Tablet giving tips

[Welshy]

Hi guys.

Just wondering if anyone had any foolproof tips for giving dogs pills please?

My dog is generally excellent to tablet, not fussy and will take worming tablets, yumove etc from my hand. But she is on long term tramadol which tastes absolutely disgusting and I am really struggling with them. I've tried wrapping them in various things including the putty stuff that is designed for this purpose and she just spits it out and shakes her head violently in disgust.
'Shoving' it down her throat just upsets us both and isn't always successful. I'm using a pill giver syringe at the moment and dipping the tablet in butter to try and help it down but this is also a bit hit and miss and I feel like she hates me afterwards!

I'm vegetarian and have a very limited diet so don't generally keep any meat or similar in so anything like that will need to be bought specifically which is fine if recommended

Eta -- she is an (currently very stable) ibd dog and cannot have any of the usual nsaids which are more palatable unfortunately.

Thanks in advance!

 

[KEK]

P

Hi guys.

Just wondering if anyone had any foolproof tips for giving dogs pills please?

My dog is generally excellent to tablet, not fussy and will take worming tablets, yumove etc from my hand. But she is on long term tramadol which tastes absolutely disgusting and I am really struggling with them. I've tried wrapping them in various things including the putty stuff that is designed for this purpose and she just spits it out and shakes her head violently in disgust.
'Shoving' it down her throat just upsets us both and isn't always successful. I'm using a pill giver syringe at the moment and dipping the tablet in butter to try and help it down but this is also a bit hit and miss and I feel like she hates me afterwards!

I'm vegetarian and have a very limited diet so don't generally keep any meat or similar in so anything like that will need to be bought specifically which is fine if recommended

Eta -- she is an (currently very stable) ibd dog and cannot have any of the usual nsaids which are more palatable unfortunately.

Thanks in advance!

Peanut butter is my standby, a big blob of it. Tramadol is very bitter and horrid I believe. We don’t use it anymore as there is some evidence it doesn’t work in dogs as they lack the right receptors.

 

[meleeka]

I crush tablets with the back of a fork and mix with yoghurt or a bit of meat paste. My dog wouldn’t eat any tablets including her Yumove.

 

[teddypops]

I use dairylea cheese spread for my collie who was very difficult. He will eat any tablet now.

 

[Sandstone1]

I crush tablets with the back of a fork and mix with yoghurt or a bit of meat paste. My dog wouldn’t eat any tablets including her Yumove.

You do have to be careful crushing tablets as some have a coating to protect the stomach so should not be crushed. Maybe try making a meatball of tinned dog meat. Roll a ball of dog food. ie chappie etc use gloves ! make a couple one with the tablet pushed in to it give the non tablet one first. They need to be a suitable size for the dog and the tablet.

 

[Auslander]

Do you use the Yumove chewy treats? You can easily insert a tablet into them, and they are very smelly, so disguise the table very well. I make giving yumove into a game with my dog - he likes catching things, so I throw the treat to him, he catches it and its down the hatch in seconds!

 

[Mynstrel]

Multiple treats and hide the tablet in one, then go nice, nice, nice, tablet, nice etc. Vary where in the order the tablet is and sometimes just give the series of treats. To begin with just treat to get them used to the idea without being suspicious.

 

[windand rain]

Be careful peanut butter does not contain xylitol it toxic to dogs been a few deaths due to it. Guess ham is out of the equation we use cheap ham or chicken roll to give willow nasties just roll it up and break the roll in places so as above some nice bits then the pill then more nice squares of cheese work well with some dogs too

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

You need to be careful that your pb doesn't contain palm oil as it is toxic to dogs and the cheaper brands tend to have it. Cheese is usually enough of a tasty treat for ours if they need any persuasion but they are so used to recall for a treat that they just accept it as normal. If you need to push the tablet in, I would stand/sit behind the dog, lift the chin with one hand open the mouth with the other and push the tablet covered in butter or cheese spread as far back as possible, keep the mouth closed but let the chin down a bit, stroke the throat until the dog swallows.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Once when I had a dog that didn't like a pill she temporarily needed, I went and bought chicken livers. Didn't even need to stuff the pill inside, just shoved the pill in, holding the liver in the other hand, so she could feel the smell of it, and directly afterwards, I let her take the liver.
They're smaller in size than the ordinary livers sold, so I felt they were easier to make suitable portion sizes of. I chose to quick fry a few at a time in a frying pan, but it was before feeding dogs Barf, or raw diets became popular, so don't know if that would still be considered necessary.

My veterinarian sells dried liver cut up in small pieces, perhaps you could look for something like that, in case your dog, too, likes liver so much that you don't need to hide the pill inside.

ETA I realise it might not be a popular idea to deal with chicken livers if you're a vegetarian, but as Sandstone1 suggested, you could put on gloves. If your dog really has to have the pills, and if the other suggestions doesn't work, then I presumed you would maybe still be willing to try it.

 

[Stiff Knees]

Peril will take a tablet stuffed into a raspberry or a blueberry. Raspberries are easier because they have a perfect pill sized pouch.

 

[Unicorn]

I use Primula squeezy cheese...now referred to in this house as drug cheese.

Squidge of Primula on my finger, tablet on top, tablet gone! Somehow I associated this with the question 'do you want drugs?' so now if anyone asks that, she races to the kitchen, wagging furiously! It worked well when she was on tramadol, which she refused to touch in any other disguise.

 

[druid]

Plenty of evidence now that Tramadol has little to no analgesic effect in dogs. It may be worth chatting to your vet about an alternative that is IBD friendly and would save you the hassle of attempting to give the tramadol!

 

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

I‘d swap to Rimadyl/Metacam. I have to crush tablets for puss cat, he just spits out whole ones. Covering in salmon oil is useful.

 

[Welshy]

Great - thank you guys!

Interesting re the tramadol. I would be very keen to switch to something else as I'm not convinced it it's actually that effective, and certainly for the degree to which she hates it (which is a shame as its relatively cheap lol)
I would love to find an alternative so will see if the vets have any suggestions.

Metacam and rimadyl are both unsuitable for her gastro issues unfortunately as I know she would happily take those as treats.

Even though I am a food phobic veggie, I would definitely be willing to buy and handle (with gloves) anything meaty if it meant making the process more pleasant for her. Though the cheese triangles and primula sound like good options to start with.

She's a week or so off turning 16 so I'm not expecting miracles but there's a puppy with a zest for life still in there so I want to do everything in my power to keep her comfortable.

Thanks for all of the suggestions xx

 

[conniegirl]

I would get some bacon/ham/chicken slices.
For my dog i have to wrap the tablet in one piece of ham/bacon and have another piece in my hand within his eyeline. He then eats the first piece so quickly he doesn’t even realise there is a tablet in it!
he always gets the second piece as well.

sometimes you do have to prime them by giving a balled up piece of the ham/bacon first, then the wrapped tablet, then the balled up 3rd piece.

 

[scats]

I remember years ago a vet telling us to pop the tablet down the dogs throat and tap it’s nose three times. It worked!

Never used it since, tend to go for the ‘conceal in cheese’ method.

 

[maisie06]

Spam always works for me, rubbery texture makes it easy to hide the tablet in a cube of the stuff.

 

[DSB]

Plenty of evidence now that Tramadol has little to no analgesic effect in dogs. It may be worth chatting to your vet about an alternative that is IBD friendly and would save you the hassle of attempting to give the tramadol!

We have two old ladies{JRT ish},both with IBD and use Gabapentan,100mg x twice daily.As they are both on Pred they can't have Tramadol.

 

[Ranyhyn]

Seen a vet put one in a strawberry

 

[Lipglosspukka]

Would something like trocoxil be suitable? It's only one tablet every 4 weeks.