Grrr - giving dogs wormers and Toby update.

Ravenwood

Ravenwood

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Just got back from Vets where they reassessed Toby so thought I would give an update as a lot of you have followed him over the years.

Poor old boy has got worse recently and we have now put him on metacam to see out the next few years (hopefully). Considering he was diagnosed at 6 months old and wasn't really expected to make it past 5 and the fact that he is now 8 and only retired last year is pretty good.

Vet thinks he also has arthritus in his back now, hind leg joints are still good but elbows very thickened. He's on a strong course of Carprogesic tablets for one week and then onto the Metacam. Other than that he looks in brilliant condition, good weight (really struggled to keep that down!) and very happy :) There's a couple of years left in him yet ;)

I took all three dogs with me so that I could weigh them accurately as they all need worming and frontlining.

Toby 30kg, Flyn 25kg & Rosie 20kg - almost exactly actually.

So I crush up the drontal tablets, add them to their breakfast, pour on some lovely rich gravy that I've made especially and mix it all in - Flyn and Rosie won't touch it :(

I've sat them both down and gave them a good talking to, telling them exactly how damned expensive that breakfast I just put down is and they'd better well eat it! They both looked at me like spoilt children and said "No thanks" :mad:

I've picked the bowls up and they can have it for dinner then or just starve! :cool:

How do you give your dogs their worming pills?
 
Norty dogs!:eek::D

Mine get theirs (in fact any tablet) on a marmite sandwich - a piece of bread, tablet on top and big splodge of marmite on top - down in one!:D

As for Toby - the old sheepdog here had bad arthritis in his hips for the last couple of years - the farmer had him on some kind of pain relief (don't know what) and also got him a magnetic collar which the YO swears by - the combo definitley helped him keep mobile. Sweep now has a magnetic collar and at 14 he is still mobile and not particulalry stiff although he is slower - maybe worth a try?:confused: it can't do any harm:)
 
Im very lucky the Dobes would take it off your hands but I wrap it in chicken skin or something similar even though they just swallow.:eek:

Pip is more fussy so we break the tablet up and disguise in some lovely tasty raw meat.

Dogs are so much easier than horses as Ive never ended up wearing dog wormer but have with horse wormer.:D
 
LOL - noooo horses far easier - quick squirt down their gobs, job done :D

I've tried the hiding it in chicken skin, sandwiches etc before but they just spit them out :( I thought crushing and mixing in with gravy in breakfast would work but obviously not - well I'm not going to waste them, they'll be bloody hungry sooner or later!
 
Grab dog and hold in scissor grip between legs, open mouth and push pill as far down throat as possible, then tip in morsel/treat on top. clamp shut and hold with head up rubbing throat like hell for several swallows. Always worked for us except for my lurcher who can clamp her mouth shut like a vice so she has to have it wrapped in something then clamped shut.

Glad the old man's doing well, echo the magnetic collar or even some copper too. The good thing about magnets or copper are that the dog doesn't know they're meant to help so if you see an improvement you know they're doing the job, it's not just in their minds.
 
Maesfen said:
Grab dog and hold in scissor grip between legs, open mouth and push pill as far down throat as possible, then tip in morsel/treat on top. clamp shut and hold with head up rubbing throat like hell for several swallows.
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Yup this is how I do it to - no hassle at all :)
 
Maesfen said:
Grab dog and hold in scissor grip between legs, open mouth and push pill as far down throat as possible, then tip in morsel/treat on top. clamp shut and hold with head up rubbing throat like hell for several swallows. Always worked for us except for my lurcher who can clamp her mouth shut like a vice so she has to have it wrapped in something then clamped shut.
Click to expand...
Add to this, if you hold your hand over their nostrils so they can't breathe and count to 20 then let them breathe they will automatically swallow.
 
I hide them in ham or cheese. I start by giving Jake a few bits with no tablet then the one with the tablet followed by a few without the tablet. :)
 
Problem sorted - starving works ;)

Fed them really late this evening, made sure they were in the house whilst I was cooking delicious and very strong smelling pork chops, rich gravy, creamy mash veg and I regularly asked them if they were hungry :p

Well apparently they were so starving that they forgot to turn up their noses at the wormers hidden from this morning ;)

Thanks for the tips for next time - Maesfen, thats how I worm the cat but she is so much smaller and more pliable but I'll give it a try ;)
 
Glad the starving did the trick

The kennels told us that putting wormers in a ball of corned beef works, so we've done that or pushed them into a bit of cheese. We gave one dog antibiotics a while back and discovered she just scoffed them if put her dinner bowl so may see if she'll do same with wormer next time.
 
Maesfen said:
Grab dog and hold in scissor grip between legs, open mouth and push pill as far down throat as possible, then tip in morsel/treat on top. clamp shut and hold with head up rubbing throat like hell for several swallows. Always worked for us except for my lurcher who can clamp her mouth shut like a vice so she has to have it wrapped in something then clamped shut.

Glad the old man's doing well, echo the magnetic collar or even some copper too. The good thing about magnets or copper are that the dog doesn't know they're meant to help so if you see an improvement you know they're doing the job, it's not just in their minds.
Click to expand...

Can I just clarify here? Do you mean that dogs know that tablets etc are meant to help them?! :confused:
 
We had a dog once that would only eat a wormer tablet if you pretended to give it to the cat and then accidentally dropped it! Obviously stolen tablets don't taste as bad!
 
if you crush the tablets they are highly un-paletable... according to drontal! :( i had the same problem after crushing tabs and smothering in gravy and all sorts of goodies...

betty was a right nightmare to worm, tried everything... SARDINES are my saviour!

just buy a tin of sardines, put the worming tablet in the middle of a sardine (they usually break, but i just mush the sardine around the tablet) and offer by hand to the dog... down in one, jobs a goodun!

:p

xx
 
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We tell clients to put it in a dairylea triangle, never failed us yet!

Crushing makes it very bitter a bit like you opening your antibiotic capsules then trying to eat them!
 
I didn't realise that crushing the tablet made is less palatable - you learn something new everyday :)

I would very much like to "like" all the other posts - thank you for replying :D
 
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