Tricks to get dogs to take supplements

[monsterpup]

Do your dogs willingly eat pills/capsules if you mix them in with food? If not, how do you give them? Gunner is an expert at detecting anything foreign in his food bowl, so that method doesn't work for us.

We are working on adding in a number of supplements at the moment due to his kidney issues, and I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to give them...

If it's a short-term thing like a medicine, I can hide it in a treat, but with this being a long term thing I need to find a better solution.

Thanks!

[voodoo]

wrap the pill in deli turkey or cover it in peanut butter

[JenC]

Mine don't care. It gets dumped in the bowl. Hudler has to take tramadol daily, so I put it in peanut butter.

[Snowshoe]

I dip Oban's Glu/Chon/MSM in canned cat food. His EFAs must taste better, they're gelcaps, don't need dipping. At night I'm using Cheez Whiz or peanut butter for his Atopica and Keto. The Cheez Whiz is nice and slippery, goes down easily.

Other ideas:

Banana, also nice and slippery, put pill in a hunk.

Throw 3 marshmallows as a regular treat. When pilling needed put it in the second marshmallow. Or try three treats thrown, substitute the pill for the second treat when needed. I think the throwing is a key to this, haven't tried but read about it.

Put pill in something like banana or the Cheez Whiz and put it in his cheek pocket, hold mouth shut till he swallows. Yeah, this one probably won't work very often.

Is it a pill that can be mushed in with other food? Will it taste worse if you break it up?

Good luck

[SunDance]

With a really tough to administer med, I've used two thin biscuits with a slather of yogurt (if the med needed tummy soothing) or peanut butter and made a pill sandwich. The biscuits helped to further disguise the smell of the med.

[coffeedogs]

I put it in with the food too.
My girls don't care.
I have dropped the Vit. C pills and even the Vit. E pill on the floor and Java just picks it up and eats it by itself.

I would try roast beef, turkey, etc...or even a ravioli or tortellini. Open a little pocket in it and stick the pill in. My girls go crazy for cheese ravioli/tortellini.

[Tanya]

I use crunchy peanut butter. Gob it on the pill and give it to Rocky. once in awhile I will find one here or there but rarely. he's pretty easy though. he looks forward to it. He gets a liquid too (Rheumacam) but I just use the seringe and squirt in his mouth

[monsterpup]

Thanks everyone. Some of these are new methods I'll give a try to for sure.

He's such a stinker it usually takes me a couple of tries with the disguises, so he ends up getting lots of extra snacks. The big turd probably does it on purpose. I'm afraid he will get fat with all the extra treats just trying to get him to take the pills (CoQ10, Vit E, EPA/DHA/fish oil...).

[bubbalover]

Luckily my crew doesn't notice when/if I have to add any pills or medications to their food bowls, but a lot of customers at my part time job (a pet supply retail store) have a lot of luck with Greenies pill pockets if their dogs are fussy. They come in capsule and pill sizes, a few flavors, including on that is specially made for dogs with allergies. Might be a good option!

[3ChocMom]

Brandy is great with this, I can just put stuff in her food and she eats it. Lily is too, usually, unless it's something that tastes bad. Like Tramadol or some of the herbs I've given her in the past. I usually just use peanut butter, but I have to make sure to cover the entire pill in it because if she even gets a little taste, she'll spit it out. I also try to have the other dogs around when I'm giving her something because the competition makes her not think about it and just gobble it down. Some of the methods above sound great, I'll have to keep them in mind for the future.