Getting Pills Into A Smart Little Spitfire?

[Guest greytexplorer]

Well Hannah has been on her Doxy for about half a month now - you can tell her tummy is a little upset and I'm looking forward to when we're done but I've run into a problem - Hannah may not be very smart about learning not to poop on the carpet but she is EXTREMELY clever when it comes to taking her meds.

 

She's on 2.5 Doxy twice a day, I'm having issues getting these pills into her. I've tried the "Open mouth and toss into the back of her throat" which she spits up 2 seconds later, I bought pill pockets - which she eats the pocket but not the pill by nibbling it off, we've tried cheddar cheese balls - which she won't take anymore, I've split Pepperoni down the center and stuffed the pill inside which she chews apart, spits out and then eats the meat leaving the pill on the floor and we've tried stuffing it in cat food - which she'll lick around the pill and leave the gravy covered pill sitting there.

 

I'm at a loss as to what I can do next....any suggestions?

 

 

Ahhhhhhhh.......my Mandy must live at your house.....she is the unholiest of terrors at pill taking.

True, not all pills can be mashed, but lucky for us, the meds she takes right now CAN be smashed.

So all pills/tabs are mashed to powder form, and mixed with enough stinky canned cat food to hide it.

I have done the "forced pilling", but dang, it got to where every time Mandy would see me coming toward her, she'd run away, even if I didn't have any pills to give her!

Good luck!!!

[Guest LazyBones]

fortunately gumby's arthritis pills are so tiny. i either put it in a chunk of wet dog food, a tiny pice of fig newton, or in a glob of cheez-whiz.

[kolarik1]

What she said about stuffing it down her throat. That works easiest for us. Fast and simple. If she tries to bite fold her top lip over her teeth and she won't even think about biting.

 

Luckily, Pop likes pill pockets and takes his pills that way, he also doesn't like peanut butter. However, before we got those, we just dropped them down his throat, kept his nose in the air and massaged his throat until he swallowed a couple of times. One time it took 20 minutes and you could tell he wanted to lay down as he isn't the type to stand upright for very long, but I was persistent and he finally swallowed...if they do fake swallows, you'll know and just re-attempt getting the pill as far back down the throat and massaging the throat to get her to swallow. That's how we got Pop to do it...now Zelda loves peanut butter and pill pockets, so no problems yet with her and pills.

[Guest taylorsmom]

try chunky peanut butter. It must be chunky.....they can't tell the diference between the nuts and the pill. Introduce it first before adding pills so she decides she likes it.

 

Pearl is picky....she takes 15 pills a day. She only likes liver and liverwurst. Very soft liverwurst. But she likes it so much, she doesn't try to take the pill out.

 

If she decides she doesn't like that, then I'm going to have to shove it down her throat. By the way, tossing it towards the back won't work. Stick your hand in her mouth and put the pill WAY back, where she can't get it back up.

Oh I like the chunky peanut butter idea, what a good one!!

 

My girls are raw fed, so I usually give them pills in a raw meatball of ground beef or turkey--they love it so much they just swallow it whole, usually.

 

I also second the idea that you have to sort of shove the pill all the way to the back of the mouth, and then as an added assurance for swallowing I hold their muzzles pointing up in the air (my hand encircling the muzzle so they cannot do any chewing or maneuvering the pill to the cheek or anything) and massage the throat to encourage swallowing--works like a charm!!

(Of course they always give me a REALLY dirty look after it's all done, like I just got one over on them!! )

Edited March 19, 2008 by taylorsmom

[Guest mirthlesstroll]

I used to use Braunschweiger(sp?) in a tube from the grocery store. It is smelly & delicious (OK, it's just smelly) Logan used to chow it down until he turned up allergic to pork. now I use Wellness dog food from Whole Foods - a little too squishy, but it works for us.