Tips for getting dogs to take pills?

[isabel]

Our pup has to take 3 pills twice a day. We've been using pill buddies (basically pliable treats) to stuff the pills with great success for a while now, but she has recently started to break them apart and leave them on the floor when she discovers the pills.

We have been stocking a pill case with her pills for a week at a time, which makes feeding her significantly easier, so I would like to be able to continue doing this. Anyone have success with other options?

[fuckyourcouch]

I always use cheese. I've heard pb works.

[revolution]

Squish a piece of cheese around it.
Cover it in peanut butter
All else fails, I have put it in the back of their mouth and held her mouth closed until she swallows.

[cbwm1]

We take a 1/4 piece of bread, put a bunch of PB on it, squish the pill in, and fold it in half. Works like a charm.

[Norticprincess]

Depends on the type of pill for mine. Her Xanax I can just put in a little bit of wet food and she eats it, it is a small pill. Anything else I have to smother in peanut butter in a piece of bread. Could you try add a little peanut butter to the opening of the pill pocket right before you give it to her? I've also used sections of string cheese, but she is very good at removing the pills from cheese.

[Deleted]

I put it in PB. They love that shit.

[Deleted]

Stick it as far down it's throat as you can and hold their mouth closed until it swallows. It seems mean but it is the only thing we can do to get out dog to take pills. She eats around them if we put them in treats.

[fuckyourcouch]

I use the plastic American cheese slices bc you can basically mold it around the pill like playdoh. Works great.

[Eagles]

Peanut butter.

[wambam]

Dec 27, 2014 19:45:20 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Stick it as far down it's throat as you can and hold their mouth closed until it swallows. It seems mean but it is the only thing we can do to get out dog to take pills. She eats around them if we put them in treats.

This. You can also gently rub their neck to stimulate swallowing.

[isabel]

Dec 27, 2014 19:44:00 GMT -5 Norticprincess said:

Depends on the type of pill for mine. Her Xanax I can just put in a little bit of wet food and she eats it, it is a small pill. Anything else I have to smother in peanut butter in a piece of bread. Could you try add a little peanut butter to the opening of the pill pocket right before you give it to her? I've also used sections of string cheese, but she is very good at removing the pills from cheese.

This may be worth a go. Change up the flavor enough to get her to not think about it too much.

Bella works the pills out of almost all foods, even peanut butter. I have to put it really far back on her tongue to get straight peanut butter to work and at that point, I may as well just shove them down her throat. I'm trying not to do that because, well, I know she's going to start freaking out at meal times if I take this tack. Ugh.

[isabel]

Dec 27, 2014 19:45:20 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Stick it as far down it's throat as you can and hold their mouth closed until it swallows. It seems mean but it is the only thing we can do to get out dog to take pills. She eats around them if we put them in treats.

I'm concerned about doing this. We had to put our other dog down last year. He was on several meds to keep him comfortable (lung cancer) and you could just see the anxiety in his face and body when we were nearing meal times. He was fine with taking all the pills, but one couldn't be chewed, it had to go down whole. He would get so upset when we gave it to him. It was fucking heartbreaking. I'm scared to go down that road with her because she's in pretty good health, relatively, and I think we're going to be dealing with this pill thing for a pretty significant amount of time.

[isabel]

Dec 27, 2014 19:50:10 GMT -5 carrotsmakemefat said:

This

He takes 5 pills 2x a day.

That's what we used for Guapo when he was taking the tessalon pearls that couldn't be chewed.   He would get so upset when he knew it was coming.

Gah. I wish she wasn't making this so difficult. I think I'm slightly scarred from dealing with him when he was sick.

[chloesilverado]

I put mine in a mini marshmallow. They're cheap and mold-able like cheese and pill pockets. I asked my vet if it was too much sugar but she said a mini marshmallow once a day wouldn't hurt.

[indianchica]

We do American cheese with a cheese chaser. So 1/4 slice wrapped around the two pills then another 1/4 slice by itself.

[isabel]

Dec 27, 2014 20:02:55 GMT -5 carrotsmakemefat said:

Dec 27, 2014 19:50:29 GMT -5 isabel said:

I'm concerned about doing this. We had to put our other dog down last year. He was on several meds to keep him comfortable (lung cancer) and you could just see the anxiety in his face and body when we were nearing meal times. He was fine with taking all the pills, but one couldn't be chewed, it had to go down whole. He would get so upset when we gave it to him. It was fucking heartbreaking. I'm scared to go down that road with her because she's in pretty good health, relatively, and I think we're going to be dealing with this pill thing for a pretty significant amount of time.

So our dog doesn't like it, but he gets a treat right after followed by his breakfast or dinner. Maybe try it with lots of praise? It's much better than shoving your fingers down his throat, and more comfortable too. I only do his bc we are left with no option. Too many pills a day between his heart and arthritis

Yeah, she's killing me with all the meds. Cushing's disease, arthritis, and high protein in her urine. So many pills.

I'm going to keep pushing with various food options first, but will go to the pill gun if I have to. It's definitely easier than shoving them down her throat.

chloesilverado, I'm totally trying that tomorrow. We even have some marshmallows in the cabinet!

[mala]

When Anna got hurt, she had to have 9 pills twice a day. It was awful. We started out by putting them in cream cheese, but she got wise and stopped eating them. Then we put them in peanut butter. Then she stopped eating that too. I finally was putting one or two pills in a tiny bit of peanut butter, prying her mouth open, sticking to the roof of her mouth, then holding her head up while she swallowed it down. the peanut butter made it stick and made it harder for her to spit it out. Swallowing was her only option, but she likes peanut butter, so it wasn't as horrible for her as it could have been.

[ralphlauren]

Peanut butter or pill pockets. Or steak

[TrudyCampbell]

I'm not sure if this has been said already because I didn't read the replies but this was the only thing that worked for us. Our dog takes a daily medication so we tried everything. We take the pill and cover it in a wad of peanut butter on a teaspoon, and then we wipe the spoon on the dogs tongue. We kind of hold him in-between out legs facing outward to do this. It works like a charm for us! Good luck.

[chloesilverado]

Dec 27, 2014 20:10:48 GMT -5 isabel said:

Dec 27, 2014 20:02:55 GMT -5 carrotsmakemefat said:

So our dog doesn't like it, but he gets a treat right after followed by his breakfast or dinner. Maybe try it with lots of praise? It's much better than shoving your fingers down his throat, and more comfortable too. I only do his bc we are left with no option. Too many pills a day between his heart and arthritis

Yeah, she's killing me with all the meds. Cushing's disease, arthritis, and high protein in her urine. So many pills.

I'm going to keep pushing with various food options first, but will go to the pill gun if I have to. It's definitely easier than shoving them down her throat.

chloesilverado, I'm totally trying that tomorrow. We even have some marshmallows in the cabinet!

My dog has Addison's disease so he gets pills daily. The marshmallows have been a life saver. I was worried about a slice of cheese daily and the pill pockets are expensive. He's a medium sized dog with small pills so if the pills are larger you may need half a large marshmallow. The pills stick to the marshmallow well and don't fall out - another bonus. I hope they work for you!

[elleblue]

My dogs always eat around the pill, no type of food/treat fools them anymore. :/ So we're left with prying their jaws open and sticking it in the back of their throats. I hate giving them pills and am thankful it's not a regular occurrence (knock on wood) at this point.

[patches31709]

What if you have a bunch of pieces of cheese, one with the pill in the middle? Give her a few plain cheese treats, then the one with the pill, then some other plain ones. Maybe she won't notice the pill?

[isabel]

Dec 27, 2014 20:53:07 GMT -5 patches31709 said:

What if you have a bunch of pieces of cheese, one with the pill in the middle? Give her a few plain cheese treats, then the one with the pill, then some other plain ones. Maybe she won't notice the pill?

Ha that's exactly what I ended up doing tonight. I found some havarti in the fridge, so she got a piece without anything in it, then a piece with the smallest pill, so on and so forth, and then a regular treat at the end. I would just love for it to be slightly easier than that. That process is kind of a production when we're trying to get out the door in the morning.

[jenna]

Coco takes about 8 doses of medication daily. We have luck hiding it in American Cheese, and deli turkey. I usually give her just a plain piece of cheese or meat, too - as a reward for taking her meds.

[prettyinpink]

Dec 27, 2014 19:47:04 GMT -5 wambam said:

Dec 27, 2014 19:45:20 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Stick it as far down it's throat as you can and hold their mouth closed until it swallows. It seems mean but it is the only thing we can do to get out dog to take pills. She eats around them if we put them in treats.

This. You can also gently rub their neck to stimulate swallowing.

Our vet told us to do this but blow on their nose. It works great.

[isabel]

Dec 27, 2014 21:09:50 GMT -5 @meepmeep said:

Can you pre-wrap a bunch of pills in cheese and stick them in the fridge? We did 3-4 days at a time when our dog was on meds for a month, and just kept them in a bowl in the refrigerator. We either dropped them right in with her food, or gave them as treats for doing tricks.

Yeah, if I can find something that works routinely again, I'll do that.

Right now, we have one of those pill cases for AM and PM and all the days of the week. The pills get stuffed in pill pockets and go in the pill sorter. I want to keep using it, so I may see if cheese, hotdogs, or marshmallows pan out for us. It makes it a lot easier to know that she's been fed and gotten her pills when DH and I are on off schedules.

[Doggy Mommy]

We tried everything. Sometimes we would have success with hot dogs, cheese, cream cheese, lunch meat, rotisserie chicken, steak. If we used any one thing too long, she got wise to it. We had the most success with chicken strips. Sometimes nothing would work and we put pills in peanut butter and shoved it in the back of her mouth and squirt water in her mouth to make her swallow it. That was a nightmare but sometimes it was all that worked.

[CloudBee]

Our pup has to take 2 pills daily. DH alternates between Pill Pockets (expensive) and American cheese. I think he rotates each day. We usually throw them in the air while talking to him in an excited voice. Making it into a game/fun treat, causes him to jump to catch it and consume right away.

There are still days he spits them out, but they are few and far between.

I think tossing it into the air also minimizes his opportunity to sniff the food item and realize or remember there's a pill in there.

[luvvy]

Kraft singles!

[looseseal]

Our vet showed us the easiest way. We just put our hand along his face (like if you were cupping his face in both hands, kind of, but we only use done hand, lol), and then very quickly pushed the pill toward the back of his throat with our thumb. It's so fast, he swallowed immediately, we didn't have to give him any extra food and it didn't seem to bother him a bit because it went so quickly. He was diabetic, so we had to watch what his caloric intake to make sure his insulin dosage was correct. It's hard to describe, but I've shown other people and they really like the method, too.