Oh, this dog is stubborn and smart: she has discovered that I’m trying to get her to take pills, and no matter what I give her, she picks through it like a spoiled child, eating all the good stuff and finally spitting out the pill. I’ve mixed it with cottage cheese, rolled it up into cheese chunks, embedded it in fried chicken pieces, and finally resorted to just outright holding-down-and-forcing. But that’s not easy–she’s a good-sized dog with a long snout, and as often as not, she is able to gag it right back up.
To top it off, she’s taking four different pills twice a day for the next 5-10 days. And she feels lousy, and I feel bad for the poor old girl.
Any ideas?
Best,
karol
No help here, but I’m so happy to see you again! How are things down there?
I’ve seen used (but not used myself) devices such as this with apparently good results.
Can you smash the pills into powder and mix them in with the food?
Not recommended without consulting the veterinarian. Many pills and capsules are time-release formulations; crushing or breaking them causes all the medication to be released into the system at once. You probably don’t want to do that.
My guess is that she would refuse the food altogether. She’s sick enough that she’s not really hungry anyway; I had to coax her to eat the chicken, even–and she still managed to find and spit out a tiny little pill. Poor girl.
Hi avarie! Things are good here–still hanging in there. Drop me an email if you get a chance!
I’ve used the pet piller that Q.E.D. linked to on both cats and dogs with great success. It’s not necessarily easy to do without some practice, but it’s still better than trying to stuff it down their throat.
Some tips from here on the stick-it-in-her-throat method:
Put her on a counter or table.
Tilt her head back to insert the pill, and forward once it’s in to help her swallow.
Get her to swallow by closing her mouth and blowing on her nostrils.
The girl in the video (on that site) makes it look incredibly easy.
I’ll see if I can find a gizmo like that tomorrow at the local pet place.
She’s finally pilled for the night, but she’s lying there giving me this…Look. If I never show up on the Dope again–if, indeed, I never show up anywhere again, I hope someone will take a good look at the innocent-looking Basset with the nasty cough.
Call your veterinarian and see if the medication is available in a liquid form or a coated or flavored pill or chew. I can’t tell you how many times (okay, four) I’ve struggled to pill a cat only to find out later that the med was available in a much easier to deal with liquid. So irritating!
To be fair, pilling a cat once feels like about 10 times…
bodypoet:
The method I used to use with my Great Danes - the ones I hadn’t raised from infancy, and trained to let me pill from 3 (three) weeks of age - was to put behind the root of the tongue (yes, nearly down the throat), close the mouth & squeeze off the nostrils. They swallow in order to be able to breathe - end of problem.
If you’ve got a second person available, have them stroke the dog’s throat. That’ll make it go even faster. Once the pill is down, keep stroking the throat.
And if you think a 70 pound (or so) Basset is harder to control this way than a 150 pound (or more) Dane - think again! :smack:
And good luck. 
I find that doing what tygerbryght suggests, plug hiding the pill in CHUNKY peanut butter, helps.
Some dogs are smart enough to tell peanut chunks from pills, some aren’t.
I’ve had really good luck with these pill pockets. My dog likes them, and she just about swallows them whole. She rejected the beef flavor, however. We had to switch to the chicken.
Peanut butter works on my Beagle.
Hold a gun to her head.
I gotta shove em down Bubba’s throat when he takes them.
Here’s our method -
Get 5 bite sized pieces of chicken.
Hand feed two pieces.
Left hand gently squeeze dogs jaw at the base (intersection of upper and lower teeth)
Jaw opens, holding pill between thumb and pointer finger of right hand, slip pill in at base of jaw and curl right index finger into throat.
Close jaw, tilt head up, rub throat, give many “good doggie” praises. (It helps if the dog thinks that, even though he hates it, its something you find thrilling and wonderful)
Give three more pieces of chicken.
(vary pill between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pieces if dog shows ability to count.
My vet from years back suggested putting the pill in a hunk of butter, tossing it as far as possible to the back of the throat, and then holding the mouth shut. As the butter melts, the dog is required to swallow, and down goes the pill. Might work with that doggy ice cream stuff, too.
The pill pockets work well, as do the syringe/blowgun hybrid gadgets as linked above.
Funny. My basset hound will just eat pills, even bitter-tasting ones. Offer them to her, she takes them and chews them up. Crunch crunch crunch.
Some other methods I’ve heard of working:
- Drop it on the floor in the kitchen and pretend the dog’s not allowed to have it
- Hide it in the food (maybe buy some wet food) at regular feeding time
Maybe you’re putting it into the wrong end? 