Administrating medication

[Toooldtoworry]

One of my dogs has had a teca. He is being very difficult taking his meds. I've ground it up this morning and put it in his dinner with gravy and cheese (his favourite) but he's not eating. He has about 20 tablets to take a day. Anyone got any tips on how to get him to take them?

Should add he is raw fed.

oh that's a lot . could you ground them up into plain yoghurt? let him lick it of a spoon.

My dog only has to have two and she is so fussy. We've found putting her the pills in pate help but she soon gets tired of that and we have to use something else for a while then revert back to pate.

We sometimes buy rollitos- the cheese wrapped in Parma ham things. They are expensive but work and you can get 3 or 4 pills in for one rollito.

We’ve found that we can’t put medications into familiar food. If ours know what it’s supposed to smell / taste like they won’t eat it as the medication alters the smell / taste.

Super smelly, high value food is the way to go with ours (we use lamb / kangaroo meat).

Can you try liver or kidneys? You should be ok feeding that everyday if you don’t feed too much.

Grinding up the pills spreads the foul taste throughout the food, so I wouldn't recommend. Try moulding the raw meat around the pill or half a pill like a small meatball. However, like a pp, we mostly use pate, or occasionally hide in a cube of cheese.

We're on several tablets, several times a day here at the moment too with one of mine - they all get shoved in a Dairylea triangle and disappear immediately!

I wrap it up in ham then have another bit in my hand to give him straight away so he has no choice but to swallow the earlier bit.

Mine is fussy, off his food at the moment anyway, and so I'm grinding up his tablets, suspending them in bone broth (it is less runny then than in water, but yogurt is a good call, will try that later), and squirting it in with a syringe. Its quick, reliable, and with practice not messy

Xylitol free peanut butter?

Thank you everyone will grab some dairylea when husband gets home and some more pate - although he wised up to that last night.

Another thing I found useful was to make a round of toast with something like PB or pate, cut into pieces and only lace some of the pieces.

Then feed some straight bits, some laced bits, randomly.

Always being quick to offer a fresh, straight piece quickly after a laced piece, so he swallowed quickly so he could take the fresh bit. If that makes sense?

20 tablets is a lot- I'd speak to your vet about whether there's an easier way for him to get what he needs. Sometimes vets keep prescribing additional meds and don't realise what it's all adding up to when there might be a way to prescribe some of his meds in a different format to make them easier to eat.

Is he eating in general? If not you may need to consult your vet if its been a while, especially if onboard pain relief has worn off. I presume some of them are steroids which will likely have a side effect of increasing appetite which will help.

My usual go to tips...

Put it in something sticky and tasty, so they can't get it out.
Give it to them when they're hungry (ie before a meal)
Get them to do a few things to earn a (non medicated) treat before giving the medication. Sit, treat. Lie, treat. Paw, medicated treat. Repeat if necessary, followed by some non medicated treats. Give them quickly so they don't have time to think about it - them being able to see the next ones lined up can help.

Sometimes, needs must and its an open the hatch and pop the tablets down and rub the throat until they swallow, but I wouldn't suggest that in this case given the nature and area of the surgery.

Wrap in pate. Throw dog multiple pieces of cheese / ham / pate so it goes no pill, no pill, pill, no pill etc until it's all gone 😂😂 works here!