When Phyllis Bath tried to give her 14-year-old cat, Sweetie Pie, prescribed high blood pressure pills, the situation wasn't sweet for either of them.

 "I'd forgotten how feisty she could be," said Bath, of Manheim Township. "She bit me, and I ended up in the emergency room."

Bath then took her veterinarian's earlier offer to get the same medication in a liquid form from a compounding pharmacy. Once the drug was reformulated and poultry flavored, Sweetie Pie regained her sweet disposition.

 "All I do is shake it, fill the syringe to the right dosage and squirt it on top of her food," Bath said. "It's so much easier."

Carol Woods, of Lancaster — whose 13-year-old cat, Otis, also had high blood pressure — worried when the pills her veterinarian prescribed didn't seem to help. Now Otis takes a compounded, fish-flavored, liquid version, squirted directly into his mouth. This drug is working, perhaps because it's a more reliable way to get the entire dose into the cat.

The next time Woods needs to give a cat medicine, "I might try a pill first, because it's cheaper," she admitted, "but I think I'd go with whatever my vet advises."

Jack Gillmore, of Mount Joy, said when his Border collie needed a specific antibiotic, he got a compounded version that was "meat flavored and puréed" because whenever Gillmore tried hiding "that really large pill" in peanut butter, cheese or moist dog food, "Bart would hold it somehow in his mouth and then spit it out. You couldn't fool him into taking medications, and you couldn't force pills down his throat."

"I'd always go the compounded route," Gillmore added. "I loved Bart and would have done anything to make him feel better."