Pills!

Please pass along your best suggestions on getting a pill into your pug! Matilda won't eat and prying her mouth open has been unsuccessful. I think Bob was laughing at me.

Hide it in peanut butter, cheese, liverwurst, hot dog. Those are just some things I've tried in the past. I know it's SUPER hard when they're sick and don't want to eat. When they're well, you can usually give them, for example, one piece of plain cheese, follow it up quickly with a piece with the pill then give another plain piece but when they don't want it at all, it's tough. With Hoover, I had to sometimes crush it up into applesauce (if it's something you can crush) and slowly squeeze it in with a syringe.

I need to hear this too! Gidget has recently started rejecting her Atopica pills. They are huge so I don't blame her, but nothing works right now. We have tried Peanut butter, cheese, lunch meat...all the tried and true, but she won't take it. It is a giant pill.

Saira-how do you get Sophie to take hers?

Two Crazy Pugs wrote:I need to hear this too! Gidget has recently started rejecting her Atopica pills. They are huge so I don't blame her, but nothing works right now. We have tried Peanut butter, cheese, lunch meat...all the tried and true, but she won't take it. It is a giant pill.

Saira-how do you get Sophie to take hers?

Sophie is a freak of nature. The poor girl has had so many pills in her life, she will just take it plain-she also gets SO excited when Ken or I take our vitamins, she thinks the pills are for her, it's sad! Her vet was shocked, she said most dogs don't like Atopica because it's bitter.

Indy is our impossible dog to pill, I swear he is suspcious of all treats and will spit out anything. We have had good luck with him by balling up little bits of wet dog food, we'll keep a few cans on hand for that purpose (it's gross though). Also, our our dogs go crazy for the natural balance treat logs they sell at petco-so we have also cut those into pieces and hallowed it out and hid a pill in there for him.

I use pill pockets. I am sure that they are nothing but junk (otherwise what dog would take their pills). I get the small size, but just use enough to fully cover the pill and don't use the whole pocket. They stick to the pill so it makes it so much harder for them to spit it out. The only place that I can usually find them is at Petco in the medication/suppliment isle.

When I worked at a boarding kennel and had to give strange dogs pills this is what worked for me. I used some of the thawed out Bil Jac frozen dog food, it's so soft, you can easily hide pills in it. I'd make 5 balls of dog food, 4 without pills, 1 with the pill. Use happy voice, get dog all excited, give first ball of food minus pill, continue in happy voice, give dog second ball of food, repeat for 3 ball of food, usually by now the dog is pumped and excited with this cool food game and anticipating the next ball of food, now is when you give him the ball with the pill, as soon as it's in his mouth, follow up immediately with the last ball of food without a pill.

Most dogs don't even know they just had a pill and it worked pretty well with the majority of dogs that needed pills at the boarding kennel. For the really leery dogs, I would increase the number of food balls without pills and give them more before and after the actual pill. Most dogs love frozen Bil Jac, but cat food or anything really stinky works well.

Customers at Petsmart swore by Pill Pockets. I never looked at the ingredient list, but I think it's hard to find something that's both stinky and really healthy.

My guys go NUTS for liverwurst. If you have Kroger (I know the Nashville area has Kroger), I've found their brand is perfect (Oscar Meyer is too mushy; another local brand is too dry) in terms of consistency.

Now I can just give them the liverwurst w/ the pill in it, but when they first started taking them, I used the 1/2/3 method (someone may have already posted this):

Follow each piece so quickly with the next that the dog can't think about it, esp. between #2 and #3:
Piece 1: plain
Piece 2: stuffed w/ pill
Piece 3: plain

If your dog is like mine, s/he won't even chew--but will just scarf them all down. You follow #2 with #3 before the dog has even opened his/her mouth for the third...have it ready and waiting.

Good luck!

Petsmart sells the pill pockets, too. They now at least have alternate protein ones with duck. I don't know their nutrition value, but when a pet is sick and not eating, I say go with whatever you can get to work.

If she is absolutely not eating, you can always force pill her. It's not always the kindest way or easiest, but with Matilda as lethargic as she is, it's definitely an option. You said you're having a hard time opening her mouth, is there anyone who can help? If you can get the pill at the back of her throat and close her mouth while rubbing her throat, she may swallow it.

Like the others have said, you can try wet food, pill pockets, liver sausage, peanut butter, marshmallows, bread, cheese, eggs... If you can and do crush it up, the most important is that she gets it all (which is probably pretty obvious). That's always the biggest reason we don't suggest putting liquid food onto their food. Is it something that may come in liquid form and that the dosage wouldn't be too ridiculous?

Hide it in a gob of peanut butter. Does the trick every time!

thminis wrote:
If she is absolutely not eating, you can always force pill her. It's not always the kindest way or easiest, but with Matilda as lethargic as she is, it's definitely an option. You said you're having a hard time opening her mouth, is there anyone who can help? If you can get the pill at the back of her throat and close her mouth while rubbing her throat, she may swallow it.

I had to force pill her this morning and still have the sore thumb where she clamped down. I've done this lots of times, just not on Matilda. She has jaws of steel.

akc0104 wrote:

thminis wrote:
If she is absolutely not eating, you can always force pill her. It's not always the kindest way or easiest, but with Matilda as lethargic as she is, it's definitely an option. You said you're having a hard time opening her mouth, is there anyone who can help? If you can get the pill at the back of her throat and close her mouth while rubbing her throat, she may swallow it.

I had to force pill her this morning and still have the sore thumb where she clamped down. I've done this lots of times, just not on Matilda. She has jaws of steel.

Poor Matilda, your poor thumb too. Good luck!

In our house, cream cheese is what works. Usually Grace and Kayla just eat their pills in their dinner without knowing their pills. But Kayla's Tramadol must be bitter because she spits it out everytime. So that she takes with cream cheese. And when one gets it, they all get it. So when I tell Kayla it's time for her pain pill, they all come running to the fridge for their glob of cream cheese.

My boys are competitive eaters so I stuff a pill in whatever I have handy, usually cheese. And then make a bunch of non-pill balls. The medicated dog goes second or last. They usually race each other to see who can swallow first to get the next treat.

I put Phoebes in Peanut butter! She loves peanut butter so it makes it easy for me.

I give turkey after every meal weather we have a pill to give or not, so it's a treat eaxch time and they don't even chew it.

My hardest to pill dog is the shih tzu--a highly suspicious character by nature. Won't eat PB or cream cheese--pill or no pill. I do pretty much what Karen does--I wrap the pill in liverwurst then put that into a bit of bread and make the whole thing a round ball. He gets two with no pill, a third with the pill followed VERY quickly by another non-pill piece.

I use Natural Balance canned food to get Izzy to take her Atopica. I make it into balls, 1 plain, 1 with pill, 2 more plain. I give Aggy the same thing without meds at the same time. It seems to inspire Izzy to swallow it down fast. I've also used the NB food rolls but I don't think it works as well because it crumbles.

I hide Penny's pills in the Wellness 95% salmon. Works like a champ.

Peanut butter always works for us, and yes, giving it to all the dogs make them all race to see who can get done first.

Daisy is on strictly just pork right now, but she is eating it so fast that she doesn't even realize I drop a pill right in the middle of the pork.

I just bought some glucosamine pills for my Ichiro, and they are HUGE! I'm thinking he needs just half a pill, rather than a whole one. He eats his dinner so fast, I'm thinking I'm going to try just dropping it in his food and see if it goes down.

I like the idea of the pill pockets....but, I wonder what their nutritional value is?