Does anyone have any advice on how to give Zoe her medicine? She's driving me crazy with this. She's on 2 different medicine's right now. She's allergic to her rabies shot so she's taking medicine for that and she's on her anxiety medicine. It used to be as simple as putting it on my finger with peanut butter. After that I tried hiding it in various types of food. She won't fall for it that way either. I would hide it where she couldn't see it and she knew exactly which 2 pieces the medicine was in and she will just leave those sitting there. Next I went to dropping it down her throat and rubbing her neck until she swallowed it. That never worked. As soon as I let her go she'd start gagging until they came back up. Its just so hard getting her to take medicine. Today I hid them in a bowl of ice cream. She ate all of the ice cream but the pills were still in the bowl. Next I tried some hamburger. She really likes hamburger. Well instead of leaving the 2 pieces there that had the pills she ate the hamburger and spit the pills back out. I tried various other things today without any luck.
On a better note so far the anxiety medicine is just what we needed. I wish now that I'd done it a long time ago. She's only gone to the bathroom in the house once since I started it and that was early on, like the second day. She hasn't gone to the bathroom in her crate like she used to and she's also not up my butt all day. I can actually be separated from her for 5 min. without her flipping out and eating the carpet or the furniture. Before the meds. when I would sit down on the couch she would come lay next to me and just keep scooting closer and closer until she was on my lap. Now, she actually lays on a different sofa sometimes or she'll go lay in the bedroom in her bed by herself. She hasn't attacked me either which is a wonderful thing.
Any advice on this medicine? It really takes like a half hour to finally get her to take it. Thats an extra half hour in the day I didn't have to begin with. I worked on it for 45 min. today and still no luck. I swear if she could speak she would be smarter than me.
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
Does she know how to catch food when you throw it at her? If she does you can wrap it up in a dog treat and start tossing regular ones towards her and then toss the medicated ones and then some more regular ones.
Also, another idea is to try to grind them up into her food or into some hamburger. What I did was grind it up into a "special" kind of canned food that she had never had before and she ONLY got it when it was medicine time. That is the method I use most. I have had dog s that have had kennel cough, plus when Kaia was here, she was taking meds every day too. It works really well, but you have to use a food they have never had before so they do not realize that it tastes different. Good Luck!
With Oscar I used to just pry his mouth open and put it down his throat. Then I would hold his mouth shut and he would swallow it. Kind of like a horse. But you could also just buy some cheap weiners and out it in a bite size piece or use cheese.
Zoe is way to dainty to catch food. She did it when she was a puppy but not anymore. She's a grown up now, you see. Its a whole ordeal with Zoe to feed her a treat. First she has to smell it and this takes forever, next she has to lick it to make sure it tastes okay, Zoe is not your typical beagle who will eat just anything, after that she will barely take it between her teeth and take it somewhere to eat it.
I know the rabies one I can grind up but the anxiety one is a capsule. I probably could just pop it open. I'm going to give it a try.
Zoe doesn't eat a lot so I can only put this medicine on a few bites of food and as picky as she is its a long shot but I'm going to try it.
The hot dogs used to work but not anymore. She loves cheese but that never worked for the medicine. I can't drop it down her throat either because she gags it back up. Its disgusting. The medicine isn't the only thing that comes out when she does this.
-- Edited by ZoeandTucker at 12:05, 2005-09-26
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
Mine are the same way... too smart to fall for a regular hide in PB ... I tried many, many tricks and even did the pry and shove... (I felt awful about that.. too) .... So after trial and failure... I ended up with..... A Bean Burrito from Taco bell.... ( it has lots of flavor and hides the smell and taste of the meds great. ) They never even Noticed meds where in them.. gobble gobble. Job done.
I bought several of them and kept them in the fridge… I’d use a half of one , warm it… and they would drool waiting to eat.
( yes I told my vet and it was ok for them to eat them… and Nope No gas or runny stools )
both Bruce and Cricket on a month worth of meds... for Cancer and V.D. ( head tilt).... Crickets meds .. one an inch sq. tablet and one capsule... Bruce a wee bit smaller but also 2.
Did you order the bean burritos without onions? I always heard that onions were a posion for dogs but maybe they have to have a large amount.... Oscar wishes he had a bean burrito though.
Koda prefers chicken nuggets from McD's! lol Probably not the healthiest treat but he only gets them maybe 4 times a year.....on special occasions like when he goes in to get groomed and stuff like that!
You could try putting it in the back of her throat like you were saying and while you rub her throat keep her mouth closed and her head tilted up.This is how i give all my pets meds and it works everytime. Other then hiding it in food i have no other ideas for giving the meds.
Maybe you can get a pill crusher and crush up the pills into a powder, and give her a treat or piece of food that is really smelly, then maybe she wont be able to smell the meds and she will just smell the smelly treat? Goodluck.
Use something smelly, like Syd says... Open the capsule and mix it with tuna juice, salmon or mackeral[use a tiny amount]. You can also get soft cheese that smells strong, like a brie or canned squirt cheese. You can get pill crushers at the pharmacy if you need one.
Its a whole ordeal with Zoe to feed her a treat. First she has to smell it and this takes forever, next she has to lick it to make sure it tastes okay, Zoe is not your typical beagle who will eat just anything, after that she will barely take it between her teeth and take it somewhere to eat it.
