Any top tips for getting tablets down a reluctant dog?

[Madsometimes]

Patch is on medication for diahrrea caused by eating poo. He will snack on any disgusting thing that you care to mention, and yet getting tablets down him is becoming a nightmare.

I am mixing the tablets into his food, but his is wising up to my tricks. He is starting to eat around the pills. The vet nurse gave me some soft treats to wrap around the pills. That worked once, but now he just eats the treat and spits out the pill. The nurse also said that his medication is known for tasting disgusting .

I am still just about getting the pills down him by only offering his food when he is starving, but he is learning pill evasion fast.

Any tried and tested methods out there?

I push them into a chunk of cheddar

cheese as jammrocks says, or i push them into a bit of their dogfood and hand feed it

wet his nose immediately afterwards which forces him to lick it and hence swallow.

Or is that for cats ?

I'd avoid cheddar if he's being treated for diarrhoea!

Try wrapping it in a piece of cooked chicken - warm food is better as it smells stronger and disguises the tablet's odour more.

If he'll catch food that you throw for him, try getting a few pieces ready, and hide the tablet in one of them. Chuck him a couple of plain pieces first, so he gets the idea, then throw him a bit (with the tablet well hidden within), then follow quickly with a couple more plain pieces. Can sometimes get the tablet down without touching the sides that way

My dad used to throw the pill into the back of our dog's mouth, then hold his muzzle shut and stroke his throat till he was forced to swallow. Maybe only works on a dog with a handily-long muzzle, though.

hidden in ball of crab paste, could smear it with marmite first?

Would agree with Ohfuck method above, i do same & always works.

I would also say that with a very nice dog my method of choice is to shove it down their throat but I don't know how nice your dog is so take care! It's much easier if you can squirt a bit of water into their mouth with a syringe just afterwards to make them swallow.

But try the chicken thing first ...!

One of my dogs is very adept to sussing out when I'm trying to hide a tablet in food. She will eat the cheese it's buried in and spit the tablet out!

Warm sausage is the only thing I can successfully bury it in.

Will try the chucking method next time though!

We wrap in ham or similar, then as mentioned by others, feed in quick succession bits of ham then ham round pill then quickly more bits of ham, so he's gobbling them all and doesn't notice til too late that one of them had a pill wrapped inside it.

We coat them in a bit of cream cheese - sufficiently sticky to coat the pill properly (unlike butter which slides off) and it's strong enough to hide the taste. If you give them a few un-dosed bits first, they get so excited that the one with the pill goes down unnoticed. Sometimes they just eat it, other times we have to open their mouths and put it on the back of their tongues so they swallow it, but either way it does down!

Wow, thanks for all the ideas. Only 5 more pills to go!

I have to do the 'hold mouth open, throw down throat' tactic, since my dog can now strip away any decoy food and spit the pill out. You can see her chewing, and thinking, and chewing, and then the pill drops out, a bit like Audrey Horne in Twin Peaks, when she twists the cherry stalk into a knot with her tongue.

Have you tried crushing them up in a little bit of good quality wet food or minced beef?

We always crush tablets up (between two spoons) and stick them in with their dry kibble with just a little warm water added and they always eat them.

smear it in pate.

This happened to us recently. DH was trying desperately to get the dog to eat the tablet, forcing it in his mouth, putting in his food. Dog just kept spitting it out.

He called me and said "any bright ideas?" ANd watched in amazement as shoved three fingers into a packet of pate, wiped it all over the tablet and got the dog to lick my fingers.

Job's a good un.

I smear them in marmite (cheaper than pate!) then hold the dog's mouth open, drop them down the back of his throat, hold it shut & stroke his throat til he has to swallow. (Otherwise he licks the marmite off & spits them out.)

Then I thank my lucky stars that I'm not trying to give the pills to the cat (same tactics, but you need gauntlets & a pillowcase, & she still usually manages to evade them & cause serious collateral damage on the way out).

I do the shove it in the mouth and hold shut method with my dog, but he nibbles his food so finds the tablet if it is hidden in food.

My JRT used to take her epi meds inside a bit of cooked chicken or lump of cheddar. This dog is too smart for that.

Hope your dog is feeling better. Have you tried hiding the tablets in a piece of hot dog. Its really squishy so you can bury them .

My dog will do somersaults for hot dog and it costs a lot less than cheese!

Our 5 month old pup LOVES mackerel or sardines in tomato sauce so he gets them as a "treat" once a month with his worming tab crushed up in it. It's a small enough amount that he will eat it all and smells strong so no idea what's in it! Try it!

Patch has now finished his first course of pills, and the top tip I got from here was the melted cheese. So thanks everyone who suggested this. The cheese trick worked every time . I was tearing my hair out when I posted, and now everyone is much happier.

He now has a course of powders which mix into food, so fingers crossed he will not go all fussy on his dinners.

He is still passing very soft and greasy poos, so I am not sure if he is better yet. However, he is at least no pooing at the same volume and frequency as before. The vet thought that he would need two courses of medication to get better, and it seems he will.

I still cannot quite believe that my dog will eat poo but is fussy over his food!

Our labrador was a horrendous scavenger when we got him (7 months old rescue dog) and every 'walk' was really just one long poo hunt, disgusting in so many ways especially when he would come running at me with his face smeared in other dog's poo. It also made him ill and in the end all I could do was put a muzzle on him and even then it had limited effect and he would push his face into poo that was soft enough to push through the muzzle! I also found that he has a fairly sensitive tummy (how mad then to eat the stuff he was eating!!) and some food also gives him funny poos - with one food he was doing at least 6 horrible massive yellow poos a day, not nice. It's worth trying different foods (if you're feeding the dry ones) as some of them are definitely better for sensitive tummies than others. Good luck, it can be a long battle but they do tend to get over the worst of the poo addiction when they are a few years old, although they might never lose it entirely :)

I just drop the tablet and say "oh no I dropped it' my dog will then gobble it up as fast as possible as he thinks it's something he shouldn't have!

I would suggest you buy a tin of Chappie and roll the tablet up in a ball of the Chappie meat. Yukky but might work and the Chappie shouldn't make his diarrhea worse.

oh I see its already been solved...must learn to read dates on posts!