Can’t get tablets in my dog

[statetrooperstacey]

My dog is very ill, to be clear he’s been to the vets 3 times in the last week and a half and was there this morning as an emergency appt, he is having treatment on Weds. he has maybe an abscess, an infection, something wrong with his face anyway which is incredibly swollen and looks like he’s been eating bees.

Today I have been given antibiotics and painkillers for him ( which they had been trying to avoid so it didn’t affect his biopsy results) however he is not eating much, his face is so stiff and swollen and obviously painful that the usual way of giving him tablets won’t work and forcing them in won’t work and covering them in lpate and letting him kick it off won’t work and I am out of ideas!! Any suggestions? Can I grind them to a powder maybe or would they not work then? Also any suggestions for soft food which is irresistible and not too bad for his dodgy kidneys?!

I normally push the tablet into a cube of cheese or cover it in dog friendly peanut butter.

If the vet is able to give it to you in liquid form, you can syringe it into his mouth.

As @Soubriquet said we use cheese but do 2-3 fake ones first. So just a few chunks of cheese with the tablet in the fourth one. The problem with crushing is some tablets have an incredibly bitter taste and as soon as you crush them this is obvious to the dog.

If the pain is around the mouth it could be that none of this will work.
Corned beef is a favourite.
Or hidden inside a babybel.
Good luck OP.

If you have any, something like Serrano ham works well. It wraps and sticks so is hard to seperate the pill from. The technique of offering a few treats first (pill). then more treats can help with making sure it's gone down!

Warm, buttery peanut butter on toast works well here. I do 2 slices. One for me and one for the dog. Then I eat a bit of mine, then break a bit off the dog's slice and feed it to him. And so on. I mix up whether or not his bits have any tablet in them and use crunchy peanut butter so the lumps don't give me away

It helps that he is, weirdly, mad for butter.

If you use peanut butter, make sure it’s xylitol free. A lot of peanut butters use xylitol and it’s toxic to dogs

My Labrador used to be a pain to get tablets into. To mask any unpleasant or bitter taste/smell, I ground them up in natural yoghurt and let him lap it up. When he was on Tramadol I just split the capsule and mixed in a teaspoon of the yoghurt.

Hotdog sausages. The ones in jars. They're great because you can slice them up and then cut a cross into one to push the tablet into. Give a couple of stooges then the loaded one.
I hope your poor dog is well soon.

Inside a bit of sausage

Inside paste on a little piece of bread folded over

Is it possible to crush them and mix them in with runny food maybe egg white? Them use one of the large syringes you get with Metacam etc? My dog was extremely ill recently with an ulcer and wouldn’t eat, so I made a really runny mix of food and syringed it in to his mouth. It was hard work and he wasn’t happy with me but it worked and he’s still with us (we really thought we were going to lose him)

My girl is a sucker for Camembert. Tablets wrapped in that are wolfed down. Unfortunately she now has pancreatitis (probably too much Camembert) & we have to be more inventive. Occasionally tablet wrapped in ham or chicken works well. Hope your dog recovers soon.

Marshmallows are great for hiding tablets. Just cut a tiny slit and they hold them in due to the sticky interior. Our dog was a nightmare for taking things until we discovered this.

@Soubriquet

If you use peanut butter, make sure it’s xylitol free. A lot of peanut butters use xylitol and it’s toxic to dogs

It's absolutely worth checking ands being careful but, in all the years I've used peanut butter, I've never yet come across one that uses xylitol. I suspect manufacturers are more aware that much PB is bought with dogs in mind, so it's not worth using this ingredient any more.

(This might just be the types of PB I eat, through )

my pup was on steroid tablets when he was tiny... I used to crush the tablet (no coating or anything) and dab in tiny pieces of cooked chicken... I then realised he actually liked the taste of it so just used my finger and he would lick it off! Fingers crossed for you!

Sorry to hear your dog so poorly. Hiding in a small piece of chicken worked for me with my very poorly old girl. Sadly no longer with me but she went to sleep eating small pieces of chicken from my hand, loved it.