cats

Last time we gave my gf's cat a deworming tablet it was a team effort. I held him down with his legs in my hands, her dad held his head still and his jaw open and her mum put the tablet in his mouth (it took her four or five tries because the dumb moggy loves to spit them out).

You might ask if they have the meds in a liquid solution. My cat's on some anti seizure meds, was very tricky about eating around even crushed up pill etc. The liquid solution cost marginally more (less than 5% difference I think) and is significantly easier to give and more importantly, be sure she ingested exactly as much as she should.

It depends on what the medication is. Mostly I just crush it up and mush it into a Churu or their food or something. If they need to be on an empty stomach, like if I need them to have some gabapentin before a vet visit but they need to be on an empty stomach, I'll dose their water.

Depending on the cat, you may need to look into a different medication, especially if it's one of the ones with weird flavors, like cherry Clavamox; I'll see if I can get an abx injection instead.

Worse comes to worse, you can try getting the medication compounded into a different form or a different flavor. The one thing I absolutely insist on getting compounded are appetite stimulants: the cat doesn't want to eat anyway, and me forcing something down his throat is going to make him more likely to try to avoid both me and the food. I get transdermal ciproheptadine (mirtazapine can make some of them agitated, and I'd rather be certain that any weirdness is their illness and not the treatment). You just gently rub some on their inner ear and an hour later they want to eat :)