Need Some Help With Pills

[Guest IndyHound]

Beckett is on 4 different meds (Doxycycline, Fish oil, Niacin, and Vitamin E) and during breakfast takes 6 pills and 5 pills at dinner. I started off using pill pockets which worked great but were way too expensive to do on a permanent basis. Ive tried wrapping them in cheese (which he goes nuts for) but he doesn't always get the pills down with it. And I've tried just plain old peanut butter. Is there anyone out there thats in the same boat that has a recipe that would work? Or anything at this point because all that really works consistently is opening his mouth and placing them in the back and holding his mouth closed till he swallows (I hate doing this it just feels wrong.)

[macoduck]

We use liverwurst here.

[FiveRoooooers]

Can you give some of the pills in his food? I use a mortar and pestle to grind pills into dust and just mix into a regular meal. I understand your frustration, I really do!!

[Guest Energy11]

We open our capsules and put them in yogurt. We put our pills in either peanut butter or roll them in 2% cheese balls. This usually works. Good Luck. I have all chow hounds, so, except for Cari, "pilling" is easy!

[JJNg]

all that really works consistently is opening his mouth and placing them in the back and holding his mouth closed till he swallows (I hate doing this it just feels wrong.)

 

Does he object or get stressed with you do this? If not, there's nothing wrong with doing this, and it's often the most efficient way to go. When my girl was sick a couple years ago, she was on 4-5 pills with each meal for several months. Trying to hid the pills in food was making her pick around and take forever to eat. She doesn't object at all to me opening her mouth and putting the pills in, and it was much faster to just do it that way. I'd have her meal ready so that I could put down her food immediately after I gave her the pills. And if you get the pills far enough back, you really shouldn't even need to hold his mouth closed until he swallows. I got pretty good at holding all 4-5 pills in my fingertips at one time so that I would just have to do it once.

 

My dogs all eat their fish oil capsules like it's a treat, and I just drop it on top of their food. If your dog won't eat them, you can poke a hole in it and squirt the oil over the food so you have less pills to get him to swallow.

[Guest DeniseL]

I would bake chicken breast, then take a cube of it, make a slit in it, slide the pill in, and then 'spackle ' it shut with peanut butter. The trick with maya was to make it small enough that she wouldn't really chew it, and thus not risk biting into the pill. I would have to rotate my pill technique every so often because she would eventually wise up. Sometimes I would use tiny meatball pieces using the same peanut butter paint. Often I would 'mold' cheese around the pill, again just small enough to cover the pill and she would swallow it down. Sometimes I would have to stick it to the inside of her mouth with peanut buttet, which I didn't like doing either, but it usually worked. Maya had to take sometimes 6 tramadols in a day, which, I guess must taste really nasty because when she bit into one, forget it. I would have to come up with a new technique. good luck! My girl now will eat anything in her dish so I dont think I will have the same problem with her....

[Time4ANap]

I use Cheese for Rocket's pills and found that doing this lets them go right down.

 

Take a slice of American cheese and divide it into 4 pieces. Take one piece and put 3 pills (or whatever fits) up the middle. Fold over each side and press it down in your warm hand - sort of making a cheese tube with the pills inside. This keeps the piece of cheese small enough that he just swallows it, pills and all. If he has more than 3 pills, i just put up to 3 in each piece. Make sure when you give it to him that you feed it to him the long way and not sideways.

 

When i do this with Rocket the cheese slides right down and he is immediately looking for the next piece. In this house, cheese works better than anything else i've tried.

[Guest PiagetsMom]

Someone here, in a previous thread, recommended cream cheese for pills - it's worked great for us, too. Take a little blob, cover your pill, and down the hatch!

Edited September 8, 2012 by PiagetsMom

[Guest IndyHound]

Can you give some of the pills in his food? I use a mortar and pestle to grind pills into dust and just mix into a regular meal. I understand your frustration, I really do!!

 

That would work except for the vitamin e and fish oil are both gel pills.

 

And when I open his mouth and put them in without anything on he usually refuses to eat after. He'll sniff the food then literally turn up is nose and turn his back to me and walk away.

Edited September 8, 2012 by IndyHound

[juliemac]

when I put them down my hound's throat, I either wrap them in a small amount of cheese, PB, or even applesauce (so they slide down AND to avoid aftertaste), or I follow them up with a little treat. And my hounds know they're coming because all pill rituals start with a kiss to the tip of their noses before I pry teeth apart (it makes me feel better).

 

If that doesn't work, a piece (1/6 or 1/8) of bread can be used to make the pocket, and you can lightly coat it with something tempting if that's needed. Works well in my house with one dog, but my other hound carefully chews all of his food, so there is no 'disguise' that works (down the hatch for him).

[Batmom]

Angel Batman would show up on schedule, without being asked, to have pills stuffed down his throat. Because he got a nice treat after .

[Walliered]

I take canned food, put the pills in a couple of TBS and make a ball out of it. Hold food ball in right hand. Open dogs mouth with my left hand and put food ball way back in the throat. Shut mouth and hold closed with left hand. Dog will swallow in a few seconds. Praise dog. Wash hands. This works for me and is the way they do it at my vets.

[HoundHeavenAZ]

Meatballs of the cheap hamburger work great - the fat helps hold them together. Cream cheese works good too.

[gryhndsr4us]

Dreamy gets pills 3 times a day. I use liverwurst in the morning when she gets 3 pills. DH uses a slice of cheese for her afternnon pill. Then for her last pill before bedtime I use cream cheese. She loves her treats and so do the other pups because they get some too.

[FiveRoooooers]

Can you give some of the pills in his food? I use a mortar and pestle to grind pills into dust and just mix into a regular meal. I understand your frustration, I really do!!

 

That would work except for the vitamin e and fish oil are both gel pills.

 

And when I open his mouth and put them in without anything on he usually refuses to eat after. He'll sniff the food then literally turn up is nose and turn his back to me and walk away.

What JJNG said, poke a hole in the capsules and drizzle the oil over food or a treat. Lots of excellent suggestions here for treat vehicles!

[RedHead]

I have had picky pup pill syndrome here as well. No matter how well I disguise it always gets spit out. My solution is to grind the pills into powder and mix them up with the entire meal. Usually things like smelly canned sardines, mixed with cottage cheese, eggs, etc. is enough to disguise it. I am not sure if it is okay to grind up all types of pills, but most of them you can.

 

Also: Dogs are usually a little more cautious with their first bite of something but if they like it, and you continue feeding it, they tend to just start gulping it down without thinking. So you can give chunks of chicken (or whatever works!), and once they are being gulped down, you can try one wrapped around a pill. Sometimes you can trick them this way, as they don't really tend to chew anyways.

[rschultz]

What about a small piece of bread?