Dog will not take pills

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I have tried hiding them in all her favourite foods, crushing them up into food and forcing them down the back of her throat and keeping her mouth closed. Today it’s taken me until 4pm to force her to swallow 1 tablet and she’s meant to have 5 a day.
She’s had many seizures simply because I cannot get meds in her then we have an awful 12+ hours. It’s not her fault but I’m rapidly running out of patience and go from feeling cross with her to feeling awful ☹️

This. Smother it in cream cheese and wrap that in ham.

My cat is a nightmare for this, and (helped by some suggestions on here), I managed to get the tablet into her by crushing the tablet in a lick-e-lick and smearing it a bit at a time round her mouth. She had no choice but to lick it off. Would that work with a dog?

We use Pate but basically get a big blob and encase the tablet in it with say half a cm thick pate all around each side and she will take it. My parents used to use Mackeral Pate and do similar but that’s a bit more runny

We often recommend using fun size mars or Milky Way cut up. The squishy middle holds the tablet and there is so little chocolate (and it’s milk) it doesn’t cause an issue. And it is such a rare treat that it often works. If it’s a tiny dog and you’re worried about the chocolate you can trim it off. Another friend used to use mini marshmallow with her dog.

if yours has become paranoid about every treat try giving on a walk or get someone else to give it. Dogs can be very clever!

My old boy was a devil for spitting it out sneakily. He wasn't food driven so it's harder with a dog like that. Dog trainer gave up too 😆

I used to put it in butter. Stand behind him and gently open his jaws...shove it to the back of his throat and then hold his nose up and massage his throat until he swallowed 😄

No messing. I had it down to a fine art.

Once a day is a nightmare but five times!

Can only reiterate others, wrap in high value and try to trick them with treats of the wrap food first. High value generally is the smellier the better. We buy a bag of Donar meat from Iceland and use that. I swear DH has some himself also - maybe you need to offer DDog something you’re eating?

Can your dog catch treats if you throw them, try same with tablets? Worked with friend's dog when nothing else did.

Our current dog can be fooled easily with the tablet in a cocktail sausage, but our previous dog was a nightmare. In the end, my dh would hold her while I prized open her jaws, shoved the tablet down the side of her mouth and pushed it down the side of her throat. Then we’d hold her muzzle closed and stroke her neck until she swallowed. We’d then fuss her like crazy telling her she was a good girl. Good luck OP hope you can find a method that works.

Levetiracetam 100mg/1ml is available in liquid form in 300ml bottles.
It is unlicensed for animals but if the licensed drug can't be used for whatever reason then the vet can legally prescribe it.
If the drug company your vet uses can't supply it then your vet may write you a written prescription (usually cheaper anyway doing it this way) for you to get it from a human pharmacy.
It may be sugar free so that will need to be checked out for safety but this may be an easier option, it's often easier to syringe a medication into a mouth then trying to force a tablet in.

I think if you're (very understandably) getting stressed by it, your dog might be picking up on that and be even less likely to take the meds. I'd give her lots and lots of treats over the next few days in a fun way, and not where you usually give the meds, so treats become fun and unscary and a game. I'd mimic the high-speed treat treat treat pill-in-a-treat treat treat treat method. My dog has to take meds (for the opposite of cushings) - wrapping it in something doesn't work for him (he eats the ham and spits the tablet out so he gets more ham) but sticking it on top of a bit of peanut butter on bread works great - but (luckily for this) my dog is very greedy. Only other idea I have is to speak to the vet and see if there's a different way to get the meds eg a long-acting jab or liquid.

Marshamllow (due to thr texture, but make sure there's no xylitol), or a pill pocket.

Failing the above, pill poppers are great and work even when a dog doesn't want food.

Don't crush the pills. They can smell/taste them more. What we do is get some ham and spread some cream cheese on it. Then place the pill on top and roll. Make sure it's not too big. I always give some ham first so that can they have the taste for it.

if that doesn't work you need to open the dogs mouth and put it down the dogs throat. It's the only way I'm afraid. It's over in a few seconds.

My dog is on levitiracetam as well as 4 other meds and my life save has been liver paste. Smother it with paste so it’s completely hidden and it worked a treat for my very anxious dog. She has meds 4 times a day so I have a regular supply of these.
https://amzn.eu/d/cUFQY0w

Sometimes I have to give my dog pardale V when his IBD is giving him painful stomach cramps. He has it really badly and almost died last year as his stomach was so inflamed he wasn't absorbing any nutrients at all.

Anyhoo they must taste utterly vile because he goes beserk if I try to give him one using one of the pill pushers that you get for dogs. So i asked vet if I could disolve tab in water and then still using the pill pusher like a syringe draw it up and then push it into his mouth.

The tabs don't dissolve easily and I sort of have to crush them with a spoon and give them a good mix. Dog still goes beserk and tries to spit it out immediately usually frothing at mouth and almost making himself sick trying to get rid of it. However he does swallow alot of it because it's harder to get rid of liquid I guess than a tablet. I have to kind of hold his mouth shut till he swallows. It all feels kinda cruel but he definately gets the painkiller effect within half an hour so it does work.

Don't know if that is an option. The vet said it was ok to do it this way.

Can I thank you for posting this! My dog is refusing her medication and so feeling worse and worse (she is end of life now) but after a day or so of refusing the usual ways of taking her meds (in low fat pate or Philadelphia cheese) I tried this last night and and she took all her pills! She did the same this morning so hopefully she will do the same again tonight. It's so nice to see her not in pain for the short time we have left with her 💔

That was the only thing that worked for our dog, we’d tried a lot of things already mentioned like ham, cheese etc.
I used to make a ball of liver paste and completely enclose the tablet, get it in his mouth, and then gently tilt his head back so he couldn’t spit it out.
If he’d been extra good that day he’d get a bit more paste spread on a licky mat so he didn’t always associate the paste with medication.

Other methods here are better interspersing with tears

😂My cat agrees "make the human cry"

I'm lucky (at least at times like these) to have a supremely greedy dog. He'll eat anything offered to him. The cat on the other hand is more discerning. When he got wise to the crushed up pills in his food, liquid meds worked for a short while until he refused those, now it's back to pills and burrito-ing the cat with a towel. Currently looking for some kind of cat straight-jacket, as he's like a rippy Houdini.

Hiding pill treat among many fast-fed treats is a good shout by pp, and something greasy will help lubricate the mouth/throat to help get it swallowed quick

I’m sure you’ve tried anything but I am also getting pills into a dog at the moment and finding that one Camembert (£2) lasts about a fortnight of pills twice a day. Cut a small wedge thick enough to squidge the pills right down into it. They physically cannot eat the cheese without the pills, it is all too sticky. Smelly enough that it masks any pill smell. Good luck!

This, lots of excitement, treat, treat, treat, pill in treat, treat, treat treat woohooooo!!

They're not daft, they will be able to tell from your demeanour when you're trying to pull a fast one so keep it lively and moving and don't try and sidle up to them, they'll smell you coming!

@longtompot

I am very glad that method helped but sorry your dog is so poorly. I hope it continues to help get the pills down and that she stays out of pain.💐

The one thing thats always worked for me and everyone else I have told is that you must have a pill free treat visible and ready to go in the other hand held just above nose height
This will make the dog keen to wolf the pill treat down to get to the next one AND to keep their head up so they can't spit anything out
Works a treat

Hope everyones dog recovers well and/or manages to take their pills

My dog's allergic to dairy so I can't wrap pills in cheese and the little sod used to eat around the pills wrapped in anything else. Then I discovered Greenie's Pill Pockets. God knows what they're made of, gelatin and Trump or something, and they're expensive, but they work and they come in chicken and peanut butter flavours.

Every month I have to do one of 2 things:

A) put it inside something and hope he’s distracted enough not to notice

B) go through the following charade:

• Wrap pill in some cheese.
• pretend to cut cheese
• give some cheese
• drop some cheese
• Pretend to drop big bit of cheese (actually pill)
• pretend to try and grab it before he gets to it
• congratulate him on beating me to the cheese and ‘winning’

the things we do 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

I have two strategies.

Make them work for it and use a tablet (a chewable one on its own, or non-chewable with cheddar moulded around it) as a reward.
Sit-stand-lie down on repeat a couple of times with the treat/cheese thing being waved about, and they're desperate. Even Princess Picky chomps it down.

If whatever it is turns out to be really unpalatable, I sit the dog up, open her mouth, shove the pill in behind her back teeth and stroke or tickle her throat until she swallows. Then produce some cheese or similar.

Have you tried pretending it’s something you don’t want your pooch to eat? 🤭

I administer tablets to mine by pretending to drop something and making a show of “oh no! Don’t eat that!!!” 🤭 and she will immediately dive for it and wolf it down before realising what it is 🤭🤭