subject: How To Get Your Dog To Take Her Medication [print this page] Medications are an inevitable part of the life of most dogs. Even a healthy dog, as he grows into his later years, may require medications for arthritis or some other condition linked to old age. When a veterinarian gives you a bottle of pills for your beloved pet, there's always that thought in the back of the mind wondering how you're ever going to get Fido to take his medicine.
How you do it largely depend on the type of medication that your dog needs.
Pills and Capsules
Pills and capsules can be some of the hardest forms of medication to get your dog to swallow. Many veterinary pharmaceutical companies will flavor their canine medicine like meat, liver, and the like, but these flavors are often far from true and many dogs will be able to tell the difference. The thinking behind that is that beef flavored pill taste better, unfortunately, this is usually not the case.
Many dog owners attempt to hide or disguise the pills in a dog's food, perhaps covering the pill with peanut butter and putting it in the bowl with the other food. This has often yielded results, but some dogs will still find the pill and spit it out.
Another popular and useful way would be to wrap the pill up with ground beef into a little ball. By taking a small quantity of ground beef, squashing it flat, placing the pill in the middle and rolling the meat back over it, you create a delicious smelling and tasting little ball that your dog will not even need to taste. Occasionally a dog will still recognize the pill inside. In this case, the only option may be to hold your dogs mouth shut with a hand on top and on bottom of his muzzle. This will force him to swallow.
Liquid medicine
Medicines that must be given in an oral form can be just as difficult as pills. Most of the time, a dog owner must measure the amount of medication needed before using a syringe to squirt it into the dog's mouth. This type of medicine can often be mixed with food, but again, a dog may recognize that their food has medicine in it. Unlike a pill however, a liquid medicine cannot be spat out effectively.
Injections
Most medicines that require an injection fall within the realm of your veterinarian's job. For some of these medications, it might be necessary for you to bring him into the clinic to administer the injections. Some injections however do not require a veterinarian. These are usually known as subcutaneous injections, and are administered by lifting up the scruff of your dog's neck and injecting the medicine just under the skin.
Sprays
Sprays are perhaps the easiest medicines to give to your dog. It's easy enough to simply pull out the bottle and spray the medicine on the affected area. Most sprays tend to act very fast and get absorbed into the skin fairly quickly, however, knowing dogs, you still need to prevent him from licking the spray off. To prevent your dog from licking the medication, you might need to put a plastic cone around her his neck for some time.
Ear Drops
As a general rule, dogs hate ear drops. As a matter of fact, even humans hate that too. Seriously, who would enjoy the feeling of cold liquid running down their ear canal? Dogs are intelligent animals and will try to get out of your grasp once they know what you are trying to do. You can either straddle your dog from behind or get a family member to hold him down. Remember to hold your dog down for a while as most dogs will try to shake and get the drops out of their ears immediately.
