Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

A Little Flavoring Helps The Medicine Go Down

Dear Nanny Fran, How do I get pills into my puppy twice a day without a chase and tackle?

I do sympathize with you. There are many dogs I have known who will “eat rocks!” Whatever it is they will gulp it down. They don’t smell it, chew it, taste… nothing! Down the hatch it goes and we are all very pleased.

However, then you have precious sweethearts who sniff, lick and taste everything! You take the pill and crush it up and sprinkle it on to browned hamburger and put it in front of your (you believe) hungry puppy. One or two sniffs and they walk away.

Then there is the old trick of putting the pill in a piece of cheese. Fine… if your dog likes cheese. Peanut butter works beautifully because it sticks to the roof of their mouth and they cannot spit it out. However, the minute most pills come in contact with moisture they start dissolving. Just let that puppy lick and lick and lick to remove the peanut butter from the roof of his or her mouth and there you go… nasty pill taste! At that point you are dead in the water with the peanut butter trick!

 I feed my Amy a raw meat diet. She is on two medications twice daily. At first I was all huggy bear, smiley face Mom, billing and cooing to her to come and eat this lovely raw meatball from my hand.

After a few days of this she became wise. One of her pills is actually in a small gel capsule form. It does not start to disintegrate immediately. However, a tooth can puncture it while Amy is chewing her food. The second pill is pressed powder and is broken in half before being placed into the hamburger. The moment the pill in pressed powder form touches any moisture the nasty taste permeates the entire glob. And this mass doesn’t even have to pass between Amy’s lips… the nose knows!

Veterinarians usually have one to four vet techs available to “gently hold” even a Great Dane and one or two others to hold the mouth open while the vet pokes the pill down the Dane’s throat… done! You and I have to give the same pill twice or three times daily… How?

Flavors make you start salivating? They surely do me — and they have the same effect on our pets.

My life and Her Royal Highness Amelia Elizabeth’s life are both stress free now! I draw up her “solution” of two meds into a syringe and simply squirt the required amount… fish flavored… onto her tongue. No more tricks, pleading, hoping, etc. By the way, she chose fish over chicken, beef, liver, etc. Far be it from me to know anything? I am simply the humble servant!

I learned to do this from a wonderful pharmacy. If you click on Pet Resources on www.TampaBayPetCare.com you will see a link to Pinellas Compounding RX. There you will be able to view all the alternatives available to all creatures!

© 2006 Francene Mattucci. All Rights Reserved.

Francene Mattucci founded Never Say Good Bye Pet Sitting Service in 1994. Call 727-512-3206, visit www.TampaBayPetCare.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with questions for this column.