Getting dog to take medication.

Penny Tration

Hiya, hopefully some of you can give me some advice here.

My JRT had surgery for a dislocated knee the other day (poor little thing is in agony ).

She's been put on anti inflammatories, tramadol and antibiotics, and is refusing to take her medication.

We've done the usual, hiding it in chicken and ham, but she knows what we're doing so spits the medication out :pac: we've also tried grinding it and mashing it into food, but again, she knows exactly what we're doing so won't eat it.

Any ideas for anything else we can try?

maroon

Pate or bit of butter used to work with my chap. Mostly pate though (polish chicken pate).

Darren 83

Coat the tablet in butter it's tougher for them to get it back up, hope it helps.

aonb

You need to put the food into something that will mask the smell/taste completely. Ive found mixing mashed up meds into a spoon of peanut butter is very successful. Peanut butter is quite sticky, so hard to work out any bits of tablets to spit out. If she doesnt like peanut butter and likes fish (mine adore fish!) you could put the mashed up tables in a spoon of mashed sardines or tinned tuna or tinned mackeral.

If shes gotten to the stage where she is totally stubborn (what, a JRT stubborn??!?!) about taking any meds, you could put the broken up tablets in the peanut butter/fish/butter, then hold her mouth tilted upwards, loosely in your hand, stroking her chin until she swallows. Good luck!

Penny Tration

Thanks very much

Stubborn is an understatement :pac:

I'm gonna try the butter first because she doesn't like fish. If that doesn't work, I'll go buy some peanut butter and try that.

Thanks for the suggestions

jimf

I always find put the med in the third piece of 3 treats they have the taste so are not as suspicious

works for me

mymo

One thing I find works with small dog here is to break tablet into smaller pieces, stick into bit of peanut butter and wrap in half a slice of chorizo (lidl stuff is her fav)
Oh and I have to give other dog a bit of peanut butter in chorizo too or she won't eat hers, little bitch.
Typical he'll eat a tablet out of your hand, but she's the one needs meds regularly. Tried everything a could think of.

Pigwidgeon

We usually go with peanut butter or pate as mentioned above. The tricky ones are the ones that have to be taken an hour before food! Jake actually just eats his tablet from our hand now he's so used to them, this led to Henry wanting to join in and whenever he needs something he just takes it no problem too!

Penny Tration

Thanks very much. Lola better like peanut butter!

pampootie

Ha, my jrt is the exact same, used to spit out tablets no matter how I hid them. Now I crush them and hide it in peanut butter or coconut oil, I vary it so he doesn't get suspicious about it! If they'll dissolve I used to find dissolving them in chicken broth would work too

chocoroll

There are "dogfriendly" painkillers available. They have a nice tasty smell over them en they will eat it as if it is candy My dog sure does Here in Holland they are on the market under the name: Rymadyl or Novocap. They work fast and are less likely to cause side effects then for example tramadol.

Penny Tration

chocoroll wrote: »

There are "dogfriendly" painkillers available. They have a nice tasty smell over them en they will eat it as if it is candy My dog sure does Here in Holland they are on the market under the name: Rymadyl or Novocap. They work fast and are less likely to cause side effects then for example tramadol.

I'd rather stick to what the vet has prescribed tbh, especially because she's in a lot of pain. Just gonna have fun getting her to take the bloody things.

Butter and peanut butter haven't worked, she still managed to spit them back out.

achmairt

maroon wrote: »

Pate or bit of butter used to work with my chap. Mostly pate though (polish chicken pate).

Paté is the best I found. Give her a little first with no tablet in it and then the real thing.

meoklmrk91

My current furball will eat anything, he at a raw spud the other day, but when I did have a fussy dog I found the best method to was a raw sausage, make a small slice just big enough for the pill, pop the pill in and give the dog the sausage.

maroon

achmairt wrote: »

Paté is the best I found. Give her a little first with no tablet in it and then the real thing.

Exactly how my little fella took it.Never big fan of peanut butter or fish,he never refuse delicious pate.As long as the coating was thick enough to cover the tablet.No need to mash up.

iora_rua

Have found goat yogurt great for hiding meds for my cats - maybe use as a 'dip' for one of the previous suggestions as an extra distracting layer? Have fun!

kinkygirl

We always crush their meds and mix with some butter. Both fur kids lick the butter from our finger..job done!

Wishing your little one better soon, poor darling.

Penny Tration

I've tried butter, pate, peanut butter, mashing it in her food, mashing it into MY food (she always wants what we're eating!) and holding her chin and dropping it down.

She knows what we're doing, so is refusing all food (even without medication in it!) and water since last night.

She's crying in pain all night and all day, so I'm just going to bring her back to the vet tonight to see if they can give her a shot or liquid medicine because I can't leave her in pain and especially not without food and water.

Thanks again everyone!

Zapperzy

I have a stubborn terrier with a tongue that can spit out any tablet from any food source and the only thing that works for me, besides placing it at the back of his throat and making him swallow, is a raw sausage cut into 3 pieces. Place tablet into middle section, give him the first section let him eat it, give him middle section and immediately show him the last section. He normally swallows the middle tablet piece quickly to get the next bit of sausage. Works every time form me

Ask the vet or nurse to show you how to properly administer a tablet next time your in. It's quite easy once you get the knack and handy for when you've to give them on an empty stomach.

tk123

I hid them in a zukes treat They get soft/pliable if you roll them in your hand so we make 2 balls for each of his doses.

Penny Tration

She's damaged her knee again trying to pull her cone off, so it looks like she's going to need more surgery, and they're giving her pain relief injections, so for the moment pain relief isn't an issue.

Anything we can do to cheer her up bar petting the poor thing? My heart is breaking hearing her crying

kinkygirl

green_screen wrote: »

She's damaged her knee again trying to pull her cone off, so it looks like she's going to need more surgery, and they're giving her pain relief injections, so for the moment pain relief isn't an issue.

Anything we can do to cheer her up bar petting the poor thing? My heart is breaking hearing her crying

I have tears in my eyes reading this, the poor baby. I don't have any advice to offer, apart from comforting her and giving her lots of love...which I know you are already doing.
It's so awful to see a fur baby in pain. Get well soon, you brave little girl.

Gael23

Been doing this daily for the last 3 years.
Mostly he will take it stuffed in a piece of bread with a little bit of butter on it or in a piece of toast works good too because you can really stuff the tablet in the middle so they don't notice

Penny Tration

Thanks again for all the replies, thought I should update.

We thought she had popped her leg back out, because she lifted her bad leg up to try pull her cone off. When we described it to the vet over the phone, and before he examined her in the center, he said she may need the op done again.

However, after taking off her bandage to examine her, she's fine. She hurt the wound when lifting her leg, but did no damage.

So, bandage is off. She's healing even better than expected. She's already walking on her bad leg, only 5 days after the surgery, and now that the bandage is off, she doesn't need any more pain relief, and is comfortable and back to her usual happy self.

As for the tablets - I eventually got her to take them by sticking them into a piece of pepperoni pizza :pac:

Gael23

green_screen wrote: »

)
As for the tablets - I eventually got her to take them by sticking them into a piece of pepperoni pizza :pac:

Never tried that one. Toast with Butter and Marmalade is our guys favorite!

Penny Tration

ryanf1 wrote: »

Never tried that one. Toast with Butter and Marmalade is our guys favorite!

She always howls at the youngest child when she has pizza, so figured it was worth a try. Not exactly healthy but it worked

ferretone

I've never had any problems giving pills to any dog until recently. I usually just open their gob and shove the thing straight down past the swallowing point with my finger. No dog has really even noticed this happening until my old girl developed spinal problems in the middle of her back, which causes stiffness to develop up in the neck area as well, so that she hates having her head held. So now the 2 pills she she gets a month for pain (Trocoxil) go in tin of sardines, like everyone else's dogs Luckily she's a greedy girl, so she doesn't notice them.

For other people's dogs though, I still employ my old technique, which I learned when I used to work as a vet nurse, and that still works in 99% of cases

Murt10

Raw mince rolled into a ball worked for me. Give it in the 2nd or third ball.