For Those Who Have A Dog Who Hates To Take Medication

[TheFullHouse]

We had to take Jilly to the e-vet last night. Her UTI is back with a vengeance and she has blood in her urine. We're trying a new drug and having her urine cultured. Now this girl is a scent hound and darn if she doesn't manage to sniff out the fact that there are pills in almost everything I have tried. She's hard to pill because her head is so small I can't get the pills down her. I told the e-vet last night when she gave us two more pills for Jilly to take each day, on top of the two she's already taking, that I was running out of ideas on how to get her pills down her. We've used pill pockets until she bit in to her antihistamine and refused the pill pockets from that point on. I've tried hot dogs, cheese, peanut butter (which worked but gave her the runs) and even put some dry dog food in with her wet food and dropped the pills in there and darn if she bit into one of the pills and now won't eat the dry food! So the e-vet told me to go get some miniature marshmallows, cut a slit in one, drop the pill in and the marshmallow closes around the pill and it won't fall out. Give her one marshmallow without a pill, give her the marshmallow with the pill and then give her another one without a pill.

 

I tried it just a bit ago with her mid day Tramadol and it worked. I don't know how long it's going to take her to figure out that her meds are in there but it worked for today. I don't know what I'll do once she figures it out. Darn scent hounds!

[Hollis]

THANK YOU!

 

 

and gentle skritches for Jilly.

[TheFullHouse]

I use miniature marshmallows because of Jilly's size. The e-vet uses regular marshmallows for her dogs because she has big dogs so with a greyhound you could probably use the big ones.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Gosh, I don't know. I just shove them down their throat, personally, but if that is hard to do with her, I have no clue. I hope you have fooled her. What happened to her? Is she okay? How old is she now?

[Remolacha]

I hope the latest drugs do the trick! It's a little messy, but braunschweiger might work, being a liver sausage, she probably wouldn't smell the pills, but if she bites into one, well, all bets are off!

[TheFullHouse]

This is a long story. Jilly Bean is 13, she'll be 14 in December. Back in April she snuck out while I had Bandita in the yard and she was running full tilt and clocked Jilly Bean right up side the nose. Jilly of course got a bloody nose from it. Well she continued to dribble blood from her nose for a couple of days and I got concerned so we took her in, they did x-rays to make sure she didn't have a skull fracture or something and she didn't so they put her on some antibiotics in case the bloody nose was a sinus infection that just happened to coincide with the bump on the nose. We also started her on some antihistamines because she was having some trouble with allergies. Well after 10 days she was still having a little discharge from her nose so we waited to see if it was going to get worse or not. The next step was to take her in and scope her nose and throat to see if they could see where the blood was coming from and they didn't find anything. Fast forward to two months ago and we took her in again and she apparently had a UTI and was showing no symptoms so she received a steroid shot and some antibiotics. Three days after being given the shot the nose bleed stopped. No dripping at all. She was given a long acting antihistamine and antibiotics for the UTI. We took her back 10 days later and she still had a little of the UTI and the nose started leaking again so more antibiotics for the UTI and the vet told me if the nose got worse to call and she would put her on oral steroids to see if that worked. Monday the nose got a little worse so I called and Mike picked up the steroids on Monday night and by Wednesday no more blood coming from to nose. Last night however she started peeing in the house and it was very bloody. It's either a continuation of the original UTI or another one. So as I said a different antibiotic for the UTI and a urine culture.

 

As far as her nose, it could be a polyp or it could be cancer. The only way to know is an MRI but since we've agreed that the treatment for nasal cancer is surgery and then several rounds of radiation and we don't want to put an almost 14 year old dog through the trauma of having all of that done for a disease that only has a 20% survival rate and then it's usually no more than a year, we're just playing a wait and see game. Right now she has no other symptoms but the bloody nose. Her eyes track normally and on physical examination she shows no outward signs of cancer so she will have monthly check ups.

 

I looked at her last night and told her what a shame it was that we've at least temporarily stopped her from bleeding at one end and now she's bleeding out of the other end.

Edited July 13, 2012 by JillysFullHouse

[JAJ2010]

If the dogs give me an issue I just smear the PB with the pills as far back in their throats as I can and watch for colored ejections. Rainy loves marshmallows though! Sunshine hates them...

[Guest GreytgroupLeader]

Poor Jilly Bean. When Ketchie was going through her medical woes she was the same as Jilly. Ketchie was very leary of any treats because somehow she knew there was medicine in there somewhere. Two things that seemed to work for short periods of time were Cheese Cake (seriously) and liverwish ( sorry can't spell) Cheese cake because Ketchie loves sweets and a pill would slide down easily and liverwish as she loved the smell and I could hide the pill easily.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Awwww. I hope she is okay and it's nothing!!!!!

[BootsyCollins]

marshmallows is a great idea! I've used cream cheese with american cheese rolled around it with great success also.

 

for the bean

[winnie]

Two of our greys take Proin daily - and have for a couple of years now. They've figured out every trick in the book. We just shove them down their throats. Not fun for us, but the dogs seem to forget all about it within seconds.

[mom2four]

Good hint on the marshmallows! I'll remember that one.

 

I have used liverwurst with huge success in the past. I pilled angel Jamey for 27 months using liverwurst.

 

Get better little Jilly Bean.

[Time4ANap]

Squirty cheese can also be pretty appetizing when you need to get meds in them. You can seal up some bread with it so they don't know there's a pill inside.

 

When I had to give Rocket liquid panacur recently, there was no way i was getting that syringe near his mouth. Being the bread lover that he is - I bought some of those little Hawaiian rolls, injected the panacur into them, and topped them with squirty cheese....he thought it was the best thing ever....Panacur administered. After the 2nd day, he would come to the kitchen looking for his cheese sandwich....

[SilversMom]

Remember Jilly is little. There is not a great deal of room in that mouth of hers. I would much rather pill my guy Silver rather than one of the cats.

[a_daerr]

This may be a bit off-topic, but the symptoms of UTIs are really difficult to get rid of- even for people. I had a pretty bad UTI last spring and was prescribed a strong dose of Cipro for ten days. Months after that, I still had UTI-like symptoms. I had to see a specialist, and apparently the bacteria from the infection can irritate the lining on your bladder. Then, depending on the different foods and drinks you ingest, urine continues to irritate the bladder lining, causing it to feel like a UTI even when the infection is gone. It was really painful and annoying.

 

Anyways, I hope everything is okay. I have a soft spot in my heart for Jilly.

[heartdogs]

Hope Jilly doesn't figure out the pills & gets better. Noelle doesn't like fingers in her mouth but takes her phenobarb with only a small nip of my finger. I'll have to tell Laura about marshmellows for her 2 old "spots & dots" as they don't like pills either.

[TheFullHouse]

This may be a bit off-topic, but the symptoms of UTIs are really difficult to get rid of- even for people. I had a pretty bad UTI last spring and was prescribed a strong dose of Cipro for ten days. Months after that, I still had UTI-like symptoms. I had to see a specialist, and apparently the bacteria from the infection can irritate the lining on your bladder. Then, depending on the different foods and drinks you ingest, urine continues to irritate the bladder lining, causing it to feel like a UTI even when the infection is gone. It was really painful and annoying.

 

Anyways, I hope everything is okay. I have a soft spot in my heart for Jilly.

 

I thought it was gone but she was peeing about every 10 minutes and had blood in every single pee. They checked her urine last night and it was full of white cells which is why they put her on a different antibiotic this time. She was in a lot of pain last night and the vet said to give her tramadol 3 times a day for a couple of days until the antibiotic starts to work.

[carronstar]

Hope Jilly Bean feels better soon.

[Guest PiagetsMom]

Would have never thought of marshmallows - my pups have never had them. I remember someone on here also suggesting Chef Boyardee Ravioli as a pill pocket, but they're probably still too big for a little one. Like others, we have great luck with the liverwurst, which I think Tricia (45MPHKP) suggested in a previous thread.

 

Sorry to hear about Jilly Bean - hope this time around gets your girl fixed up!

Edited July 13, 2012 by PiagetsMom

[kikibean]

They make something called Flavor-Doh for pets that we've had some success with. Molly is very suspicious that we're trying to poision her (frequently dumps her food bowl on the floor so she can check out the kibble) and she will take pills in it. My friend's dog who won't take pills in anything else will snarf down the Flavor-Doh.

 

Of course the dog I'm dog sitting now will have nothing to do with it, but it might be worth a shot.

[BatterseaBrindl]

 

and a little for Jilly

[GreyPoopon]

Just a thought for future reference (in case Jilly figures out the marshmallow trick): there are little 'piller' tools for cats that are sort of like a syringe with a claw at the end to hold the pill. You put the pill in the claw, insert into the mouth, and press down on the plunger.

[dante2zoe]

Poor thing. I hope she feels better soon! I have also had success using cream cheese to stick to the pill. Indy has been taking his gabapentin powder (his dose is half the smallest capsule) in grilled cheese - the melted cheese is hard to separate. He is a tough one to pill, too. He gets several medications twice a day and my fingers are usually a little chewed. No fun - for him or me!

[Batmom]

Just a thought for future reference (in case Jilly figures out the marshmallow trick): there are little 'piller' tools for cats that are sort of like a syringe with a claw at the end to hold the pill. You put the pill in the claw, insert into the mouth, and press down on the plunger.

 

That was going to be my suggestion. Then you just have to open her mouth and you can get the pill shooter way back into a small mouth when there's no room for your hand.

 

Scritchies for your little one and hope she is all better soon!

[GeorgeofNE]

What works with cats (mouths are way to small to just shove the pills in) is a drinking straw with a slit in the end. Stick the pill in the slit, open the mouth, poke the straw into their gob, and make the pill fall off and down the throat!

 

Do NOT tell Jilly I told you this.