This week we took a trip to the Vet and received the unfortunate news that our old dog needs to be taking a medication once a day now. For any other dog owner this may be ok since their dog loves treats. For us, not exactly. Our dog loves treats, but he is the rawhide bone type of guy, not the mushy treats that make it easy to shove medication inside. It is officially time for us to get creative! I did some searching online to find some ideas on how to sneak pills and wanted to share some tips with you too!
- Our dog LOVES fetch. He is crazy obsessed to be 100% honest. I felt a bit silly to not think of this myself- but they said to simply smash the pill into even a piece of bread for the dog to “catch.” Each website stated to use more than one “treat” to play the catch game and simply sneak the pill into one of the treats you toss. Great idea for us!
- The smellier the food, the better. Think liver pâté or a stinky cheese like Limburger cheese and sneak the pill inside making for a smelly treat to eat. Also simply using a piece of sandwich cheese, or you can use a small portion of meat with some water and simply mush up together making a tasty treat for your dog.
- They also do have some medication that you can request to be made to taste like treats vs. the not so pleasant medication taste. You can also use a plain gelcap to hinder the taste that you can pick up at your vet office and simply lubricate it to make it easy to swallow.
- I also found a very informative video where a Vet shows how to easily give a medication to a dog.
I wish you the best on your journey giving your pets pills as well. Not an easy trick to master, but thankfully he is doing well so far with getting cheese treats and playing “catch” the medicine!