long term use and emergency therapy can be easily administered by an owner at home.

Milbemax (Novartis Animal Health) a combined wormer for cats (i.e. treats roundworms, hookworms and tapeworms). Milbemax is easy to give for several reasons - firstly the tablet is very small and easy to swallow making it readily accepted by cats. Two different coloured tablets are available - one for kittens and small cats and one for adult cats and, very conveniently, one tablet treats cats weighing up to 8kg making large cats easy to dose.

Caninsulin (Intervet) is a veterinary licensed insulin that has greatly helped the treatment of diabetic cats. Prior to the existence of Caninsulin, diabetic cats had to be treated with a concentrated preparation of insulin (100 units per ml) making administration of small doses of insulin (most cats require less than 5 units of insulin per dose) very difficult to do accurately.

Caninsulin has only 40 units per ml meaning that low doses can be accurately loaded into a syringe and given to the patient. The manufacturers of Caninsulin also make special syringes and magnifying glasses to place over the syringe which help to ensure that the correct dose of insulin is drawn up. Much smaller bottles of Caninsulin are available than is the case with other insulin preparations and this means that less insulin is wasted as the insulin bottle needs to be changed every couple of months.

Panacur Favourites (Intervet) a roundworm treatment for cats that can also be used to treat some other parasite infections (e.g. lungworm, Giardia species). Panacur Favourites are formulated to maximise their palatability to cats - essentially they are designed to look and taste like a cat treat, making the treatment of worms a pleasure for most cats!

Nominations for the FAB Easy to Give Awards for 2006 can be sent to the FAB Office at Taeselbury, High Street, Wiltshire SP3 6LD, by telephone 0870 742 2278, or on email fab@fabcats.org