How to Make Giving Dog Meds Easier

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Ever since Felix’s achey breaky ACL issue back in the summer, the boy has started taking a lot of stuff.

First there was the pain killers, then the supplements to help him heal and stayed healed, the natural anti-inflammatories, the green lipped mussel, and the list goes on and on and on. That boy has his own pharmacy and health shop masquerading as my kitchen cupboard. We’re doing everything that we can, including the best nutritional support, to ensure his ACL stayed healed and there is no reinjury to that knee or an new injury to the other one.

There’s a bit of a problem though.

(I mean, other than the fact that he’s spending the equivalent of my vacation fund at the naturopathy shop because that is a problem. A big one. Can dogs get jobs? Is anyone hiring for something Felix is qualified for? He’s good at snuggling and eating and playing with toys. What job what that be? Does it pay well??)

She’s trying to knock me off, I know it.

The real problem is that the boy hates taking his medicine. Hates it like poison. In fact, he acts like I am trying to give him actual poison. Right, Felix. I’m spending an amount the exceeds the GDP of some nations on your health but it’s all an elaborate plan to poison you (and land myself in the poor house.) However did you figure it out?

Clearly, this is not the case, but no amount of explanations can convince Felix. All pills, capsules or liquids must be spat out. Immediately. He has mad spitting skills to. No matter what you hide that pill in, he can extract the pill, eat what you hid it in and gob the pill back on the floor before you’ve even had time to blink. It’s his special skill.

Further complicating matters is Kolchak the Garbage can. No sooner has Felix slurped that pill back onto the kitchen floor, than Kolchak has slurped it back up. **baaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh* These dogs are trying to kill me.

That was before I became a dog med ninja.

With so many things to get inside him every day, we could not go on like that. I would have lost my mind, my temper and a ton of money wasting pills. I knew it was time to step up my game, keep that darn Felix on his toes and make med time a million times easier.

One little phrase changed everything. Say it with me:

“Can this be crushed?”

I had never really thought of it before, but then I remembered how we used to trick my GG into taking her pills by crushing them up and hiding them in apple sauce, yogurt and pudding. It was like magic, so I asked the vet if that might work for Felix. Turns out that most of Felix’s meds can be crushed (or the capsules can be broken open) which is like a gift from the heavens. It’s impossible to spit the pill out if it’s been ground in a bazillion little pieces. Even Felix can’t do it. Plus, turning his meds to a powder has opened up a whole new world of ways to conceal them. Even traditional pilling hiders, like peanut butter and cheese seem to work better with crushed pills.

• Peanut Butter 
• Cheese (just knead a little piece in your hands until it gets soft and a bit melty, then mush in the pill)
• Canned food
• Meat Paste
• Mashed Potato, Sweet Potato or Squash
• Felix’s favourite raw dog food

The fussiest of dogs can be medicated with crushed pills, even if they won’t eat the laced treats. One of my friends with tiny humans turned me on to the idea of using a baby syringe. I use this trick to give Felix one of his liquid meds. I mix his dose with a little scoop of canned food and a bit of water, then it just gets squirted in his mouth. Voila! Just like that.

Practice makes perfect.

While crushed pills and a dosing syringe have given me the tools to make meds easier, Felix is still a smart as woof little whippersnapper. The real key to our success is practice. I’ve started slipping him his “pill” treats more often – except most of them time, they have no pill in them. I try to give 2/3 of his treats without meds, so that the one time I slip something in there, he’s not expecting it. I’m an evil genius, I know.

How do you give your dog their meds or supplements?

Do they suck ’em up like Kolchak or spit them out like Felix?