Giving Your Dog Medicine

Every dog owner knows and feels the pain when his favorite pet is ill. They also know how hard it is to make it swallow the pills or the medicine it needs to get better. I mean you can have better luck with a stubborn kid who doesn’t want to eat (at least with them the airplane move should do the trick once or twice… in the case of dogs they don’t know what an airplane is).

Anyway, a few methods are known to be effective when it comes to administering medicine. First of all try and see if your dog won’t swallow the pill just as it is. I mean these dogs will eat anything so why not pills. If they do you can say you’re the happiest person on earth and don’t have to go through the next methods I will lay down. Also, your dog, though it may not know it, got off easy.

The second method is concealment. If they don’t want to swallow the pill whole trick your dog into thinking he isn’t swallowing a pill but eating one of his favorite treats. Owners usually hide medicine in pieces of hot dog, cheese or even hidden inside a spoon of peanut butter. These are the favorite types of food used anyway. Bread or liverwurst can be used as well or whatever you have handy and you know the dog will eat it without looking at it twice.

Well if you’re still reading, it means concealment didn’t work either so you have two options left. First one is for smaller dogs and it consists of liquefying the medicine by carefully grinding the pill into powder then mixing the dust with milk or water. Put the resulting solution in a syringe then prepare for the hard part. Keep your dogs head lifted in the air then raise one of its lips on one side. Ease the syringe at the back of the throat then release the liquid in a slow, steady rhythm. This operation might require two persons if you’re inexperienced. One will be holding the dog gently and soothing him while the other will administer the medicine.

The last mode of getting your dog to eat a pill is this: gently pry your dog’s jaws apart and then tuck the pill at the back of its throat on the base of the tongue. After, holding the jaw shut and up in the air gently blow into his nose while massaging its throat. This is why you should hope you don’t have a dog that eats the hot dog but leaves the pill uneaten.