Medicating Pets

I don’t know about you, but sometimes we have a very difficult time giving our pets their medication.  Merlin, my cat, used to be horrible to give medication to.  He was declawed on his front claws, but he still had his back claws and teeth.  I have the scars to prove it.  Merlin absolutely hated taking medication; forget trying to get a pill down his throat. 

Then there was Socrates, my peach-faced lovebird.  Socrates got very sick one year and we found out he had liver disease.  I had to give him shots every day for a week.  Have you ever had to give a bird a shot?  It is not an easy thing to do. 

We also have some difficulty with some of our dogs and giving them medication.  Tucker, one of our long term sanctuary dogs will not take his medicine.  It is a fight every time.  Tucker used to be a guard dog for a drug operation.  He was pretty vicious when he first came to the sanctuary.  He is a perfect gentleman now…that is until it is time to give him medicine.

Well, with all the dogs that have been in and out of the rescue, we have almost become pet medication experts.  There are still some that will stump us every now and then, but it’s not often.  The technique we use depends on the dog.  Our favorite method of choice is with a pill pocket.  The puppies, and our, favorite is Greenies brand pill pockets.

They are soft and we can form them around the pill.  I like to put the pill in it, pinch the end, and then roll it in a ball.  We act like we are giving the pups a treat.  There are still those pups, and the occasional cat, that will eat the treat around the pill and spit the pill back out.

With anywhere from 10-15 dogs in the rescue at any given time, and most of those seniors, we give a lot of pills every day.  The pill pockets are not always economical for us, so we have looked for alternatives.  What we have found that works just as good as the pill pickets are a soft chewy treat called Canine Carry Outs (Beef Flavored). 

If they are fresh, they are soft enough to use as is.  We just make a little hole in them with a tooth pick, put the pill in it, form it around the pill and then give it to the pups.  If they are a bit older though, they will break apart when you try this.  We put them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.  Then let them cool off and they will work just fine.

Now if this doesn’t work for your pet, we have found it difficult for even the most finicky dog to turn down canned food.  Our favorite is Purina One Lamb & Rice, ground, not chunks.  In cases where the pill pocket doesn’t work, we will put the pill in a ball of canned food.  They will almost always swallow this down whole. 

Almost always.  There are those which this doesn’t even work for.  In cases like this we ask the vet if the medicine can be ground up.  If it can, we grind it up and put it in a syringe…not the kind with a needle, the kind used to give liquid medicine. 

Pull the plunger all the way out, but your finger over the tip and pour the ground up pill into the syringe.  Then put the plunger back in.  Squeeze the air out, but don’t compress the ground up pill.  Turn on your tap for warm water.  Suck it into the syringe and shake it up until the medicine dissolves.  You may need to let it sit for a few minutes.  Shake it up again before giving it to your dog or cat.  To give it to your pet lift up the lip on the side of the mouth and put the tip of the syringe between two back teeth and then squeeze it in really fast.  Hold your pets head up so that they have to swallow.

There are also the old standbys of cream cheese and peanut butter as well.  What dog can turn down cream cheese??  We had one pup that none of these things would work on.  In that case, we just opened her mouth and with a finger put it down her throat and held her mouth closed stroking her throat till she swallowed it.

We hope some of these tips work for you.  We are always trying out new things, so if we find anything else that works, we will let you know.

Be Well & Be Happy,

Pet~Pourri