I have recently put my sweet, wonderful, soon to be 14-years-old BC, Molly, on Rimadyl (which is actually just ibuprofen in a smaller dose--only 75 mg per pill) for joint and mobility issues (I have to help her up into the cab of the truck these days).
Long ago, my sister, who worked for a vet at the time, showed me how to give a dog a pill: pry their mouth open, drop the pill as far back into the mouth as possible, clamp their mouth shut, and blow on their nose while stroking their throat. This does work, but as you might expect, it works better for some dogs than others.
So I started experimenting with alternative methods. What I ultimately came up with was this: take a Vienna sausage, cut it in half, use a plastic soda straw (just like you get in McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant) and stick it in the end of the sausage (don't go all the way through--about two thirds of the way works perfect), twirl the straw just a little bit, and pull it out (a little "plug" of sausage will come with it), stick the pill in the hole left by the straw, call the dog and say excitedly, "Do you want this?". Both the pill and the sausage are gone in a flash! No muss, no fuss. Happy dog, happy owner. To insure that the pill goes down, I immediately follow this with a couple of puppy sized dog biscuits.
You can squeeze the plastic straw moving toward the end to expel the "plug" of sausage. Reuse the straw if you want, or--if you are concerned about hygiene--just cut off an inch or so of the straw. That way you get multiple uses out of one soda straw.
I buy the Vienna sausages in a six pack of cans, seven sausages to the can. That's enough for 84 pills, provided, of course, that you are not particularly fond of Vienna sausages yourself.
Now, I know you are incredibly knowledgeable about all things canine, and you probably have worked our a technique as good or better than this, and I don't mean to insult you in any way, but I just wanted to share this with you and anyone else on this site who may have to give pills to dogs on a regular basis.
And thanks for sharing the info about hypothyroidism causing aggression in dogs. I did not know that.
B.
Giving a cat a pill is another thing completely. My brother is a vet and he has shown me how to do that, it is a bit more complicated.
That is absolutely brilliant!
I rely on cream cheese to give Odin his Soloxine but my PPM, Gypsy, does *not* like cream cheese at all and she is a horror to medicate when necessary.
She does, however, like meat and the sausages might work!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
It’s sure to be easier than holding her on my lap and shoving a pill down her gullet, forcibly..:D
I paid for this book and have permission to spread it far and wide.
It was written by the world’s foremost expert on canine hypothyroidism.
She travels the globe lecturing to vets and colleges.
Please download, save, read and share it with all your dog loving friends.
It could save lives.
[dog *and* human]
http://www.walagata.com/w/the-salamander/3160196.pdf