Giving pills?

Any easy way to give dogs pills?

Josie is very easy. She takes one phenobarb a day, which I put in her food. She inhales everything. If it was bigger, I would put it in a hotdog. She doesn't usually chew when she eats :rolleyes:

Zeke, however, is the opposite. He chews everything. The vet told me to give Zeke one benedryl every 12 hrs for 14 days to see if it clears his "allergies". I put it in a hotdog, but he just spits it all out and eats the hotdog. I can get him to swallow it, but it's not that easy, and I need to sort of hold his mouth closed or else he spits it out. Any easy way to give a pill??

We use "magic cheese" alias a slice of cheese, and femka inhales it every night- prances to the kitchen when we say " magic cheese" . she gets thyroid mediction twice a day. ...

Oh man I waas going to suggest the hotdog idea, that's what we do w/ Roscoe. Any other soft dog treats that you could use? That's a tough one.....

This is not a problem in my house, but you can try liver sausage or cream cheese. Something that sticks to the pill might help.

Cream cheese works great for most of my dogs. Stick the pill on your finger, scoop up a big dollop of cream cheese. Dog licks it off without noticing the pill. Anvik is currently on big Cephlaxen pills. This is how he takes them.

I use chunks of Roll-Over too for hiding smaller pills in. Deuce gets his benedryl in those. He'd probably take my whole hand if I gave him cream cheese!

Zubin hurt his neck and I did the same with cream cheese.. With femka its daily "magic cheese" and all the others get a piece too...

Is the benadryl in those caplits? (sp?) If so, you can break them in half to get all the powder out and put it on a peice of bread, cheese, or something else. We used to have to give my RB cocker, Missy, benadryl because of her dry skin and food allergies. That's what worked for us.

When I had to give Kai his pain meds, he quickly figured out that if he nibbled on hot dog pieces, he'd find the pill. The trick was to quickly give them to him one right after another. I'd give him 3 or 4 really quickly, slip in the piece with the pill and quickly give another regular piece. He was too excited about getting more than he completely forgot about looking for the pill.

the hotdog and cheese work for me when tossing it back down doesn´t, you can also try to pulverize it and mix it in some wet food (canned) or some creamy stuff, or you can get the liquid version of the med.......

I myself can´t swallow pills so i always get the liquid version for myself and voilá..........

My maggie takes a throid pill every morning.I wrap it in a small piece
of Velvetta cheese. Braunsweiger works just as well. Like someone else
said, anything soft that you can wrap around the pill works great.

Some dogs are just miserable to try to medicate. When we had our ST Bernard when we were kids the only way to get her to take a pill was to toss the pill into the back of her throat and stroke her throat with her nose held high.

Happy is impossable, when her tow was infected I had to give her these huge pills twice a day, when I placed in in a cheese slice she took the thing from my hand, set it on the floor, carefully peels the cheese off the pill, pushed off the pill and ate the cheese. ok so I tried putting in in a hot dog, she spit it out and ate the hotdog. ok so I tried ripping a hotdog into several peices, dug out a hole in one peice with my nail, popped the pill inside, and "capped" the hole with the peice I dug out, then I mixed up all the peices so that not even I knew which had the pill, and I randomly handed to to Happy, she inhaled the illess ones and as soon as the one with the pill her her mouth, she held it, squeezed, out popped the pill and then she inhaled the hotdog :rolleyes: I tried cheeze whize and PB with no success as well. finally I just had to shove it down her throat and stroke holding her head back, even doing that I had to retry several times before it would go down. I dont want to ever have to give her medication again lol

Misty is easy, I could dip her pill in a tiny bit of butter, hand it to her and she will swallow it lol my friends golden is the same, he takes 2 bendryl every day, and he is soooo easy, just sandwhich it between a normal slice of cheese(even block cheese) and hand it to him.

Hmm...I liked using velveeta cheese. It's really soft and dogs usually eat it right up.

I've also had luck with pill pockets. It's supposed to "conceal medicinal smells", you can pinch it closed. I'm sure you could even pour the powder in them too and shut it. I believe Petco is carrying them now.

I know what you mean when you say its hard to give your dog pills, my dog eats the meat or cheese whatever I mix it with and somehow doesnt eat the pill but will hide it under his tounge! I have to stick my fingers in his mouth and around his lips just to make sure he took the pill also, so maybe you can try crushing the pills and mixing it in like that canned spray cheese stuffor whatever its called that you stick on crackers or in cottage cheese or even vanilla icecream and make sure he swollows it, its works for me or just shove it done his throat and rub his neck to make she he swallows it and give him some water afterward.

We discovered the magic of peanut butter. If it is about a pea sized glob around the pill, Cochise would just swallow all of it no matter how big or small the pill!

Thanks for the great ideas! Cody was easy but, whew! Mz Logan can be a mess. When I first got her and she was given antibiotics, she was so submissive, she let me open her mouth, shove the pill in, close it and rub her throat.

However, it sure didn't take long for her to catch on! Nothing worked, even peanut butter. So I pulverize her monthly worm pill and add it to her dinner. I never thought of cream cheese, though..thanks for the great idea!! Ya learn something new every day on PT!

Zeke needs to chew everything though. I guess there isn't really any other way. If I put it in PB then he will sorta swish the PB around and discover the pill. He chews the hotdog and whenever he bites into the pill he just spits everything out. These aren't as hard to give him as his last meds. The pills were huge and hard for him to swallow

I saw some others recommended cream cheese, that's what I use and it works great. Bisty sometimes manages to get the pill out of it, but she usually gets it down on the first try. I have a pill crusher I use when she's not taking her pills well. I still put the crushed pill in cream cheese.

I do the same thing that Ashley does.
Throw a few yummy (non pill infested) treats in the air then quickly throw the pill one then REALLY quickly throw another non pill treat. That's the only way to get Sierra to take pills.
With my parents dog, I used to take food and slice a little slit in it, push the pill in, then close the slit with peanut butter. (pancakes worked the Best!)

If Sierra hears a pill bottle, she won't eat ANY treat I give her! :rolleyes: (smarty pants) :p

With Buddy, I just open the hatch and throw it down. He gets tranqs quite often and they are so small it's easy.
My husband thinks I'm nuts because he's watched me do it before and I pretend I'm the crock hunter when I'm opening his jaws! "By Crockie he's a beaut... look at those chompers" :o :o

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Originally Posted by slleipnir

Zeke needs to chew everything though. I guess there isn't really any other way. If I put it in PB then he will sorta swish the PB around and discover the pill. He chews the hotdog and whenever he bites into the pill he just spits everything out.

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Audrey, I've always dosed with PB. I just put a small glob on my finger, stick the pill in it and when they open their mouths to grab it I swipe my finger on the roof of their mouths and it's almost impossible for them to swish it around to find the pill. They are too busy trying to get the PB off the roof of their mouths :D
Hope you've found something that works for you.