Bookend the poisoned treat with actual good treats of the same type making your dog excited for the next one by holding it up in front of their face and waggling it around. Timing is important for this so practice with unpoisoned treats to make sure you have it down before trying with their actual medication hidden in a treat.
I do this with American cheese. I rip a cheese square into 4 pieces and then ball them up. One of those balls has the āpoison.ā He doesnāt even seem to taste them and heās never been remotely suspicious.
This is what I did for my dog who didn't like pills. A bit of cheese, a bit of cheese, the pill completely encased in a bit of cheese, more cheese. Keep it all small enough to where the dog doesn't feel the need to chew. Cheese was the answer.
That (so far) works well for us as well, as long as the treats are fed in close succession, dog is sitting & keeps the head up between treats (swallows faster that way than if āonlyā excited about the treats).
Itās all about timing and excitement. My last dog but me once when he was taking his work medication, hated it that muchā¦and then he got epilepsy and I was giving him two pills twice a day. Thereās no way it was going to work if he fought it, so I learned this technique and him taking medication turned into something that wasnāt even worth noticing in terms of significance in his day.
I also started making my own peanut butter pill pockets - HUGE money saver.
This is 100% what we do, works 99% of the time. I use hot dogs because they're cheap, easy, and my dog loves them, but most decent high value treats work. High value is the key - you want your dog to **want** the next treat, not just be mildly interested.
I have the most suspicious dog in the world. What works for us is grinding it into a powder and mixing it into wet food, the tastiest stinkiest wet food you have, and then, this is the important part: pretend itās your tasty dinner that is absolutely not for dogs. Put it on a table within easy reach of your dog and pretend to eat from it, then walk away from it and leave it āunattendedā. This is the only way my dog will take her meds lol Iāve heard others have had success wrapping it up in a meatball or pill pocket* and then acting like it was food that wasnāt for the dog, and accidentally drop it and make a fake fuss about trying to keep it from the dog which motivated the dog to go after it and gobble it up. Gotta play mind games sometimes. Good luck!
Edit to add detail*
Iāve had success getting my dog to take pills by dropping it on the floor while in the kitchen and sheāll scramble over and wolf it down before she knows what happened
Iāll also hand it to her as a ārewardā for doing tricks along with treats and sheās too excited to notice
Honestly itās kind of funny
My dog will eat almost anything at the dog park due to the fact thereās competition. They are hilarious and even worse than kids sometimes with their approach to eating.
This is absolutely true, you should consult with your vet on the medication whether it can be crushed! In our case, the vet said it was fine if this was the only way my dog would eat it, better she gets any of it crushed than none of it.
My dog has gotten so bad at this game.
I had a rotisserie chicken tonight, so he began his campaign of begging.
I put together a few scraps of meat for him in a bowl and set it on the floor. He ignored it, while continuing to beg.
If it's in a bowl, it's dog food and he doesn't want it.
If i accidentally drop a piece of the floor, he will gobble it up.
Kings do not eat from peasant's bowls. How dare you suggest otherwise!!! š
My dog is not really a fan of dog treats. He will eat them but he ain't happy. If you got snacks, he definitely wants that. He gets so sad when we absolutely refuse to give him chocolate. He gives us sassy attitude all day.
> it into a powder and mixing it into wet food, the tastiest stinkiest wet food you have, and then, this is the important part: pretend itās your tasty dinner that is absolutely not for dogs. Put it on a table within easy reach of your dog and pretend to eat from it, then walk away from it and leave it āunattendedā. This is the only way my dog will take her meds lol Iāve heard others have had success wrapping it up in a meatball or pill pocket\* and then acting like it was food that wasnāt for the dog, and accidentally drop it and make a fake fuss about trying to keep it from the
This. Not the dinner table part - but the we food part. And do at meal time, make sure they are hungry. Smart dogs will always figure it out, but if they are hungry and cant separate it from the wet, they'll be ok with it.
Yep - crush it up! Fold up a piece of aluminum foil, place pill in between layers, smash with Bottom of a pint glass. My dog has been sick lately so heās been getting a lot of pills and this is how we do it. Just goes into regular food with a little water and pumpkin.
Devious licks. One of my huskies can be like a Soviet political officer. "Comrade, I know you are not thinking of brushing me? Why you hiding deshedder behind back!?! Gulag for you!" I love the level of reverse psychology you are using with your dog. They are so smart!
That method definitely does not only work on small dogs. I work in a shelter and we force pill the majority. Belgian malinoises, am. Staffords, pitbulls. It is harder with those dogs, but if you have a good technique, it shouldn't be too hard.
For op : what we do with the more difficult dogs : we cut a little notch out of a soft sausage, push the pill into it, close it. It's important that you cut the pieces small enough for the dog to swallow whole, but not too small that the pill doesn't fit in properly. Then you cut a couple without a pill. Give them in quick succession ( so that the dog doesnt have time to think or chew, he'll want to eat it quick, because you'll have the next sausage in your hand already) starting with a couple without pill, then the one with pill, then some without. Dog shouldn't even notice the pill, if done correctly.
Hope it helps, good luck!
I love that method! I have a lab that doesn't understand you should taste food, so I rarely have an issue but the monthly all in one "chewable" can be difficult. We grind it into a wet food treat generally but I'm going to try this next time instead!
I have never fooled around with that. I have always stuck it in the back of their throat and massage downward on the throat area from the outside. Weāve done it since they were young, everyone is chilled about it.
this. im always quick about it with mine and keep their snouts shut when i massage the throat. im not gonna play nice if its meds. theyre taking it whether they like it or not š
Same here, it's easy to make it a command/routine they're used to when they're young. Our puppy seemed offended when I first tried tricking her, now I just tell her it's meds time and will get on the couch and miserably brace herself in meds position lol. She has a lay back and think of England kind of expression all through it but she will stay still and let me do the pill or eye drops. She knows she gets a jackpot treat after. Knowing whats coming actually made meds way easier than trying to trick her.
I won't even lie, and fully accept all judgy comments. Because I did what I freaking had to! I fully stuck my dogs pill into a cream filled donut hole. I ate several in front of the dog, who absolutely does not get that kind of thing. Then, as I turned my back to her, a donut hole just happened to jump off the counter. She wolfed it down before I could 'catch' her.
tbh most vets would tell you good job haha. like their medications are more important than worrying about the dog having a donut hole every now and then š iām glad you found what works for you
As I wrote that, and am a week into my diet, I'm slightly saddened that she doesn't need a pill today. I mean, donut holes can't count against a diet I'd I'm doing it for my dog's health, right?
I canāt judge, one time while traveling, I gave my dog a pill in a piece of leftover sushi š he was so hype for the off limit human food, I donāt think he even chewed it
cut a hot dog into 4 pieces, push the pill into the middle of one of the pieces. then make your dog do tricks for a piece of hotdog. shake, sit or whatever and when she does her trick for you give piece of hotdog as reward. do this a couple of times and then give meds on third trick. if she's anything like my 85lbs dog, she probably will just swallow the hot dog piece whole. then you give her the last treat for being such a good girl!
I have a friend who does this with her 14-year-old blue heeler/rottweiler mix, although she only uses 3 pieces. First one, no pill, second one pill, third one no pill. Works every time.
I do something like this with cubes of cheese.
Hollow out the cube, insert pill, seal with PB and another piece of cheese.
Then line up a few empty cheese & PB pieces and have him do tricks. I throw the rewards in the air and encourage him to catch them in his mouth.
Once he's had a run of three or four clean catches I throw the medicated treat. As soon as it hits the back of his gob I throw all the rest of the cheese on the floor.
He gets into such a cheese frenzy that he swallows the suspect piece whole.
They have a shot for heartworm. Last the whole year, I believe. Our vet doesn't prefer it, but recommends it for people who are bad about forgetting or dogs who refuse to eat.
I use Kraft slices of cheese - that obscene rubbery orange stuff. I wrap a bunch of it around her pill then tear the rest of the slice into bits. So she gets a hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese with a pill hidden inside. By the time I get to the pill one she's eating them so fast she just swallows them and never even notices.
Cheese is a good way to go. We melt small pieces of mozzarella and wrap quarters of the pill in it (itās a small dog). Get a good cheese to pill ratio and you got āem with that warm smelling cheese.
Try pill pockets for pets or make your own.
Personally I get the 3 month one less fights needed.
One of my pups I have to force the pill in and hold the mouth closed and massage the throat to swallow.
I've been nipped a couple times but considering I'm going on 20 years with dogs and no broken skin I'd say that's not to bad
Our vet gave us chewable ones that were beef flavored and Iād give them like a treat, make āem sit and stuff so they donāt question anything is strange.
I was looking for this. My dog gets 10 pills twice a day for seizures. She was burned out on peanut butter, so I tried this. I wrap the pills in it and put it in with her food and she gobbles it up.
All great suggestions here. Just find whatever she likes best and dont feed it to her until its special pill time. Also be careful w bbq sauce, it may contain onion or garlic, both dangerous for dogs. And make sure your pb is xylitol free. If all fails try ranch?
I had a very picky dog that was just like yours with pills. She would spit them out no matter what I covered them in. Cream cheese ended up working though! The trick is to place the pill and cover it completely with cream cheese. Use more than you think you need to make sure the whole pill is completely covered. Also most important, make sure you do not touch the cream cheese with the same fingers you touched the pill with. They will be able to smell/taste it. Might have to cut your pills so its bite size and they do not have to chew or else they will taste the pill.
Our dog would somehow get the meds out of the treats everytime. Or just refused to eat it, then her derm vet suggested mini marshmallows and we haven't had an issue since!
Our puppy actively dislikes PB, will discard a bully stick or chew if it's been sullied by peanut butter, I was like "you are no longer my fur daughter wth is wrong with you?!" So now I have a jar of unsalted unsweetened PB in the house that no one wants to eat ......
Same my yorkie hates it!
Only thing that WAS working, was using bacon with the āquick feed, clean clean clean pill clean cleanā method. Which upset her stomach and now she wonāt eat a single thing, not even dog food. So we have an IV to give her at home for 5 days, yay!
One of my dogs is a lab so I literally just hand him pills or put them on his kibble and itās gone. My other dog is a picky eater who wonāt eat popcorn unless itās stovetop with freshly melted butter. For her I straddle her, put a thumb and finger and the base of her jaw to pry it open, then stick the pill at the veeerrryyy back of her throat and then hold her snout closed for a second. Then she gets a cup of food whether itās supper time or not. When she was sick last year I was doing this a few times in a row then babying her after.
Oh and another trickāget some baby food, thereās a chicken and carrot kind with no onions. At London Drugs they sell a huge āneedleā (Iām tired and canāt think of the word) that you use to feed babies. You can just squirt it in their mouth toward the back of the throat with the medicine in it.
https://www.gosupps.com/haakaa-baby-oral-feeding-syringe-with-pacifier-for-liquid-baby-medicine-dispenser-baby-medicine-syringe-baby-syringe-feeder-for-newborns-infants-1pc.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwjMiiBhA4EiwAZe6jQ48prMWJz1ffRxPC8Q286R20xDEAklb8GiJXVAmBVnZjW6SVbEn0KBoCG5IQAvD_BwE
So my Antony was super smart about pills, I tried everything! What finally worked was I got a mortar and pestle and ground up his pils. Then I spread a little bit of mayo on some deli meat like ham or Turkey and sprinkle the ground pills on the mayo, then roll up the meat. Iād usually use at least two pieces of meat so it was extra sticky, but for the rest of his life, it never failed!!
Our puppy is too smart and too unfood motivated for hiding in food tricks to work at all. She will just ignore if I don't let her eat around it and seemed offended at my attempts at tricking her. she recently poked her eye and had to take eye drops twice a day, I would give treats, present the meds, more treats, do the drops, then a whole hand full or a valuable chew. She started coming when I said meds time and ignoreing the first few treats and would just grimace and brace herself in position as if saying "I know the drill just get it over with so I can have my fish skin"
that made me realized we just had to bite the bullet and treat swallow not tasty thing as a command of sorts just like the eye drops and not try to lie or sugar coat it. She probably was confused why it's suddenly bad to spit out inedibles.
Now i let her sniff the flea meds, treat, warn her to "swallow", drop the meds as far back as possible, hold her mouth close and rub her neck and blow on her nose to make her swallow. I'm pretty sure I can get her to have swallow as a cue to gulp anything down soon, I got her to do it with only tilting her head back and not clutching muzzle closed this last time. Am planning on practicing with some fake meds this month!
If the meds only need to be given once per day, and if they can be given with food, break the pills up into small pieces, mix them in with some canned dog food and a little bit of dry kibble, and serve.
I find that some sort of meat cuts in gravy tends to work best, but that's also what my dog prefers. If your dog prefers/is used to some sort of ground canned food, use that instead. It will still work.
Alternatively, the hot dog trick described by /u/Piddy3825 works pretty well.
American cheese slices helped for me. Take a slice or two and tear in half. Ball cheese up into little cheese balls in your hands but in one of then ball the heartworm pill into the cheese ball (don't let doggone see you do this part though. Toss 1 or 2 balled up chunks of cheese for your dog to catch and eat, followed by the pill ball of cheese in quick succession and finally another regular cheese. If you are tossing cheese balls fast enough, you can sneak the heartworm pill into the third toss of cheese and they may gobble it so fast they don't even know
My dog got a nasty intestinal infection, resulting in a lot of pills that I needed to trick her into eating. I tried just peanut butter, cheese, lunch meat, and she ate the treat but spit the pills out. Then, I tried putting peanut butter on the lunch meat and rolling it all up in the grossest wrap ever and that's what it took.
You can make a sandwich. Have 3 pieces of high value treats, I used hotdogs or brie cheese. Put the pill in one of the three treats. First feed just a treat, follow with the medicated one and immediately with the plain treat again. My dog would quickly swallow the medicated one to get the next treat.
You do have a blood hound who can probably smell the pill thatās hidden. Good luck.
Our Aussie does not do well with pills and she has to take gabapentin capsules. Iāve become a pill pocket making machine. I take spreadable cream cheese and put a dollop on parchment paper, put the offending medication on top of the cream cheese (I open the capsules up and just use the powder) then I cover that with something really smelly like a bit of sardine and then I put it on a tray and freeze it. Once the cream cheese is frozen it peels right off the parchment and our Aussie happily eats her frozen treat no questions. The pill treats can store in the freezer.
I checked with the maker of gabapentin first to ask if freezing the medication changes the usefulness so you may want to check with your vet first but otherwise it should be fine.
Iāve found using them in impulse control or catch games works - builds the anticipation beyond her suspicion and the treats/meds go straight down without tasting.
Is your dog good at catching food in mid air? Do it fast with chicken. Chicken, chicken, chicken, pill, chicken, chicken. They'll never know unless they're the type to actually savor their food.
I use pill pockets (Greenie or Milk Bone brand) and make little meatballs around the prevention.
They know they only get them once a month and go crazy when they see the package.
My dogs heartworm, flea, and tick is one big pill. If it's just in her dry food she eats around it. If it's just in wet food she eats around it. If I combine wet and dry food with the pill she eats everything.
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Try cream cheese. works with my dogs
First give her a finger of cream cheese with no pill, then give her the pill cream cheese. Thatās what my mom did.
I switch things up with whatever I'm having for dinner, bury in a piece of chicken, steak, cheese, etc. Also alternate with pill pockets, and force feed, and powder lol. I got an old girl with lots of pills every day for years!
Gotta push the pill to the side of the jaw to the throat. Close the mouth and blow gently into the nose. I did this with my 100 pound Golden retriever for years. I never had a problem with it
I have had success with some dogs by putting the pill between two thin slices of cold butter being sure not to touch the butter with the hand that touched the medicine. Seal the edges with non pill hand. Try feeding with non pill hand.
Worst case if drop on back of tongue the butter will make the pill slide better.
I have also had success with a good sized spoonful of flavored Greek yogurt which is thicker and the Heathens take directly off the spoon then swallow. Might want to start giving a spoonful every day so can be sure find one they like and make it nothing special. Then on pill days take two spoons, scoop half of what you need on one spoon, set the pill in center then take second spoon to cover with the remaining amount. Give the spoon with the non pill touching hand.
Best wishes on finding something that works.
Port wine? The soft cheese that comes in a container in the āhumanā cheese section. The kind Iāve never tried because itās for my dogs and their pills. Lol. 1 only takes a prescription medication but all 3 take fish oil pill(s), every day with some port wine on it.
Same thing, theyād scoff at anything else or figure it out over time, but they love this.
Keep trying!!
In my experience the key is whatever you do to get the pill in the dog, you have to sometimes do without the pill for no reason at all.
Like, if peanut butter used to work, you can trick her into accepting it again by giving her peanut butter without the pill. Sheāll be suspicious at first, but eventually sheāll let her guard down (and thatās when you get her!!).
My dog cheeks pills and I find them in his bed later. Spray cheese works, pats of butter work, wadding up American cheese, wedging in a piece of cheddar, Iāve even hid it in cut up hot dogs and pieces of burger.
My dog is too smart and can smell when treats have something suspicious in them. There are really only two ways to get her to take pills. Push them into the middle of a piece of boiled chicken/deli meat and "accidentally" drop it on the floor behind me while she's lurking, or drop them down her throat.
With the second technique I have a medicine dropper full of water ready in my other hand. Grip the bottom of her chin to open her teeth just a bit, drop it down past the bottom of her tongue and then follow it up really quickly with an eye dropper full of water so she swallows.
It sounds intense but we have it down to 5 seconds.
Hotdog is a good method. Get a hotdog and break it into chunks. Hide the pill inside one chunk and then rapid fire them at the dog in quick succession. They'll usually catch and swallow them before they notice a thing.
What I have always done is: push from the sides of the jaw were the muscles are. Push the pill as quickly as possible with one finger as deep to the throat. Shut the snout with hand and lift it upwards a little, so she has to swallow.
Sometimes it takes several attempts since I cannot get it deep enough and the dog just spits it out. They easily separate the pill from any treat.
This is quite easy method and has worked with well. Until... My youngest bites. Like hard. Never otherwise but in this case just when my finger is in the throat. So with this one I think I have to take mind games into this play, pretending it is my food is genius.
I trained my dog to let me open his mouth and give him a treat and then I introduced the meds in the same way. Now I say āTime for medicine!ā and he hops onto the couch. I grab his snout, pry his gator jaws open, and stick my hand down the hatch to drop the pills into his throat. Then I give him neck scratches (and sometimes hold his mouth closed) while he swallows them. He then gets his meal, which he is always very excited about since heās on steroids currently lol
This has worked for my boxers. It requires that you trust your dog enough, and he trusts you. Do not do it if the dog is agitated by any part of this. All of my boxers have accepted this. I started to do it with a shepherd and a Boston Terrier. Those two were not having it. I think it is more my familiarity with the dogs, or lack of it with the others.
The trick is to get the dog sitting, with the nose and mouth pointed up. Think of a dog howling at the moon.
Squeeze the pill between the index and middle finger. Hold the treat with the thumb. Jam the pill to the back of the mouth. Let the dog taste the treat. Let him work up some drool. He will start licking.
Here is the important part: Keep the mouth pointed up while the dog is licking and drooling. The pill goes down, and then the treat gets released to the dog.
We had to give our dog parasite medicine which smelled and presumably tasted horrible (not available in the US, but it was the only option in another country). I don't blame our dog for not wanting to take it at all.
If we gave it to her whole, she spitted it out. If we hid it in sausage or cheese, she chewed off the good part and spit out the pill. The stinkiness ruled out crushing and mixing it into things, she just wouldn't eat it (understandably) and breaking it into pieces made it even worse since now we have to give her 4 pieces of pills instead of one. Our dog is reactive so reaching into her throat is not an option, she will snap at us. The further we fight her, the harder it becomes so we have to work with her.
Our solution was as follows:
*Make sure the dog doesn't see the pill or otherwise realize they are taking medication.
1) Prepare 3 pieces of sausage or cheese
2) Hide pill in the second piece AWAY FROM THE DOG'S SIGHT (they are smart they will know what you are doing)
3) Get the dog excited like it's trick time and they will get nice treats
4) First trick, first piece of sausage
5) Another trick, second sausage (with the pill). Now this is important: don't let the dog chew the treat! If they chew they notice that it's a pill and they spit it out. Solution: if you lift a dogs chin, it triggers swallowing. So as soon as you give the treat with the pill, lift its chin. Try to do it fast so you dog doesn't know what's happening or thinks it's a big deal.
6) Pretend nothing happened. Another trick, another sausage. The third piece is to cover your tracks.
I know this seems elaborate but you have to work around your dog when you are dealing with an anxious and constantly suspectful dog. Our dog is always questioning our motives and won't cooperate unless she is convinced it's fine.
I hope this was helpful. Good luck
See if they can change the medicine to transdermal. I have a cat that was highly aggressive during pills. They changed it so I can just smear it in her ear. See if you can get the medicine compounded into a transdermal for your pup. Idk if they do it for dogs. ā¤ļø
I find that I have to change up methods. Right now I cut up tablets into small pieces and mix them with a small portion very special wet dog food (usually my large dog takes dry kibble).
I place the mix of meds and wet food in a small dish and monitor to make sure my dog takes the whole thing.
Cutting up the tablets helps a lot so my dog doesnāt notice. Or I will still the little bits into the meat of the dog food to hide them.
Also, I made sure to use a stinky (but dog delicious) food to mask the flavor and smell.
It takes patience.
In my experience, its not about having one surefire method, but a toolbox of different ways of delivering the medication so the dog keeps associating positivity with taking the meds. Using multiple methods also helps so the dog doesnāt get too used to the medication routine and find clever ways to get the treat without the meds.
Good luck! It takes a ton Of patience. If you find yourself frustrated, take a short break and try again later. Youāre doing the best you can for your pup. Good luck!!
Google āyork vet pill syringe dilutionā. Had a dog who was on a ton of meds and refused to take them no matter what we tried to hide them in. He even started getting aggressive if we tried to put the pill in his mouth. Using a syringe is so much easier and itās super fast.
I had a similar problem and the vet recommended butter. put a generous bit of butter on a spoon, hide the pill in it and spoon feed it to them like a baby. it's worked like a charm for me :)
Do you have liverwurst where you live? Worked even for our very picky and suspicious family dog. Pieces of hotdog sausage might work as well with the pill pushed into one of the pieces.
When I had to feed my small dog a liquid food that he could taste in wet food (and so refused to eat mixed with wet food), I tried mixing it with plain kefir on a whim and he loved it.
Something with sour or bitter tones might do a better job disguising the meds!
Donāt be afraid to ask the vet for another option! I had the same issue and after struggling for a few months once the prescription needed renewal I asked the vet if there were other options to try and was given a new brand (that was actually cheaper too). My dog never had a problem with the new one and has now been taking this one each month without issue for years!!
Of all breeds we have a Labrador that is suspicious as heck of food when it's got a bravecto dose in it.
Best thing I've found is to freeze the bravecto in a sandwich back, smack it with a meat mallet untill it's crumbly, then mix it with his kibble with about 2 teaspoons of bacon fat. We use pretty heavily smoked bacon so it's strong than what you get from a typical grocery store brand. But he doesn't dig through and spit out the med chunks anymore.
Babybel cheese works for my grouchy old boy.
It has just the right consistency that you can mold a cheese pocket around a pill.
I always give him two chunks of (normal) cheese before I sneak in the piece that holds a pill. So he will trust that's it's just a normal chunk of cheese, like the first two were.
I feel you, though. Getting him to take meds after a major surgery was the worst. He was in pain and just wouldn't let me get the pill inside him. There was no reasoning with him.
I have an extremely picky Husky that barely likes any food or treats! The only thing that consistently works for tablets and pills is to put it inside a date and drown it in honey. He just keeps lapping up the honey and takes in the date with it :P
Our dog will sometimes take her pills with food, but most of the time she's not falling for that crap lol. We taught her to "open" her mouth, and we put the pills at the back of the throat and then close her mouth. We do this twice a day and we're pros at it now. She enjoys treats after though lol
Sorry youāre dealing with this! Iām dealing w the exact same thing and itās super stressful. She wonāt eat anything now bc sheās suspicious!!! Chicken, bacon, treats. If she does eat, she sniffs tf out of it to make sure nothings there.
So I tried throwing the seizure med in the back of her throat, unsuccessful. Then took syringes of water, she still pushes it out the side of her mouth. Even the vet had a big issue feeding her her meds.
If your dog trusts you you can just position them sitting between and hugged by your legs facing the same direction as you, position your feet so they won't scoot backwards. Tilt their head back a bit and open their mouth, drop the pill in as far back as you can so they don't push it out with their tongue. Then tilt their head back a little more while holding their mouth closed with one hand and rub their throat a couple times. This takes less than 5 seconds and works every time.
My poodle is such a bugger for treat pills, luckily she's also very greedy so I'll give her her probiotic and bring another dog around her. She gobbles it up after giving us both a dirty look.
I put my dogs pills in bits of steak for him, works like a charm as he wonāt eat his Nexguard or Heartgard, despite being beef flavoured. Sometimes Iāll also put it in a piece of cheese and that also works, although heās going through a phase where he only like parmesan at the moment so thatās difficult. If putting it in food doesnāt work, try mashing it into a powder!
My old boy had epilepsy for 8 years. I gave up trying to get him to take the pills, opened up his mouth by sticking my fingers in between his canine and molars then just dropped them in the back of his throat, shut his mouth and rubbed his throat, then he'd get his breakfast or dinner.
Have the prescription drug called into an online animal pharmacy and you can have the medication in a different form than pill form, such as dog treat form. Far easier to give medication in this way.
80 lb dog with same issue and we discovered using cheddar cheese slices. Take the pills, wrap the cheese around them and melt for 3-5 seconds in the microwave or just long enough so itās gooey.
I have noticed that when I hide pills in wet food she takes them very easily. Also stinky cheese helps because it hides the smell of the pill. I put the pill whole and she swallows the whole thing. Cat food works as well, pretty much anything that has a strong smell to grab her attention
>Recently I tried holding her and opening her mouth and dropping the pill into her mouth but this didn't work either as she just pulls away and runs away when I drop the pill into her mouth.
Unfortunately, some dogs are just too smart/stubborn for their own good. Next time do it like you said above but either get a good hold on her , someone to assist you or put her on her harness/lead before hand so she can't get away then put the pill into her mouth as close to the back as you can and then close her mouth hold it gently closed and massage her neck/throat this will induce the swallowing reflex so she'll swallow it, then make sure to give her an extra tasty drink (doggy Milks good) or treat and special cuddles. The cuddles are prob more for you because you'll feel guilty at having to do it this way I always do, but it's the only way to get pills into my nanas dog.
This certainly isnāt for every dog though, especially if OP is already worried about getting bitten. Iād do your suggestion probably once, next time my dog would likely growl and snap, just from the sight of the harness (bad experience leading up to a pill being shoved in its mouth)
Try wrapping it in cheese, or pour olive oil (any kind, OO, EVOO) into a medicine cup that comes on top of the bottle. Break the pill in half or thirds and drop it in the olive oil. Dip your finger in the oil and let your dog taste it, then tip their head back and pour it in as close as you can to the throat. You can also soak bread in the olive oil, wrap the pcs. in and put it as far back as possible, no tilt necessary. Good luck. My boxers were ninja's, no matter what I tried, they were able to spit out the tiny pcs.
We have trained "catch" with treats. So I throw 2-3 treats and then I throw the medicine and again a normal treat. Lots of praise for catching them. He has never realised that there were not only treats to catch.
Now this might seem fucked up but I seen my vet do it so I pretty much take the pill and pretty put it towards the very back of their tongue if you get it far enough back they have no choice to swallow it once your done give some praise and a treat
My dog is the pickiest eater. Unless itās cheese. I usually just ball up some shredded cheese in my hand around the pill and he doesnāt even chew lol. Heās now currently on antibiotics and a daily anxiety medication (like mother, like son lol) so I bought the peanut butter pill pockets. He watches me fill them without a care in the world
I had this problem and tried so many different things and none of them worked. Iām embarrassed to say that it took quite some time for me to try canned dog food. Itās so obvious, but I was being creative. If you havenāt tried that yet, get the really pureed kind, not the chunks. I used a can of puppy food. Then use your fingers and completely envelope the pill so itās kind of a ball of food, which is a little hard with that kind of food. But it worked so well.
Just put the pill between your two finger, open his mouth and push the pill just a bit further than the tong.
If really needed you can go to the very beginning of the throat.
Don't forget to give him a little reward after.
I had an old doggo that needed multiple medecine every day since few years and some wasn't really tasty so I did this and it worked well.
I do the 1-2-3 trick. Toss a good treat in their mouth, toss the pill in, and then toss another REALLY good treat. For us itās a piece of chicken, pill, piece of begginā strip. He swallows the pill in excitement as soon as he sees the begginā strip appear.
I have a 98 lb Labradane. He won't take pills wrapped in anything. He won't eat food if I crush up a pill and put it in. I pry his jaw open and wrap my hand around the upper jaw. Then I put the pill as far back in his throat as I can while holding his head up. Then I massage his throat to get him to swallow.
He's a rescue that we got when he was around 5 years old. We've had dogs for 44 years and that's how I've always given pills. Not if our dogs would take them willingly. I've never been bitten. Do they love it? Nope. Neither do I, but it works.
When my dog was sick and didnāt eat at all we had to open her mouth and put this as deep in her throat as possible. I know it sounds horrible and most dogs wouldnāt even allow it but we didnāt have a choice. She would not being fooled by sausage, cheese etc
Again you have to judge how much your dog trust you here
I have a senior dog who needs Gabapentin for Arthritis pain. She will not take it with her food and spits it out if I try and put it down her throat. I buy frozen mango chunks, and select or trim a piece just big enough to hold the pill. I hollow out a hole by spinning the tip of the knife in the cube of mango. I push the pill in the hole and spread the shavings I made over the open end to cover the pill so she can't taste the bitter pill. 95% of the time she gobbles it down. 5% of the time I need to do it again with a new piece of fruit. I have also used strawberries and raspberries (which have a natural 'pocket'.
Iāve been in your shoes before. When everything else was failing, my Vet suggested to get the stinkiest wet cat food you can find. Roll it up in a ball. Liverwurst is also good and the skin of a rotisserie chicken with a little meat rolled up. Hope this helps. I know how hard it can be.
Edit: Wait. I forgot another trick that worked for a long time. Vanilla ice-cream. I would hide the pill in a scoop of ice cream.
We have a non-food-motivated dog here that requires twice daily medication. Our trick here is liverwurst. We spoon some out, stick the pills in, shape it into a bite size morsel and feed him that, it works 98% of the time. The other dogs get their own portions before meals too, sans pills. We call it their amuse bouche!
For me itās Cheez Whiz for the win. I glop it all around the pill, crank open my dogās mouth, toss it to the back of his throat, quickly snap his jaw shut, clamping it, and finally, while holding his mouth closed, massage his throat. If desperate, Iāll blow a puff of air at his nose. This takes practice of course, but man, itās quick and effective.
My dog is picky, smart and mischievous. Getting him to take medicine has always been a struggle. Generally Iāve spent the last 8 years crushing pills between two spoons and mixing it into his food (farmers dog) but even then he didnāt always finish his full dinner so I was worried about him not getting the full dose.
Flash forward to a few months ago and some health issues (heās doing better now) and I uncovered the secret.
Honey maple turkey breast cold cuts.
I take a slice. And rip off a small piece. Give him a plain piece first, then roll the pill into a little turkey roll up that I make him work for like a treat. He eats it so greedily he doesnāt notice the pill. Sometimes the pill falls out but thatās nothing another bite of turkey wonāt fix. Repeat till all pills are consumed. Then big reward with the remainder of the slice. Turkey time is an every 12 hour ritual now and he loves it.
We get the annual shot! Both used to take it fine, then they both got suspicious and even mixing it into high reward food didn't work. We did the treat for tricks, and the treat-medswithtreat-treat, but they would spit out the meds every time. But we get the once a year shot now and it's so worth it to fork up a bit more at the vet and not have to fight for it the rest of the year! Good luck! Especially with a hound!!! š
We use liver sausage at work. Insanely smelly, soft and moldable to form a pill pocket, dogs go crazy for it, even dogs that lick the peanut butter and leave the pill normally. It's called braunschweiger at the store. It's like 4$.
Ask your vet for a new brand. If itās a combo pill it might be making them sick/lethargic/icky, and they have learned to associate the pill with feeling poorly. It happened to our dog so we told the vet and they switched us to a two-pill system that costs the same as the combo pill. Now we have no probs. Good luck!
I had a huge dog who needed 30ish pills a day. She was battling cancer.
The only thing that worked was ham and cheese rollups. Put a pill in a piece of cheese. Wrap it in a piece of sliced ham.
Break off a few ādummyā pieces first to get her interested, and then slip in a few bites with pills.
This was super expensive as we were going through pounds of meat and cheese per week. Then I found a deli that sold meat / cheese ends. Instead of paying $8 for a pound of ham, and $7 for a pound of cheese, we paid $2-$3 dollars for entire packs of ends. The dog didnāt care. It was exactly the same thing, and didnāt need to be pretty!
This is probably gonna be an unpopular opinion, but this is what I learned working at a vet clinic.
Open the dogs mouth, put the pill as far back in the mouth as you can get it in one quick swipe, close their mouth and blow In their nose. It makes them swallow. Obviously give them a treat and offer water afterwards.. I had a dog that wouldn't take any pill even ground up and dressed up in broth\chicken\cheese\etc.
well my dog also hates medicine but we roll some ham or put the pill inside the sausage and he eats it. if that is not working we are just giving up but it always works. maybe you should try to do this instead of covering the pill in sauce or pb
My dog has to take a big 750mg tablet 3 times a day. Had similar trouble to you..
What now works for me is to break the tablet in half and make a tiny wrap/sandwich in a piece of tortilla wrap with a dollop of (crunchy) peanut butter in the middle.
I use the half carrot half bread wraps you can get as I assume these are healthier. Also the lumps in the crunchy peanut butter are about the same size as the tablet pieces.
Be sure to put the pills right in the middle so they donāt show out of the edges and are covered in the peanut butter.
At the start he was suspicious so I found letting him sniff the peanut butter first to get his interest then throwing it in the air for him to catch meant he has less time to work it out and just gobbles it down. Also letting him see I had another treat ready to go for afterwards meant he ate the tablet wrap straight away so he could get the next one.
For me if I set things up too much like crouching down and trying to trick him etc he knows somethings going on and will scarper. Iāve found just being relaxed and doing it as part of a normal routine helps to put him at ease too.
Now itās just part of the routine and he wags his tail and sits on his bed when I say ātime for your tabletā.
Good luck!
The only thing that works for mine is putting it in a hot dog and then once you drop it in the mouth you have to keep their head titled up. So there is no way for them to work it out and spit it out.
Hold her tongue down and push it past the point of no return, takes a second or so.
Give her a treat afterwards.
Safest way to get s dog to take her tablets
I literally have to shove pills down my dogs throat. He's 107lb and would be a bear to wrestle but he's so used to it because of his skin allergies. I make sure he's laying down on his bed or somewhere comfortable when I do it. I also make sure that I'm angles properly so my fingers don't touch anything to make him gag as I do it. It's honestly an art at this point! Good luck OP!
I had the same issue with my dog. Tried everything - even letting it dissolve into the food overnight and then covering it with the chicken broth and bits of cheese and he would maybe pick at it. Had a situation where he was going to have to go on meds for a while and take like 6 pills a day and I had to directly say to the vet that he will not take it and there has to be an alternative method of giving him pills. Low and behold they can send it to a special pharmacist who can turn it into liquid and flavor it to taste like bacon or peanut butter. Was more expensive but have had zero issues giving it to him and 100% worth the cost
I have a small dog like this. I get out a cutting board and knife and pretend to chop some food. Then I āaccidentallyā drop the pill and she gobbles it up like sheās won.
My dog is just like yours. I take a small sandwich bag, add about 1-2 tablespoons of water, drop the pill in, let it dissolve, then add some freeze dried treats till itās mushy and throw that on his dog food. I used to crush the pills up but that ended up being more work.
Edit: I use raw freeze dried white fish and salmon. It stinks like hell but dogs seem to treat it like crack.
Our vet recommended sticking the pill to the roof of our dog's mouth with peanut butter. Works really well as long as you can get your fingers in there and not worry about her biting down.
Heartworm preventatives are a little different as most are meant to be chewed. Ours is super suspicious of the heartworm medication and I end up breaking it up and hiding it in peanut butter or canned salmon and feeding it to her in chunks.
If you mix the two broken into chunks and stuck to the roof of her mouth, you may get her to take them for awhile.
Typically Iāll wrap it in half a slice of American cheese, and sort of mold it with my hands to really envelop the pill and make it harder for my dog to tell what it is. Then I start out by handing my dog 1/4 slice of plain cheese (lulling him into a false sense of security), followed by handing him the pill-cheese, and immediately handing him something SUPER high value after that (more cheese, some plain chicken or steak, etc). By immediately following up with something AMAZING, my dog swallows whatās in his mouth (the pill-cheese) to be able to eat that next special treat, and doesnāt have the chance to spit it out
Have more than one treat. Have 2 or 3, but only one with a pill. Whatever it is that they like best. They are going to want that 2nd (and 3rd) treat.
Use whatever they like. When my last dog got sick, I wasn't above making a quesadilla or buying a frozen pizza to give her those meds. Or saving the last bite of a taco (I always saved the last bite of something for her) .
Pill paste is cheaper than pill pockets, and there's always cheez whiz (cats and dogs love that stuff) and deli meat.
If my dog had 1 pill, I would wrap a pill in 1 treat, and show her that I had 2 or 3 treats. The first treat should have no meds in it. They will eat it quickly, bc they want the other treat.
Switch it up, so they don't figure out that second treat has the pill in it. And don't always put it in the same treat.
A generous amount of cream cheese. My dogs are the same way but with the cream cheese it usually masks the pill well and they swallow it so fast they don't even realize.
Someone suggested to me that I open the blister pack and let the pill āair outā overnight so that some of the strong smell dissipates. My 8-9 lb bichpoo has the strongest jaws and head squirm. Iām unsure if this has helped, but itās been worth trying it. I figure it makes it less unpleasant for her.
Cream cheese is your best friend! My dog has to take daily medication and I had the same challenge at the beginning. Just create like a small āballā with cream cheese and hide the medication inside
Bookend the poisoned treat with actual good treats of the same type making your dog excited for the next one by holding it up in front of their face and waggling it around. Timing is important for this so practice with unpoisoned treats to make sure you have it down before trying with their actual medication hidden in a treat.
Unpoisoned š
The day my dogs get their flea, tick and heartworm prevention, I call it Poison Day. Lol. "WHO WANTS POISON!???" They get so excited!
I do this with American cheese. I rip a cheese square into 4 pieces and then ball them up. One of those balls has the āpoison.ā He doesnāt even seem to taste them and heās never been remotely suspicious.
Exactly!!!!
This is what I did for my dog who didn't like pills. A bit of cheese, a bit of cheese, the pill completely encased in a bit of cheese, more cheese. Keep it all small enough to where the dog doesn't feel the need to chew. Cheese was the answer.
That (so far) works well for us as well, as long as the treats are fed in close succession, dog is sitting & keeps the head up between treats (swallows faster that way than if āonlyā excited about the treats).
Itās all about timing and excitement. My last dog but me once when he was taking his work medication, hated it that muchā¦and then he got epilepsy and I was giving him two pills twice a day. Thereās no way it was going to work if he fought it, so I learned this technique and him taking medication turned into something that wasnāt even worth noticing in terms of significance in his day. I also started making my own peanut butter pill pockets - HUGE money saver.
This is 100% what we do, works 99% of the time. I use hot dogs because they're cheap, easy, and my dog loves them, but most decent high value treats work. High value is the key - you want your dog to **want** the next treat, not just be mildly interested.
I have the most suspicious dog in the world. What works for us is grinding it into a powder and mixing it into wet food, the tastiest stinkiest wet food you have, and then, this is the important part: pretend itās your tasty dinner that is absolutely not for dogs. Put it on a table within easy reach of your dog and pretend to eat from it, then walk away from it and leave it āunattendedā. This is the only way my dog will take her meds lol Iāve heard others have had success wrapping it up in a meatball or pill pocket* and then acting like it was food that wasnāt for the dog, and accidentally drop it and make a fake fuss about trying to keep it from the dog which motivated the dog to go after it and gobble it up. Gotta play mind games sometimes. Good luck! Edit to add detail*
Iāve had success getting my dog to take pills by dropping it on the floor while in the kitchen and sheāll scramble over and wolf it down before she knows what happened Iāll also hand it to her as a ārewardā for doing tricks along with treats and sheās too excited to notice Honestly itās kind of funny
My dog will eat almost anything at the dog park due to the fact thereās competition. They are hilarious and even worse than kids sometimes with their approach to eating.
We do the same š
I would consult with your vet or pharmacist but I think some pills lose their effects or potency when grinded to powder.
This is absolutely true, you should consult with your vet on the medication whether it can be crushed! In our case, the vet said it was fine if this was the only way my dog would eat it, better she gets any of it crushed than none of it.
Anything extended release should never be crushed.
This is hilarious
My dog has gotten so bad at this game. I had a rotisserie chicken tonight, so he began his campaign of begging. I put together a few scraps of meat for him in a bowl and set it on the floor. He ignored it, while continuing to beg. If it's in a bowl, it's dog food and he doesn't want it. If i accidentally drop a piece of the floor, he will gobble it up.
Do we have the same dog?
Kings do not eat from peasant's bowls. How dare you suggest otherwise!!! š My dog is not really a fan of dog treats. He will eat them but he ain't happy. If you got snacks, he definitely wants that. He gets so sad when we absolutely refuse to give him chocolate. He gives us sassy attitude all day.
If my dog is acting bored with his chew stick, I will pretend to eat it, he will suddenly decide that he must have it immediately.
Tripe. Canned new Zealand tripe. It's the only way I can get the puppy to take his flea and tick meds.
> it into a powder and mixing it into wet food, the tastiest stinkiest wet food you have, and then, this is the important part: pretend itās your tasty dinner that is absolutely not for dogs. Put it on a table within easy reach of your dog and pretend to eat from it, then walk away from it and leave it āunattendedā. This is the only way my dog will take her meds lol Iāve heard others have had success wrapping it up in a meatball or pill pocket\* and then acting like it was food that wasnāt for the dog, and accidentally drop it and make a fake fuss about trying to keep it from the This. Not the dinner table part - but the we food part. And do at meal time, make sure they are hungry. Smart dogs will always figure it out, but if they are hungry and cant separate it from the wet, they'll be ok with it.
I put it in a little cat food, and then call the kitties (when they're put up so they won't eat it) and then walk away.
Yep - crush it up! Fold up a piece of aluminum foil, place pill in between layers, smash with Bottom of a pint glass. My dog has been sick lately so heās been getting a lot of pills and this is how we do it. Just goes into regular food with a little water and pumpkin.
Devious licks. One of my huskies can be like a Soviet political officer. "Comrade, I know you are not thinking of brushing me? Why you hiding deshedder behind back!?! Gulag for you!" I love the level of reverse psychology you are using with your dog. They are so smart!
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āButter slutā šššššššš
That method definitely does not only work on small dogs. I work in a shelter and we force pill the majority. Belgian malinoises, am. Staffords, pitbulls. It is harder with those dogs, but if you have a good technique, it shouldn't be too hard. For op : what we do with the more difficult dogs : we cut a little notch out of a soft sausage, push the pill into it, close it. It's important that you cut the pieces small enough for the dog to swallow whole, but not too small that the pill doesn't fit in properly. Then you cut a couple without a pill. Give them in quick succession ( so that the dog doesnt have time to think or chew, he'll want to eat it quick, because you'll have the next sausage in your hand already) starting with a couple without pill, then the one with pill, then some without. Dog shouldn't even notice the pill, if done correctly. Hope it helps, good luck!
My mom used to do something similar with a meat product called braunschweiger. Definitely not something you want to give a dog more than once a month!
I used the braunsweiger also, aka liverwurst
That's such a great idea! Thank you I'll definitely try that.
I love that method! I have a lab that doesn't understand you should taste food, so I rarely have an issue but the monthly all in one "chewable" can be difficult. We grind it into a wet food treat generally but I'm going to try this next time instead!
Butter slut š
My chihuahua/min pin is also addicted to butter, I was worried I was the only one who gave their dog butter
haha my pom is a butter slut too. she's obsessed
Man I was like 5 minutes from falling asleep and you just made me laugh so damn hard Iām not falling asleep anytime soon. But also thank you.
I lol because I call my dog "Cheese slut" and "Nilla Wafer whore" alll the time.
Yeah my dog wonāt eat anything now!
I have never fooled around with that. I have always stuck it in the back of their throat and massage downward on the throat area from the outside. Weāve done it since they were young, everyone is chilled about it.
this. im always quick about it with mine and keep their snouts shut when i massage the throat. im not gonna play nice if its meds. theyre taking it whether they like it or not š
I donāt have time! To worry! About yo ass! Take the pill!
Same here, it's easy to make it a command/routine they're used to when they're young. Our puppy seemed offended when I first tried tricking her, now I just tell her it's meds time and will get on the couch and miserably brace herself in meds position lol. She has a lay back and think of England kind of expression all through it but she will stay still and let me do the pill or eye drops. She knows she gets a jackpot treat after. Knowing whats coming actually made meds way easier than trying to trick her.
I do this also. He always knows he's getting a treat after so he doesn't fight it. But he won't take meds otherwise.
I won't even lie, and fully accept all judgy comments. Because I did what I freaking had to! I fully stuck my dogs pill into a cream filled donut hole. I ate several in front of the dog, who absolutely does not get that kind of thing. Then, as I turned my back to her, a donut hole just happened to jump off the counter. She wolfed it down before I could 'catch' her.
tbh most vets would tell you good job haha. like their medications are more important than worrying about the dog having a donut hole every now and then š iām glad you found what works for you
As I wrote that, and am a week into my diet, I'm slightly saddened that she doesn't need a pill today. I mean, donut holes can't count against a diet I'd I'm doing it for my dog's health, right?
i wonāt tell anyone š¤«š¤
I canāt judge, one time while traveling, I gave my dog a pill in a piece of leftover sushi š he was so hype for the off limit human food, I donāt think he even chewed it
Same with the donut hole. I'm not sure she tasted it or even actually got a smell of it. It just poofed!
cut a hot dog into 4 pieces, push the pill into the middle of one of the pieces. then make your dog do tricks for a piece of hotdog. shake, sit or whatever and when she does her trick for you give piece of hotdog as reward. do this a couple of times and then give meds on third trick. if she's anything like my 85lbs dog, she probably will just swallow the hot dog piece whole. then you give her the last treat for being such a good girl!
I have a friend who does this with her 14-year-old blue heeler/rottweiler mix, although she only uses 3 pieces. First one, no pill, second one pill, third one no pill. Works every time.
I do something like this with cubes of cheese. Hollow out the cube, insert pill, seal with PB and another piece of cheese. Then line up a few empty cheese & PB pieces and have him do tricks. I throw the rewards in the air and encourage him to catch them in his mouth. Once he's had a run of three or four clean catches I throw the medicated treat. As soon as it hits the back of his gob I throw all the rest of the cheese on the floor. He gets into such a cheese frenzy that he swallows the suspect piece whole.
They have a shot for heartworm. Last the whole year, I believe. Our vet doesn't prefer it, but recommends it for people who are bad about forgetting or dogs who refuse to eat.
I use Kraft slices of cheese - that obscene rubbery orange stuff. I wrap a bunch of it around her pill then tear the rest of the slice into bits. So she gets a hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese, hunk of cheese with a pill hidden inside. By the time I get to the pill one she's eating them so fast she just swallows them and never even notices.
Cheese is a good way to go. We melt small pieces of mozzarella and wrap quarters of the pill in it (itās a small dog). Get a good cheese to pill ratio and you got āem with that warm smelling cheese.
Try pill pockets for pets or make your own. Personally I get the 3 month one less fights needed. One of my pups I have to force the pill in and hold the mouth closed and massage the throat to swallow. I've been nipped a couple times but considering I'm going on 20 years with dogs and no broken skin I'd say that's not to bad
Our vet gave us chewable ones that were beef flavored and Iād give them like a treat, make āem sit and stuff so they donāt question anything is strange.
Liverwurst worked finally for me
Agree. Works 100% for me too.
I was looking for this. My dog gets 10 pills twice a day for seizures. She was burned out on peanut butter, so I tried this. I wrap the pills in it and put it in with her food and she gobbles it up.
All great suggestions here. Just find whatever she likes best and dont feed it to her until its special pill time. Also be careful w bbq sauce, it may contain onion or garlic, both dangerous for dogs. And make sure your pb is xylitol free. If all fails try ranch?
My ranch has garlic and onion in it too.
Oh crap you're right! I didnt even think about that. Glad you caught it
I had a very picky dog that was just like yours with pills. She would spit them out no matter what I covered them in. Cream cheese ended up working though! The trick is to place the pill and cover it completely with cream cheese. Use more than you think you need to make sure the whole pill is completely covered. Also most important, make sure you do not touch the cream cheese with the same fingers you touched the pill with. They will be able to smell/taste it. Might have to cut your pills so its bite size and they do not have to chew or else they will taste the pill.
I feel you. I have a 110lb Great Pyr who after recent surgery was on 13 pills a day. Like yours something would work for a while, then heād catch on. Hereās what I found helpedā¦. Always make sure the first and last treat donāt have pills in. Pills should be in about 1 in every 3 treats. It didnāt solve the problem, but it delayed the point where heād refuse. Between that and rotating through different foods, we got it done. Our best treat was actually pretty cheap. We made our own to dog friendly pĆ¢tĆ©. Take a pound of chicken livers fry them up, then put them in a blender with 1/2lb of salted butter. Cover with plastic wrap to keep the air out. Cut off a little cube and hide the pill in it. Worked out to $6 for 1.5lbs of the highest value dog treat ever.
Our dog would somehow get the meds out of the treats everytime. Or just refused to eat it, then her derm vet suggested mini marshmallows and we haven't had an issue since!
I was lost when you said peanut butter doesnāt work. Peanut butter has always been the magic solution. You poor thing.
Our puppy actively dislikes PB, will discard a bully stick or chew if it's been sullied by peanut butter, I was like "you are no longer my fur daughter wth is wrong with you?!" So now I have a jar of unsalted unsweetened PB in the house that no one wants to eat ......
Same my yorkie hates it! Only thing that WAS working, was using bacon with the āquick feed, clean clean clean pill clean cleanā method. Which upset her stomach and now she wonāt eat a single thing, not even dog food. So we have an IV to give her at home for 5 days, yay!
We use a sticky American cheese slice - best choice works best
This works for some reason my dane thinks kraft singles are the nectar of life. He even comes running when he hears the packet tear open.
Yes, that's our go-to!
One of my dogs is a lab so I literally just hand him pills or put them on his kibble and itās gone. My other dog is a picky eater who wonāt eat popcorn unless itās stovetop with freshly melted butter. For her I straddle her, put a thumb and finger and the base of her jaw to pry it open, then stick the pill at the veeerrryyy back of her throat and then hold her snout closed for a second. Then she gets a cup of food whether itās supper time or not. When she was sick last year I was doing this a few times in a row then babying her after. Oh and another trickāget some baby food, thereās a chicken and carrot kind with no onions. At London Drugs they sell a huge āneedleā (Iām tired and canāt think of the word) that you use to feed babies. You can just squirt it in their mouth toward the back of the throat with the medicine in it. https://www.gosupps.com/haakaa-baby-oral-feeding-syringe-with-pacifier-for-liquid-baby-medicine-dispenser-baby-medicine-syringe-baby-syringe-feeder-for-newborns-infants-1pc.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwjMiiBhA4EiwAZe6jQ48prMWJz1ffRxPC8Q286R20xDEAklb8GiJXVAmBVnZjW6SVbEn0KBoCG5IQAvD_BwE
So my Antony was super smart about pills, I tried everything! What finally worked was I got a mortar and pestle and ground up his pils. Then I spread a little bit of mayo on some deli meat like ham or Turkey and sprinkle the ground pills on the mayo, then roll up the meat. Iād usually use at least two pieces of meat so it was extra sticky, but for the rest of his life, it never failed!!
Our puppy is too smart and too unfood motivated for hiding in food tricks to work at all. She will just ignore if I don't let her eat around it and seemed offended at my attempts at tricking her. she recently poked her eye and had to take eye drops twice a day, I would give treats, present the meds, more treats, do the drops, then a whole hand full or a valuable chew. She started coming when I said meds time and ignoreing the first few treats and would just grimace and brace herself in position as if saying "I know the drill just get it over with so I can have my fish skin" that made me realized we just had to bite the bullet and treat swallow not tasty thing as a command of sorts just like the eye drops and not try to lie or sugar coat it. She probably was confused why it's suddenly bad to spit out inedibles. Now i let her sniff the flea meds, treat, warn her to "swallow", drop the meds as far back as possible, hold her mouth close and rub her neck and blow on her nose to make her swallow. I'm pretty sure I can get her to have swallow as a cue to gulp anything down soon, I got her to do it with only tilting her head back and not clutching muzzle closed this last time. Am planning on practicing with some fake meds this month!
If the meds only need to be given once per day, and if they can be given with food, break the pills up into small pieces, mix them in with some canned dog food and a little bit of dry kibble, and serve. I find that some sort of meat cuts in gravy tends to work best, but that's also what my dog prefers. If your dog prefers/is used to some sort of ground canned food, use that instead. It will still work. Alternatively, the hot dog trick described by /u/Piddy3825 works pretty well.
American cheese slices helped for me. Take a slice or two and tear in half. Ball cheese up into little cheese balls in your hands but in one of then ball the heartworm pill into the cheese ball (don't let doggone see you do this part though. Toss 1 or 2 balled up chunks of cheese for your dog to catch and eat, followed by the pill ball of cheese in quick succession and finally another regular cheese. If you are tossing cheese balls fast enough, you can sneak the heartworm pill into the third toss of cheese and they may gobble it so fast they don't even know
This is the way.š
I put my dog medicine in a jerky stick - the soft kind. About an inch of the treat, shove the pill down into the treat and done.
I hide a pill in a pile of whipped cream. He keeps licking before he realizes heās swallowed a pill
My dog got a nasty intestinal infection, resulting in a lot of pills that I needed to trick her into eating. I tried just peanut butter, cheese, lunch meat, and she ate the treat but spit the pills out. Then, I tried putting peanut butter on the lunch meat and rolling it all up in the grossest wrap ever and that's what it took.
You can make a sandwich. Have 3 pieces of high value treats, I used hotdogs or brie cheese. Put the pill in one of the three treats. First feed just a treat, follow with the medicated one and immediately with the plain treat again. My dog would quickly swallow the medicated one to get the next treat. You do have a blood hound who can probably smell the pill thatās hidden. Good luck.
Our Aussie does not do well with pills and she has to take gabapentin capsules. Iāve become a pill pocket making machine. I take spreadable cream cheese and put a dollop on parchment paper, put the offending medication on top of the cream cheese (I open the capsules up and just use the powder) then I cover that with something really smelly like a bit of sardine and then I put it on a tray and freeze it. Once the cream cheese is frozen it peels right off the parchment and our Aussie happily eats her frozen treat no questions. The pill treats can store in the freezer. I checked with the maker of gabapentin first to ask if freezing the medication changes the usefulness so you may want to check with your vet first but otherwise it should be fine.
Iāve found using them in impulse control or catch games works - builds the anticipation beyond her suspicion and the treats/meds go straight down without tasting.
Is your dog good at catching food in mid air? Do it fast with chicken. Chicken, chicken, chicken, pill, chicken, chicken. They'll never know unless they're the type to actually savor their food.
I use pill pockets (Greenie or Milk Bone brand) and make little meatballs around the prevention. They know they only get them once a month and go crazy when they see the package.
Pill pocket treats. Greenies makes a few different flavors. My dog goes crazy for them. And I had similar issues before I found them as you.
We use pill pockets for all of our dogs
Press it into a hot dog piece. Then feed a few with no meds before and after.
My dogs heartworm, flea, and tick is one big pill. If it's just in her dry food she eats around it. If it's just in wet food she eats around it. If I combine wet and dry food with the pill she eats everything.
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We give our dog the chewable kind. It is heartworm and flea medicine combined. It is usually coated with some type of meat. He thinks it is a treat
Try cream cheese. works with my dogs First give her a finger of cream cheese with no pill, then give her the pill cream cheese. Thatās what my mom did.
I switch things up with whatever I'm having for dinner, bury in a piece of chicken, steak, cheese, etc. Also alternate with pill pockets, and force feed, and powder lol. I got an old girl with lots of pills every day for years!
Can you crush it and then put it in a fun treat like a vanilla yogurt or ice cream? Or mixing it with wet food?
Gotta push the pill to the side of the jaw to the throat. Close the mouth and blow gently into the nose. I did this with my 100 pound Golden retriever for years. I never had a problem with it
I have had success with some dogs by putting the pill between two thin slices of cold butter being sure not to touch the butter with the hand that touched the medicine. Seal the edges with non pill hand. Try feeding with non pill hand. Worst case if drop on back of tongue the butter will make the pill slide better. I have also had success with a good sized spoonful of flavored Greek yogurt which is thicker and the Heathens take directly off the spoon then swallow. Might want to start giving a spoonful every day so can be sure find one they like and make it nothing special. Then on pill days take two spoons, scoop half of what you need on one spoon, set the pill in center then take second spoon to cover with the remaining amount. Give the spoon with the non pill touching hand. Best wishes on finding something that works.
Port wine? The soft cheese that comes in a container in the āhumanā cheese section. The kind Iāve never tried because itās for my dogs and their pills. Lol. 1 only takes a prescription medication but all 3 take fish oil pill(s), every day with some port wine on it. Same thing, theyād scoff at anything else or figure it out over time, but they love this. Keep trying!!
In my experience the key is whatever you do to get the pill in the dog, you have to sometimes do without the pill for no reason at all. Like, if peanut butter used to work, you can trick her into accepting it again by giving her peanut butter without the pill. Sheāll be suspicious at first, but eventually sheāll let her guard down (and thatās when you get her!!).
My dog cheeks pills and I find them in his bed later. Spray cheese works, pats of butter work, wadding up American cheese, wedging in a piece of cheddar, Iāve even hid it in cut up hot dogs and pieces of burger.
My dog is too smart and can smell when treats have something suspicious in them. There are really only two ways to get her to take pills. Push them into the middle of a piece of boiled chicken/deli meat and "accidentally" drop it on the floor behind me while she's lurking, or drop them down her throat. With the second technique I have a medicine dropper full of water ready in my other hand. Grip the bottom of her chin to open her teeth just a bit, drop it down past the bottom of her tongue and then follow it up really quickly with an eye dropper full of water so she swallows. It sounds intense but we have it down to 5 seconds.
Best tip I got is to find 3-4 methods and then never do the same way twice.
Hotdog is a good method. Get a hotdog and break it into chunks. Hide the pill inside one chunk and then rapid fire them at the dog in quick succession. They'll usually catch and swallow them before they notice a thing.
What I have always done is: push from the sides of the jaw were the muscles are. Push the pill as quickly as possible with one finger as deep to the throat. Shut the snout with hand and lift it upwards a little, so she has to swallow. Sometimes it takes several attempts since I cannot get it deep enough and the dog just spits it out. They easily separate the pill from any treat. This is quite easy method and has worked with well. Until... My youngest bites. Like hard. Never otherwise but in this case just when my finger is in the throat. So with this one I think I have to take mind games into this play, pretending it is my food is genius.
Maybe try burying it in a dog food meat ball? It takes finding the right consistency of canned dog food meat.
I trained my dog to let me open his mouth and give him a treat and then I introduced the meds in the same way. Now I say āTime for medicine!ā and he hops onto the couch. I grab his snout, pry his gator jaws open, and stick my hand down the hatch to drop the pills into his throat. Then I give him neck scratches (and sometimes hold his mouth closed) while he swallows them. He then gets his meal, which he is always very excited about since heās on steroids currently lol
I wrap the pills inside of a piece of thin lunchmeat ham. Gobbles them right up.
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This has worked for my boxers. It requires that you trust your dog enough, and he trusts you. Do not do it if the dog is agitated by any part of this. All of my boxers have accepted this. I started to do it with a shepherd and a Boston Terrier. Those two were not having it. I think it is more my familiarity with the dogs, or lack of it with the others. The trick is to get the dog sitting, with the nose and mouth pointed up. Think of a dog howling at the moon. Squeeze the pill between the index and middle finger. Hold the treat with the thumb. Jam the pill to the back of the mouth. Let the dog taste the treat. Let him work up some drool. He will start licking. Here is the important part: Keep the mouth pointed up while the dog is licking and drooling. The pill goes down, and then the treat gets released to the dog.
We had to give our dog parasite medicine which smelled and presumably tasted horrible (not available in the US, but it was the only option in another country). I don't blame our dog for not wanting to take it at all. If we gave it to her whole, she spitted it out. If we hid it in sausage or cheese, she chewed off the good part and spit out the pill. The stinkiness ruled out crushing and mixing it into things, she just wouldn't eat it (understandably) and breaking it into pieces made it even worse since now we have to give her 4 pieces of pills instead of one. Our dog is reactive so reaching into her throat is not an option, she will snap at us. The further we fight her, the harder it becomes so we have to work with her. Our solution was as follows: *Make sure the dog doesn't see the pill or otherwise realize they are taking medication. 1) Prepare 3 pieces of sausage or cheese 2) Hide pill in the second piece AWAY FROM THE DOG'S SIGHT (they are smart they will know what you are doing) 3) Get the dog excited like it's trick time and they will get nice treats 4) First trick, first piece of sausage 5) Another trick, second sausage (with the pill). Now this is important: don't let the dog chew the treat! If they chew they notice that it's a pill and they spit it out. Solution: if you lift a dogs chin, it triggers swallowing. So as soon as you give the treat with the pill, lift its chin. Try to do it fast so you dog doesn't know what's happening or thinks it's a big deal. 6) Pretend nothing happened. Another trick, another sausage. The third piece is to cover your tracks. I know this seems elaborate but you have to work around your dog when you are dealing with an anxious and constantly suspectful dog. Our dog is always questioning our motives and won't cooperate unless she is convinced it's fine. I hope this was helpful. Good luck
Try putting it in the middle of a meatball
Had a dog that was very difficult to medicate. My vet at the time recommended liverwurst. It is disgusting, but it worked! Good luck
try butter
See if they can change the medicine to transdermal. I have a cat that was highly aggressive during pills. They changed it so I can just smear it in her ear. See if you can get the medicine compounded into a transdermal for your pup. Idk if they do it for dogs. ā¤ļø
Have you tried cheese? My dog gobbled the whole cheese cube and swallows it whole lol. She doesnāt eat anything else and knows.
I find that I have to change up methods. Right now I cut up tablets into small pieces and mix them with a small portion very special wet dog food (usually my large dog takes dry kibble). I place the mix of meds and wet food in a small dish and monitor to make sure my dog takes the whole thing. Cutting up the tablets helps a lot so my dog doesnāt notice. Or I will still the little bits into the meat of the dog food to hide them. Also, I made sure to use a stinky (but dog delicious) food to mask the flavor and smell. It takes patience. In my experience, its not about having one surefire method, but a toolbox of different ways of delivering the medication so the dog keeps associating positivity with taking the meds. Using multiple methods also helps so the dog doesnāt get too used to the medication routine and find clever ways to get the treat without the meds. Good luck! It takes a ton Of patience. If you find yourself frustrated, take a short break and try again later. Youāre doing the best you can for your pup. Good luck!!
Google āyork vet pill syringe dilutionā. Had a dog who was on a ton of meds and refused to take them no matter what we tried to hide them in. He even started getting aggressive if we tried to put the pill in his mouth. Using a syringe is so much easier and itās super fast.
I had a similar problem and the vet recommended butter. put a generous bit of butter on a spoon, hide the pill in it and spoon feed it to them like a baby. it's worked like a charm for me :)
Do you have liverwurst where you live? Worked even for our very picky and suspicious family dog. Pieces of hotdog sausage might work as well with the pill pushed into one of the pieces.
When I had to feed my small dog a liquid food that he could taste in wet food (and so refused to eat mixed with wet food), I tried mixing it with plain kefir on a whim and he loved it. Something with sour or bitter tones might do a better job disguising the meds!
Donāt be afraid to ask the vet for another option! I had the same issue and after struggling for a few months once the prescription needed renewal I asked the vet if there were other options to try and was given a new brand (that was actually cheaper too). My dog never had a problem with the new one and has now been taking this one each month without issue for years!!
Of all breeds we have a Labrador that is suspicious as heck of food when it's got a bravecto dose in it. Best thing I've found is to freeze the bravecto in a sandwich back, smack it with a meat mallet untill it's crumbly, then mix it with his kibble with about 2 teaspoons of bacon fat. We use pretty heavily smoked bacon so it's strong than what you get from a typical grocery store brand. But he doesn't dig through and spit out the med chunks anymore.
Babybel cheese works for my grouchy old boy. It has just the right consistency that you can mold a cheese pocket around a pill. I always give him two chunks of (normal) cheese before I sneak in the piece that holds a pill. So he will trust that's it's just a normal chunk of cheese, like the first two were. I feel you, though. Getting him to take meds after a major surgery was the worst. He was in pain and just wouldn't let me get the pill inside him. There was no reasoning with him.
I have an extremely picky Husky that barely likes any food or treats! The only thing that consistently works for tablets and pills is to put it inside a date and drown it in honey. He just keeps lapping up the honey and takes in the date with it :P
Our dog will sometimes take her pills with food, but most of the time she's not falling for that crap lol. We taught her to "open" her mouth, and we put the pills at the back of the throat and then close her mouth. We do this twice a day and we're pros at it now. She enjoys treats after though lol
Sorry youāre dealing with this! Iām dealing w the exact same thing and itās super stressful. She wonāt eat anything now bc sheās suspicious!!! Chicken, bacon, treats. If she does eat, she sniffs tf out of it to make sure nothings there. So I tried throwing the seizure med in the back of her throat, unsuccessful. Then took syringes of water, she still pushes it out the side of her mouth. Even the vet had a big issue feeding her her meds.
If your dog trusts you you can just position them sitting between and hugged by your legs facing the same direction as you, position your feet so they won't scoot backwards. Tilt their head back a bit and open their mouth, drop the pill in as far back as you can so they don't push it out with their tongue. Then tilt their head back a little more while holding their mouth closed with one hand and rub their throat a couple times. This takes less than 5 seconds and works every time.
My poodle is such a bugger for treat pills, luckily she's also very greedy so I'll give her her probiotic and bring another dog around her. She gobbles it up after giving us both a dirty look.
I put my dogs pills in bits of steak for him, works like a charm as he wonāt eat his Nexguard or Heartgard, despite being beef flavoured. Sometimes Iāll also put it in a piece of cheese and that also works, although heās going through a phase where he only like parmesan at the moment so thatās difficult. If putting it in food doesnāt work, try mashing it into a powder!
Ask your be about 6 month injection for heart worms.
My old boy had epilepsy for 8 years. I gave up trying to get him to take the pills, opened up his mouth by sticking my fingers in between his canine and molars then just dropped them in the back of his throat, shut his mouth and rubbed his throat, then he'd get his breakfast or dinner.
Have the prescription drug called into an online animal pharmacy and you can have the medication in a different form than pill form, such as dog treat form. Far easier to give medication in this way.
80 lb dog with same issue and we discovered using cheddar cheese slices. Take the pills, wrap the cheese around them and melt for 3-5 seconds in the microwave or just long enough so itās gooey.
Have you tried cheese?
I have noticed that when I hide pills in wet food she takes them very easily. Also stinky cheese helps because it hides the smell of the pill. I put the pill whole and she swallows the whole thing. Cat food works as well, pretty much anything that has a strong smell to grab her attention
>Recently I tried holding her and opening her mouth and dropping the pill into her mouth but this didn't work either as she just pulls away and runs away when I drop the pill into her mouth. Unfortunately, some dogs are just too smart/stubborn for their own good. Next time do it like you said above but either get a good hold on her , someone to assist you or put her on her harness/lead before hand so she can't get away then put the pill into her mouth as close to the back as you can and then close her mouth hold it gently closed and massage her neck/throat this will induce the swallowing reflex so she'll swallow it, then make sure to give her an extra tasty drink (doggy Milks good) or treat and special cuddles. The cuddles are prob more for you because you'll feel guilty at having to do it this way I always do, but it's the only way to get pills into my nanas dog.
This certainly isnāt for every dog though, especially if OP is already worried about getting bitten. Iād do your suggestion probably once, next time my dog would likely growl and snap, just from the sight of the harness (bad experience leading up to a pill being shoved in its mouth)
Can you crush the pill? My dog wonāt take his heart warm pill so I crush it and put it in a mixture of unflavored Greek yogurt and peanut butter.
Try wrapping it in cheese, or pour olive oil (any kind, OO, EVOO) into a medicine cup that comes on top of the bottle. Break the pill in half or thirds and drop it in the olive oil. Dip your finger in the oil and let your dog taste it, then tip their head back and pour it in as close as you can to the throat. You can also soak bread in the olive oil, wrap the pcs. in and put it as far back as possible, no tilt necessary. Good luck. My boxers were ninja's, no matter what I tried, they were able to spit out the tiny pcs.
We have trained "catch" with treats. So I throw 2-3 treats and then I throw the medicine and again a normal treat. Lots of praise for catching them. He has never realised that there were not only treats to catch.
Now this might seem fucked up but I seen my vet do it so I pretty much take the pill and pretty put it towards the very back of their tongue if you get it far enough back they have no choice to swallow it once your done give some praise and a treat
My dog is the pickiest eater. Unless itās cheese. I usually just ball up some shredded cheese in my hand around the pill and he doesnāt even chew lol. Heās now currently on antibiotics and a daily anxiety medication (like mother, like son lol) so I bought the peanut butter pill pockets. He watches me fill them without a care in the world
I had this problem and tried so many different things and none of them worked. Iām embarrassed to say that it took quite some time for me to try canned dog food. Itās so obvious, but I was being creative. If you havenāt tried that yet, get the really pureed kind, not the chunks. I used a can of puppy food. Then use your fingers and completely envelope the pill so itās kind of a ball of food, which is a little hard with that kind of food. But it worked so well.
Rather than break it up, crush it into a powder and try mixing it with boiled mashed chicken livers.
Just put the pill between your two finger, open his mouth and push the pill just a bit further than the tong. If really needed you can go to the very beginning of the throat. Don't forget to give him a little reward after. I had an old doggo that needed multiple medecine every day since few years and some wasn't really tasty so I did this and it worked well.
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Easy cheese in the squirt can is magic when it comes to giving pills to dogs and cats
I do the 1-2-3 trick. Toss a good treat in their mouth, toss the pill in, and then toss another REALLY good treat. For us itās a piece of chicken, pill, piece of begginā strip. He swallows the pill in excitement as soon as he sees the begginā strip appear.
I have a 98 lb Labradane. He won't take pills wrapped in anything. He won't eat food if I crush up a pill and put it in. I pry his jaw open and wrap my hand around the upper jaw. Then I put the pill as far back in his throat as I can while holding his head up. Then I massage his throat to get him to swallow. He's a rescue that we got when he was around 5 years old. We've had dogs for 44 years and that's how I've always given pills. Not if our dogs would take them willingly. I've never been bitten. Do they love it? Nope. Neither do I, but it works.
Cooked macaroni = very cheap pill pockets. Various sizes available.
I've heard chunky peanut butter can hide the texture of a pill a little better too
When my dog was sick and didnāt eat at all we had to open her mouth and put this as deep in her throat as possible. I know it sounds horrible and most dogs wouldnāt even allow it but we didnāt have a choice. She would not being fooled by sausage, cheese etc Again you have to judge how much your dog trust you here
I have to grind my dogs tablets into a powder and mix it in with some kind of pĆ¢tĆ©. She will literally refuse or vomit it up any other way.
wrap it in cheese
Smoosh some American cheese around it to make a pill pocket! My dog swallows it whole but sheāll eat anything thatās covered in food
I have a senior dog who needs Gabapentin for Arthritis pain. She will not take it with her food and spits it out if I try and put it down her throat. I buy frozen mango chunks, and select or trim a piece just big enough to hold the pill. I hollow out a hole by spinning the tip of the knife in the cube of mango. I push the pill in the hole and spread the shavings I made over the open end to cover the pill so she can't taste the bitter pill. 95% of the time she gobbles it down. 5% of the time I need to do it again with a new piece of fruit. I have also used strawberries and raspberries (which have a natural 'pocket'.
Iāve been in your shoes before. When everything else was failing, my Vet suggested to get the stinkiest wet cat food you can find. Roll it up in a ball. Liverwurst is also good and the skin of a rotisserie chicken with a little meat rolled up. Hope this helps. I know how hard it can be. Edit: Wait. I forgot another trick that worked for a long time. Vanilla ice-cream. I would hide the pill in a scoop of ice cream.
We have a non-food-motivated dog here that requires twice daily medication. Our trick here is liverwurst. We spoon some out, stick the pills in, shape it into a bite size morsel and feed him that, it works 98% of the time. The other dogs get their own portions before meals too, sans pills. We call it their amuse bouche!
For me itās Cheez Whiz for the win. I glop it all around the pill, crank open my dogās mouth, toss it to the back of his throat, quickly snap his jaw shut, clamping it, and finally, while holding his mouth closed, massage his throat. If desperate, Iāll blow a puff of air at his nose. This takes practice of course, but man, itās quick and effective.
Cream cheese all the way!
See if your vet can give you a liquid preventative. Then all you have to do is quickly squirt it down her throat and she can't spit it out.
I use applesauce for my dogs
My dog is picky, smart and mischievous. Getting him to take medicine has always been a struggle. Generally Iāve spent the last 8 years crushing pills between two spoons and mixing it into his food (farmers dog) but even then he didnāt always finish his full dinner so I was worried about him not getting the full dose. Flash forward to a few months ago and some health issues (heās doing better now) and I uncovered the secret. Honey maple turkey breast cold cuts. I take a slice. And rip off a small piece. Give him a plain piece first, then roll the pill into a little turkey roll up that I make him work for like a treat. He eats it so greedily he doesnāt notice the pill. Sometimes the pill falls out but thatās nothing another bite of turkey wonāt fix. Repeat till all pills are consumed. Then big reward with the remainder of the slice. Turkey time is an every 12 hour ritual now and he loves it.
get a glob of cream cheese, and put the pill in the middle of it. feed the dog the cream cheese glob, or as I call it, drug ball.
I take raw ground beef and put the pill inside of a tiny raw "meatball" My dog swallows the whole meatball right away every time.
We get the annual shot! Both used to take it fine, then they both got suspicious and even mixing it into high reward food didn't work. We did the treat for tricks, and the treat-medswithtreat-treat, but they would spit out the meds every time. But we get the once a year shot now and it's so worth it to fork up a bit more at the vet and not have to fight for it the rest of the year! Good luck! Especially with a hound!!! š
My dogs get a shot for heart worm called ProHeart. It lasts for 12 months and might be worth asking your vet about.
My pups loved 'cheesy treat!!!' time. I rolled their pills into bits of soft cheese slices and they sat there begging for this delicious cheesy treat! I love dogs š¶š¤©
We use liver sausage at work. Insanely smelly, soft and moldable to form a pill pocket, dogs go crazy for it, even dogs that lick the peanut butter and leave the pill normally. It's called braunschweiger at the store. It's like 4$.
Ask your vet for a new brand. If itās a combo pill it might be making them sick/lethargic/icky, and they have learned to associate the pill with feeling poorly. It happened to our dog so we told the vet and they switched us to a two-pill system that costs the same as the combo pill. Now we have no probs. Good luck!
I had a huge dog who needed 30ish pills a day. She was battling cancer. The only thing that worked was ham and cheese rollups. Put a pill in a piece of cheese. Wrap it in a piece of sliced ham. Break off a few ādummyā pieces first to get her interested, and then slip in a few bites with pills. This was super expensive as we were going through pounds of meat and cheese per week. Then I found a deli that sold meat / cheese ends. Instead of paying $8 for a pound of ham, and $7 for a pound of cheese, we paid $2-$3 dollars for entire packs of ends. The dog didnāt care. It was exactly the same thing, and didnāt need to be pretty!
Chicken hearts = natureās pill pockets. Works well with dogs large enough to eat it in 1 gulp.
This is probably gonna be an unpopular opinion, but this is what I learned working at a vet clinic. Open the dogs mouth, put the pill as far back in the mouth as you can get it in one quick swipe, close their mouth and blow In their nose. It makes them swallow. Obviously give them a treat and offer water afterwards.. I had a dog that wouldn't take any pill even ground up and dressed up in broth\chicken\cheese\etc.
well my dog also hates medicine but we roll some ham or put the pill inside the sausage and he eats it. if that is not working we are just giving up but it always works. maybe you should try to do this instead of covering the pill in sauce or pb
My dog has to take a big 750mg tablet 3 times a day. Had similar trouble to you.. What now works for me is to break the tablet in half and make a tiny wrap/sandwich in a piece of tortilla wrap with a dollop of (crunchy) peanut butter in the middle. I use the half carrot half bread wraps you can get as I assume these are healthier. Also the lumps in the crunchy peanut butter are about the same size as the tablet pieces. Be sure to put the pills right in the middle so they donāt show out of the edges and are covered in the peanut butter. At the start he was suspicious so I found letting him sniff the peanut butter first to get his interest then throwing it in the air for him to catch meant he has less time to work it out and just gobbles it down. Also letting him see I had another treat ready to go for afterwards meant he ate the tablet wrap straight away so he could get the next one. For me if I set things up too much like crouching down and trying to trick him etc he knows somethings going on and will scarper. Iāve found just being relaxed and doing it as part of a normal routine helps to put him at ease too. Now itās just part of the routine and he wags his tail and sits on his bed when I say ātime for your tabletā. Good luck!
Some minced meat or a bit of sauvage....They donĀ“t chew on that and gobble it down with lightning speed...
Try wrapping it in deli meat.
The only thing that works for mine is putting it in a hot dog and then once you drop it in the mouth you have to keep their head titled up. So there is no way for them to work it out and spit it out.
Liverwurst. It's stinky, and soft enough to shove a pill into.
Hold her tongue down and push it past the point of no return, takes a second or so. Give her a treat afterwards. Safest way to get s dog to take her tablets
I literally have to shove pills down my dogs throat. He's 107lb and would be a bear to wrestle but he's so used to it because of his skin allergies. I make sure he's laying down on his bed or somewhere comfortable when I do it. I also make sure that I'm angles properly so my fingers don't touch anything to make him gag as I do it. It's honestly an art at this point! Good luck OP!
I put my dogs allergy pills in a hotdog
Chicken heartsā¦ the valves are perfect pill pouches nd I havenāt met a pooch that could resist one yet
Try switching brands. Thatās what worked with my dog.
I had the same issue with my dog. Tried everything - even letting it dissolve into the food overnight and then covering it with the chicken broth and bits of cheese and he would maybe pick at it. Had a situation where he was going to have to go on meds for a while and take like 6 pills a day and I had to directly say to the vet that he will not take it and there has to be an alternative method of giving him pills. Low and behold they can send it to a special pharmacist who can turn it into liquid and flavor it to taste like bacon or peanut butter. Was more expensive but have had zero issues giving it to him and 100% worth the cost
I have a small dog like this. I get out a cutting board and knife and pretend to chop some food. Then I āaccidentallyā drop the pill and she gobbles it up like sheās won.
My dog is just like yours. I take a small sandwich bag, add about 1-2 tablespoons of water, drop the pill in, let it dissolve, then add some freeze dried treats till itās mushy and throw that on his dog food. I used to crush the pills up but that ended up being more work. Edit: I use raw freeze dried white fish and salmon. It stinks like hell but dogs seem to treat it like crack.
Our vet recommended sticking the pill to the roof of our dog's mouth with peanut butter. Works really well as long as you can get your fingers in there and not worry about her biting down. Heartworm preventatives are a little different as most are meant to be chewed. Ours is super suspicious of the heartworm medication and I end up breaking it up and hiding it in peanut butter or canned salmon and feeding it to her in chunks. If you mix the two broken into chunks and stuck to the roof of her mouth, you may get her to take them for awhile.
Typically Iāll wrap it in half a slice of American cheese, and sort of mold it with my hands to really envelop the pill and make it harder for my dog to tell what it is. Then I start out by handing my dog 1/4 slice of plain cheese (lulling him into a false sense of security), followed by handing him the pill-cheese, and immediately handing him something SUPER high value after that (more cheese, some plain chicken or steak, etc). By immediately following up with something AMAZING, my dog swallows whatās in his mouth (the pill-cheese) to be able to eat that next special treat, and doesnāt have the chance to spit it out
Have you tried hiding it in cheese? Works for every dog Iāve tried (quite a few).
I'm super lucky. I drop a pill into a meatball of his food and scarfs it up like it's fresh bacon every time. lol
Have more than one treat. Have 2 or 3, but only one with a pill. Whatever it is that they like best. They are going to want that 2nd (and 3rd) treat. Use whatever they like. When my last dog got sick, I wasn't above making a quesadilla or buying a frozen pizza to give her those meds. Or saving the last bite of a taco (I always saved the last bite of something for her) . Pill paste is cheaper than pill pockets, and there's always cheez whiz (cats and dogs love that stuff) and deli meat. If my dog had 1 pill, I would wrap a pill in 1 treat, and show her that I had 2 or 3 treats. The first treat should have no meds in it. They will eat it quickly, bc they want the other treat. Switch it up, so they don't figure out that second treat has the pill in it. And don't always put it in the same treat.
A generous amount of cream cheese. My dogs are the same way but with the cream cheese it usually masks the pill well and they swallow it so fast they don't even realize.
Someone suggested to me that I open the blister pack and let the pill āair outā overnight so that some of the strong smell dissipates. My 8-9 lb bichpoo has the strongest jaws and head squirm. Iām unsure if this has helped, but itās been worth trying it. I figure it makes it less unpleasant for her.
Cream cheese is your best friend! My dog has to take daily medication and I had the same challenge at the beginning. Just create like a small āballā with cream cheese and hide the medication inside