What a Pill!: Pets and Medication

With our tragic hospital stay with Sadie and Cali's recent snake bite, we have had a recent rash of experience with all sorts of pet medical care from morphine drips (the medicine makes their tongues stick out of their mouths a little bit which is super cute in addition to being the sure "tell" that the drugs have kicked in) to catherers and IV's... we are well versed! But once you get home, or in less serious medical situations when your pets just need to take a little something to put them on the mend, there are always tons of pills to swallow and if your pet is anything like mine, they won't take them! We've tried pills wrapped in bacon, in cheese, handed off with a treat, shoved down a throat and stroked to make them swallow... we've done it all. And now, after years of gagging spaniels and later finding expensive pills spit out in the corner of the living room (they are magicians at hiding them in their jowels!) we have a fool-proof solution! It seems simple, but it took me this long to find a method that worked so I am sharing it here!

This trick will work with peanut butter or cheese whiz, but the fake cheese is just too processed for me to give it to anyone in good conscience, even the pups! It was hard enough for me to buy Skippy and not organic, natural peanut butter! We marked the jar "DOG" and just keep it with their other goodies in the closet, but having a brand that doesn't have to be refrigerated is key since spreadability is so important for this task.

I used EVO (a grain-free brand) treats but as they were bought out by Proctor & Gamble last month, I can't recommend their brand any longer until we can be sure that they haven't changed their formula since the buyout. This would probably work with any treat, but the little hole in the center makes it easier to shove large pills down into the gap. I slather the top of the treat in peanut butter, bury the pills, and put a new coat of PB on top. We generally only give treats for going in their crates, so this is perfect for twice a day dosing before bed and then before you head out the door in the morning. My only suggestion is that if you have more than one dog, you'll have to slather everyone's treat in peanut butter too to avoid jealousy issues! Other than that, it works like a charm! I am sure this would work for cats too... maybe some pate on a treat? Any cat moms out there have good suggestions on what might work for your little angels?