Giving Medication

[dogsbestfriend]

Hello all,

I am having the hardest time figuring out how to get my Rotty to take his medication. I just got him back from the vet today after hospitalizing him for 3 days due to some gastro intestinal virus... Doc's are still unsure of what caused it but due to all the tests they had to run.. I now KNOW that he is in very good health !!

Anyways, I have to give him pills.. two pills, twice a day, but I also can only give him half a can of food 3 times a day for 48 hours until his stomach and intestines get back to normal... How do I get him to take his medicine..

I have tried:

1. making a ball out of the canned food and playing the pill in the middle **he eats around the pill and or spits it out**

2. Crushing the pill up in powder form and mixing it in
**he didn't even touch the food**

he hasn't eatin since Thursday due to the sickness and hospitalization so I KNOW he is hungry..

I was told that I will probably have to simply stick the pill down his throat.. but I have never done that and not sure if he will throw it back up !! I have also been told that putting a little Cheese Whiz around the pill should convince him to "take it on down" so to speak...

Any advice, thoughts , suggestions ??

[Lorrie]

I call it butter supplement! LOL!

Take a little butter on your finger and let them lick it off. Mmmmmm -- good stuff!

Have the dog "sit" in front of you. Then take the pill and bury it in the margerine and take the lump of it, hold it ABOVE the nose (so the throat becomes a straight line) -- let the dog lick that right off your finger as a lump and down it will go.

[observer]

I use velveeta cheese for thyroid pills and fish oil caps...but that butter/margarine thing probably works too!

[SaranBear]

We also use cheese, and we have put it into the middle of a (bite size) piece of hot dog. Maybe that will work for you good luck

[Cherry Heart]

I pull a kraft single into 4 peices. I wrap the pill in one then start to feed. Toss 1, toss 2, toss 3 (with pill in the middle), toss 4. She never even notices because I am tossing the next one before the last one is fully swallowed.

[moondog]

Most of the time dogs with gastro upsets don't do well with the fatty foods dogs love best (butter, cheese, peanut butter). My Luna needed ongoing medication and would explode with diarrhea at the smallest tidbit of fatty food. I used chicken baby food to bury her pills in and she ate it right off a spoon.

Does your dog know how to catch? When dogs catch food, it goes right down the hatch as long as it's not too big of a piece. They tend to catch and swallow. When Luna was really not feeling well, I made a game out of pill time. Make 3 or 4 little balls of the canned food, and put the pill in one of them. Hype him up and tease him a bit, give a few commands, then lob one of the balls to him that doesn't have a pill in it. If he's excited for more, repeat..but this time lob one with the pill in it. If he's not excited for more, repeat and lob another with no pill, then try again with the pill. End with a "Good, boy!" and a last one with no pill in it. Dogs think if they "work" for something, it must be good!

[2rotties2luv]

I would not advise using cheese or butter if your dog has a stomach upset and is supposed to be on a bland diet.

Take the canned food and make 3 or 4 balls with it. Hide the pill in the first one. Put the others in your hand so he can see that you have more than one. Give him the one with the pill inside, and as soon as he takes it, offer him the second and third ones. Usually, they are in such a hurry to get ALL of the treats, they will gulp them down. Remember he has to see that you have more than one treat.

If you have to give the pills by sticking it down his throat, here is the method I've used successfully in the past:
Take a dog biscuit or other treat and hold it in your left hand. Make sure the dog sees it and smells it. While pinching the treat between your fingers, grasp the dogs upper jaw behind the nose and gently open the mouth by pulling down on the lower jaw with your right hand(which is holding the pill). As soon as the mouth is open, put in the pill and push it back as far as you can into the dog's throat. The dog should still be aware of and smelling the treat in your other hand. Immediately close the dog's mouth and massage the throat from chin to chest to encourage the dog to swallow. Then open his mouth and shove in the treat. Usually, the dog will be focused on getting the treat and will not bother to try to spit out the pill which is already halfway down his throat.

It may take a couple of tries before you get the moves down, but it can be done! The object of both methods is to get the dog's attention on plain yummy treats and off of the pill.

Reading moondogs post above, I had limited success hiding pills in a spoonful of baby food - it only worked if the pills were small ones.

[observer]

The "play catch" method is a good one, and probably preferable if you are dealing with a gastro upset; even though you can use very small amounts of those other things if the pills are small, they aren't really bland diet material. 2rotties method sounds good too, if you have to actually administer the pills.

[AngelBunny]

I simply open my dog's mouth and put the pill as far down the dog's throat as I can put it, then close the dog's mouth, and stroke the dog's throat til I feel the dog swallow. Then, I reward the dog with a treat, clapping my hands, and telling the dog how astonishingly clever the dog is.

[StephanieandToby]

Originally Posted by 2rotties2luv

Take the canned food and make 3 or 4 balls with it. Hide the pill in the first one. Put the others in your hand so he can see that you have more than one. Give him the one with the pill inside, and as soon as he takes it, offer him the second and third ones. Usually, they are in such a hurry to get ALL of the treats, they will gulp them down. Remember he has to see that you have more than one treat..

This is the method I use, and works wonders if you have a nice, greedy dog...

If the dog won't eat, I pry open the jaws...stick the pill as far back on his tongue as possible...then hold his mouth shut and rub his throat until I see him swallow.

There are some medications that can be put into liquid form. If you always have a problem with pills, you can ask your vet if that would be an alternative for you. The liquids can also be flavoured with beef or chicken....if the dog still won't touch the liquid...you can squirt it down the side of his mouth with a syringe.

Good luck!

[Cherry Heart]

If fatty foods like cheese and peanut buttter aren't good would maybe a banana chunked up work? My dog loved banana and they are soft enough to smoosh a pill in the center of. Arwen would swollow so fast no pill would stand a chance!

[dogsbestfriend]

WOW.. these are reallty great suggestions.. I never woul have thought of teh ball thing... I'll try that one first..

Is the banana thing safe though...

See, th eOTHER issue is, He is used to eating Solid Gold Lamd.. Been feeding him that since he was about 8 months old... now is 1 and 2 months and he is putting his nose up at the SCIENCE DIET M/D that the doc gave me.

And I thought he'd just scarf the food down being he hasn't eatin in almost 4 days !!!! Boy was I wrong.. LOL !!

[kayozzy]

Just to throw another squishable food out there. I take a small piece of bread and squish it around the pill. My dogs love treats and swallow things very fast. If it is a big pill, it sometimes takes my smaller dog a couple of tries, but he still swallows it after a couple pieces.

[2rotties2luv]

Banana and bread are both pretty bland, so would likely be OK. I've also given pills hidden in a spoonful of low-fat cottage cheese which is OK for a bland diet. If using the spoon method, have 2 spoonfuls of cottage cheese ready. Hide the pill in the first one, and let the dog see that you have two spoonfuls. Dump the first one in his mouth and immediately offer the second one to distract from the pill, and hopefully he'll swallow everything.

I just remembered I've also hidden pills in a squished-together ball of cooked rice sprinkled with chicken broth powder.

Mainly with a bland diet, you want to stay away from foods with a high fat content and stick with foods that are easy to digest.

Also, if he won't eat the prescription Science diet, ask the vet if he can have boiled chicken and rice and/or low-fat cottage cheese and rice for a few days until he is better. Most dogs love this.

[pazzo]

I use plain yogurt. I put a bit on the spoon and then the pill, a bit more to cover pill and viola! He takes it right off the spoon and I tend to hold it higher than his nose and angled straight down (towards his tonsils) and it just slides down....HE thinks he got a treat and waits for more!

....and may I add, what clever people our members are !