Medication

[BookWitch]

Please can someone help?
My elderly dog takes three tablets a day - Previcox, Apoquel and a painkiller.
She used to be fine at taking it in her food, never a problem.
Then she started leaving it in the bottom of her bowl, I'd leave it til her next meal and it would usually disappear.
Then she was consistently leaving it, so we started giving it to her in a piece of banana. that worked for a while but then she started eating the banana and spitting the pill out.
Then she started refusing the banana altogether.
We've tried cheese, ham, just about everything.

We've now started prising open her jaw, putting it at the back of her throat and closing her mouth til she swallows and she STILL manages to spit them out. (and grins at me like a fool)

How on earth do I get these pills down her? Anything else anyone can suggest that i've not tried yet.
She's very good natured (so I have no qualms about putting my fingers in her mouth)

[Judashascomeintosomemoney]

I went through all this with my Labrador (though it was cheese not banana ). Finally discovered pill pockets, you squish them round the pill so not easily removed from inside them once in the dogs mouth. I didn’t think it’d work but it has. So much so that he comes to me and pesters for his pills now!

[Judashascomeintosomemoney]

There’s lots of types but we Vivi Treats btw

[StarSpangled372]

Can you crush them and mix them in her food? That’s what we do with the cats worming tablets.

[nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut]

I just hold it up and go, who wants a treat?! And she comes tearing over, leaps up at me ironically its for arthritis and catches it in her mouth, chews and swallows it. She doesn't realise, its not a treat, it doesn't even touch the sides. 😂

[BookWitch]

@StarSpangled372

Can you crush them and mix them in her food? That’s what we do with the cats worming tablets.

Tried that, she just refuses the food then (left it down for 12 hours - unheard of for a retriever )

[Bananaman123]

My boy took them in honey or sour cream or ice cream

[moosemama]

We use soft, spreadable goats cheese. It’s strong tasting, smushes completely around the pill and being so sticky, is almost impossible for them to extract the pill from in their mouths.

This is the one we use but my vet assures me the Co-op do one that works just as well, but is a bit cheaper.

[ruthieness]

we put pills inside a bit of butter and pretend it is a treat
helps it slip down!

[Sitdowncupoftea]

One of my dogs is on permanent medication. I use baby belt or cheese. I push the tablet in the middle of the cheese.

[vanillandhoney]

Butter worked for ours.

As did pretending it was a treat 🙄

[DogInATent]

Twice a day anti-epilepsy tablets for our Staff, so far a choice of cheese or PLM is working perfectly.

Have you tried apple?

[ladybee28]

Oh, @BookWitch my pooch is exactly the same!

He has 9 pills to take per day, so we had some mornings when we were both really upset with one another!

He nibbled AROUND food that I hid it in, spat pills out on the floor. Smelled the tablets a mile off in cheese and would look at me in disgust and betrayal.

Held it in his smug little cheek if I tipped his head back and waited.

And then the other day I tried Philadelphia.

Works like a DREAM.

Worth a try!

[InfiniteSheldon]

I do it as a double treat, pill is smushed in cheese but there's a second piece of cheese in my hand and he swallow the first, the cheesy pill, in a desperate hurry to get to the second. I am a bit worried all the cheese will make him fat so I'm buying philadelphia light.

[WaltzingBetty]

I use the cheap potted meat/meat paste jars you can get for sandwiches.
Scoop out enough to make a mini meatball and put tablet in the middle.

Most dogs will gulp it down, especially if you give them a blank one first, but if they eventually get wise then putting the meatball at the back of the mouth works and they swallow it all whole.