Getting the tablets down, ideas ?

[Elasticatedwaist]

Ddog is poorly. He’s got pardale v tablet to have 3 times a day and omeprazole twice a day.
we were managing fine at first, hiding it in his favourite high value treats but he’s wised up. The omeprazole are tiny and I even cut them in half but still he manages to sift them out and eat the rest.
I’ve tried using his puzzle toys, rapidly feeding other treats and then sticking a hidden one in his mouth but no , he’s too clever !
any suggestions greatly appreciated.
very worried and sad about him , awaiting test results from vet today.

We get our dog to sit, open his mouth & drop them in, he gets a reward after.

We swapped to some wet food alongside dry to make giving meds easier. so we stick it in the food and she eats it all at once, no problem.

Otherwise, look into buying some Easypill. You wrap the whole pill in the putty and they gobble it down. I don't know what's in it, but they love it.

We used to do that with cheese. But then she got pancreatitis, so no cheese for her.

Putting it in a spoon of crunchy peanut butter works for us. Our normally greedy dog becomes Gordon Ramsey when a pill needs to be taken

There’s no way he will just open his mouth and let me drop it in. Probably because he has a big ulcer at the back of his throat.
Doesn’t like peanut butter unfortunately so that’s out.
He normally has homemade fish cake which is quite pliable , I’ve totally covered the pill with it , moulded it into a ball and he still manages to find it and spit it out !

Crush the pills and stir them into a teaspoon of condensed milk. Never fails!

There are times when, with children and animals, you just have to do something you know they won’t like: I stand behind my dog, lift her head up and back, open her mouth and push tablets down her throat. It’s not great but if followed by a syringe of water and a treat, they go down quickly. And I find it better than trying to disguise, spit out, try again with something else-it gets more distressing (for us both) the longer I’m trying and she’s refusing. The consequences of not taking the drugs are worse……

Ours has at least 2 tablets daily , we wrap them in wafer thin chicken

My friend smears a bit of cream cheese on ham then rolls it up with the pill in the middle. Even her picky dog loves it!

Wrapped in chicken skin or sandwiched between chicken.
Or in the middle of a ball of sardine/ tinned mackerel

Stuffed inside a chunk of hotdog. Follow up immediately with a second non-drugged chunk to encourage them to wolf it down quickly.

AwkwardPup was on Atopica which are large and have a distinct smell - hotdog was the only thing that worked.

Greenies pill pockets from amazon. Come in dog or cat versions, variety of flavours. Absolute godsend.

Encase it in cheese. Mould some cheddar round so it’s a cheese ball and nom nom the dog will swallow it whole.

Ball of cheese.

Quickly followed by ball of cheese encasing the pill.

Followed by ball of cheese

This is what we do

My dog is on 4 pills twice daily. We first used the Primula squeezy cheese in a tube but he sometimes goes off that. Now use the lick-e-lix cat treat things. Like a thin chicken flavoured paste. Put the pills on a plate on the floor with a tiny bit of lickelix on each pill. He should hopefully lick the pill up with the treat. Then rest of treat afterwards. The squeezy cheese is thicker so sticks better so could try that first but guarantee he’ll like the cat treat (use of cat treats okd by our vet. Cat treats / food suitable for dogs but not necessarily the other way round). If that doesn’t work buy a pill crusher and crush the pills into the cheese / lickelix.

Had this with my dog after an op, after a while he got wise to every type of disguise/bribe for meds. I think Pardale is particularly disgusting.

Vet gave us a few and then I bought -gelatin capsules from Amazon - can stuff any pill inside and it completely conceals the taste. Complete game changer. Check you get the right size for the pills you're using.

I do same as @AwkwardPaws27 not with hotdogs specifically but with ham/chicken/anything, always have a 2nd visible piece in your hand, Ddog scarfs first one (with pill) to get 2nd with no pill.

Make up several treats, only some of them have the pills in. Give the dog a couple of non pill treats, and then stick a pill one in swiftly followed by a non pill one, and so on, keep up the pace until you're done. Pace is key as is acting like something very special is going on.

You have my sympathies I know how different dogs can be with tablets . My previous dog highly suspected we were trying to poison her and would go on hunger strike . The one we have now will take anything going on offer 🙄.

Pill pals (from B+M!) worked for us until recently when I had to resort to encasing tablets in balls of grated cheddar - DDog couldn't resist those cheese balls!

Can he catch food you throw to him? I do a handful of ham / cheese / pate in chunks, stuff the pill(s) into a chunk or two, then start throwing from a few inches or so, keeping the pile near their noses so they are more focused on the pile and the immediate throw than actually tasting anything....

So throw a plain one, plain, plain, tablet, plain and so on 😁

Mascarpone or tunafish pate works super well as they just slip straight down without giving the dog much chance to find a hidden pill.

Royal Canin pill pockets. Come in different sizes. My dog is also on Pardale, long term. I tried cheese, chicken, peanut butter etc, but he is elderly and had an attack of pancreatitis. Greenies are also good.

My lab is really hard to get meds into, she's so fussy with food too, but last year I tried grinding the pills up, bought new treats she'd never had before (I think I got some M&S cooked sausages or something like that and sprinkled the powder onto her treat and it worked, she actually now comes running the second she heard the pestle and mortar come out.

My family take the piss out of me for it but it's way less stressful and quicker than their method of forcing pill in mouth and clamping mouth shut while my dog tries to break free. I have mobility issues and can't do that. I found something that works and the vet said it's perfectly fine to grind them up.

Thank you so much for all the help . Had to phone the vet last night for additional pain relief so we’ve now got gabapentin to get down him aswell.
dh is going to get some of things suggested shortly. Here’s hoping !