Can I give my dog calpol?

[SummersB]

We have a lovely Chocolate Lab who is nearly 13 and suffers from very bad arthritis in his hips. He is currently on Metacam, Tramadol, Gabapentin and Pardale V, as well as homemade Turmeric paste, all of which help to some extent.
The thing is - he hates taking tablets. It has become a huge task to get them down him, especially the Pardale. He is on 2 1/2 Pardale Tablets 2-3 times a day and I struggle for ages trying to get him to take them. As a last resort, I have started crushing them and mixing them into his food. As a result he sometimes won’t eat all of it, which is a huge problem as that means he will also not take his full dose of Metacam and Gabapentin, both which are mixed into his food as well.
For context - last time we went for a checkup at the vets she very gently suggested that if he deteriorated any further and/or we couldn’t control his pain better it was maybe time to consider his quality of life overall. So it breaks my heart to say this but I know his time with us is limited. All I want is for him to spend his last days with us being as happy as possible.
So, having looked into this I am getting the idea that Pardale V is exactly the same as human paracetamol (different strength tablets but essential the same composition I mean). Which would mean that potentially, I would be able to give him Calpol mixed in with his food? To be clear: I am a neonatal nurse, so very comfortable with drawing up and dispensing medication based on body weight, and I have no concerns re dosage. My only worry is that I am missing something? Is Pardale really exactly the same as Paracetamol?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[FormerlyFrikadela01]

My in laws give their dogs Calpol on the advice or their vet. Although pardale looks like it also contains codeine.

[tabulahrasa]

It’s paracetamol and codeine... not just paracetamol, so no, Calpol won’t work as a replacement.

[IWantMyHatBack]

Yes, pardale has codeine in it as well. It's basically cocodamol, but slightly different ratio

[SummersB]

Oh gosh thank you all. I don’t know how I could have missed the codeine in it. Thanks for the heads up, I guess we’ll just have to struggle on with the tablets.

[tabulahrasa]

The easiest way I’ve found to deal with pardale tablets is to put them all together so it’s effectively a little roll of one, shove them in the back of the throat and then give a really high value reward.

It’s how I trained mine to take tablets, he now opens his mouth on command.

Yes you get a tricky few days, but lt means he doesn’t get that taste of them.

Also, I don’t know about gabapentin because we had capsules for that, but you know you can give metacam after the food? That way he’s definitely getting the whole dose.

[SummersB]

tabulahrasa thank you, I think I’ll try that! The Gabapentin is a capsule and I cut it open and sprinkle the powder on his food. He only leaves some of his food though if it has the Pardale in it, so if I can give it using your method he’ll eat the food no problem. Thanks again!

[Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten]

Put the pill in a bit of banana. Hand fed treats in quick succession amongst the hand feeding feed the banana bit then feed treats again.

The dog has less time to work out what you are doing and most fall for this method

[Greenwomanofmay]

Putting the pill in butter works well, always fools the dogs.

[HappyPumpkin81]

I always hid my dogs pills in a piece of baby bel. She would swallow the cheese whole and never even notice the tablets.

[Wolfiefan]

Corned beef or primula cheese also works well.

[SummersB]

My old boy was always great at taking tablets, he’s a typical lab and at some point would take them as if they were treats, no need to disguise them! But in the past few months we had to give him more and more each day and he’s fed up of them now. The Pardales are especially hard to get into him now, I think it must be the taste. Have tried butter, ham, cheese, etc - he will either not open his mouth at all or somehow manage to lick off any butter/cream etc or peel off any wrapping and spit the tablet back out. I will definitely try and shove them to the back of his throat, maybe if he can’t taste them it won’t be so hard to get them into him.

[GrowThroughWhatYouGoThrough]

Have u tried loxicom? My German Shepard x has bad hips and joints and this works wonders for her it's also liquid so syringe straight into the mouth. Might be worth looking into

[anunseemlylovefordustin]

Have you tried Pill Pockets? One of my girls recently ate rat poison (don't ask 🙄) and had to have three weeks of giant vitamin K pills morning and night. Pill Pockets worked like a charm, she thought she had been really good and was getting delicious treats! I don't know how to put a hyperlink in, but if you look for dog pill Pockets on amazon they'll come up.

[SummersB]

Have not heard of loxicom or pill pockets, thank you both! Off to google right now.

[tabulahrasa]

Loxicom is an NSAID, like metacam.

The problem with pardale and food is the taste, unless they swallow it whole it’s got that paracetamol taste.

Mine can swallow food with pills inside it and still somehow get pills back up lol

So training him was easiest.

[Pandoraslastchance]

Have you tried crunchy peanut butter? Only way I could get my old girls to take their tablets was with two fingers of peanut butter with the pills hidden in and then stick to the roof of their mouth.

[SummersB]

I’ve not tried peanut butter, but like tabulahrasa my old boy is a master at regurgitating pills! Will definitely try training him, it might be kindest for him because at least he doesn’t have to taste the tablets that way.