Dog continuously needs higher value treats to take pills. Where does it end?

[Anonymous]

So my senior dog needs to take a lot of pills every day for arthritis and other quality of life issues. Nothing he has is life threatening and his pain is well managed when he takes his medicine. With his pain management he meets basically every benchmark for quality of life - he enjoys walks, he eats normally, he holds his bladder perfectly well, he sleeps through the night, etc.

The problem is that it is getting harder and harder to get him to take his meds. It used to be I put some peanut butter on the pills and he'd gulp them down. Then he stopped eating peanut butter so I switched to cream cheese, then he stopped eating cream cheese so I switched to cheddar cheese, then he stopped eating any cheese and I switched to deli meat, now he...well you get the picture.

I'm reaching a point where I'm scared I'll run out of foods he will eat and won't be able to give him his meds anymore. He is an absolute expert pill-sniffer so I can't hide it in his regular food. He gets aggressive if I force anything in his mouth, so the "pop it in and shut his mouth" method will work maybe once a day, but after that he'll bite if I put my hand near him and he needs 7 pills a day so that's out. most of the pills he needs are too big to fit in those pill guns. I honestly can't think of any way to get him to take his pills if I run out of food he'll eat a pill in.

I can't stand the thought of having to put a dog down who would otherwise be perfectly fine if they'd just eat their damn pills. Has anyone dealt with this before?

[Anonymous]

Does he catch treats? One trick I try is tossing some yummy treats first, and then tossing the pill inside a treat. If pupper is a good catcher, they usually gobble it down whole. But you have to give them the good ones first so they dont suspect it lol.

[Anonymous]

Eternal sleep!

[Anonymous]

I can relate. Have you tried hiding it in baby food (on a paper plate)? Preferably meat flavored.

https://www.gerber.com/shop-by-product/baby-food/glass-jars

[Anonymous]

You need to talk to your vet. Perhaps they can switch prescriptions to smaller pills, or ones that are coated so they don't have a bitter taste, or perhaps some pills are crushable or some capsules can be opened and the powder mixed into his food.

I sympathize, OP. I was used to doing the pop-in-mouth for my dog's preventatives, but when he fell sick and had a ton of meds, he started gently clamping his teeth onto my hand, to tell me I'd hit his limit. As it turns out, his pills are small enough that he doesn't mind lapping them up in his wet food, and some are powders that I mix in. But I dread having to try and force him to take a large non-crushable tablet again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eternal sleep!

This. There is only so much you can do. Is this your first dog?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to talk to your vet. Perhaps they can switch prescriptions to smaller pills, or ones that are coated so they don't have a bitter taste, or perhaps some pills are crushable or some capsules can be opened and the powder mixed into his food.

I sympathize, OP. I was used to doing the pop-in-mouth for my dog's preventatives, but when he fell sick and had a ton of meds, he started gently clamping his teeth onto my hand, to tell me I'd hit his limit. As it turns out, his pills are small enough that he doesn't mind lapping them up in his wet food, and some are powders that I mix in. But I dread having to try and force him to take a large non-crushable tablet again!

Vets usually cannot. There is not a huge variety of RXs for animals.

[Anonymous]

I have had luck with chicken nuggets and cooked hamburger bits.

Also canned Pedigree dog food seems to be a big hit.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why most medications can't just be in a liquid dropper.

[Anonymous]

We've had luck with that terrible american cheese in the plastic. squish pills up in that, boom.

[Anonymous]

thinking outside the box - my dogs go crazy for cat food, so I'd probably get small portions of multiple flavors pate cat food (something like Sheba)
another thought - did you try peanut butter again? maybe just circle existing options

[Anonymous]

Have you ever tried hot dogs? Major
High value treat for most dogs.

[Anonymous]

My gosh give that poor dog some ground meat and such. Those are nasty "treats" to give a dog. PB especially, yuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why most medications can't just be in a liquid dropper.

Yes, or some type of injection. After all, if we can inject ourselves with insulin shots for diabetes, then why can't we inject an animal?

[Anonymous]

Hot dogs, Vienna sausage, the pill pockets you can buy, make a meatball out of canned dog food