I just read a review for greenies pill pockets. While I am sure that this product probably works, I am not a big fan of the original greenies because of their digestibility issues, and to be honest, I don't know much about these pill pockets. But, I have always failed to understand why someone would need a special pill pocket to give dogs treats when every dog I have ever owned took pills so easily.
Whats my secret you ask? I use one of four human foods to give my dogs pills. First I'll try bread. I'll take a corner, and mash the bread around the pill until it's pretty dense. Most dogs swallow this so fast they don't even realize it's a pill. If you keep it small (just a corner) they will barely even taste it.
Second try, if that doesn't work, I'll do the same thing with a bit of sliced American cheese. Cheese is perfectly safe for dogs, and they love it. I don't give my dogs too much cheese, as too much might constipate them. But, a little corner or even one slice has never hurt them. I have medium sized dogs, so just vary according to the size of your dog.
Third try, if that doesn't work, I'll slice up a piece of hotdog, and poke the pill into the center. I rarely have to get to this stage, but I have not known too many dogs to need to get past this point. Sometimes I wonder if the pill even touched their tongue. Thsi is usually the express elevator to their stomachs.
TOP SECRET: I have had one dog that could tell the difference of a pill in any of these foods, and at that point no soft food, including pill pockets will help this situation. They are just too smart and have sensitive teeth. To get past this one problem, I took a corner of bread, and spread crunchy peanut butter over it, placed the pill in the center, and rolled it up like a mini burrito. Wasn't too messy, and it was virtually impossible for her to distinguish the pill from the other crunchy nuts. This never failed. The sticky quality of the peanut butter made it impossible to separate, and the nuts made it indistinguishable.
The true grace of these methods for pill pockets is that I usually have most of these items in the house already, so I don't need to rush out and buy anything to give my dogs pills. Second, they are 100% digestible, and I don't have to worry about poor quality ingredients, because they are all human grade ingredients. I don't have to worry about giving my dog sugar laden candy that is most of the commercial pet treats on the market today. If anyone else has any suggestions, please share!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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I will admit, I give my dog too much peanut butter. But, he LOVES getting flea/tick drops because I give him the heartworm pill in PB right after "if he is a good boy" which means he gets it eventually by being calm. I do get messy with PB on my fingers, but I let him lick a finger with PB only and then a finger with the pill covered in PB and it goes right down. He has his own PB jar.
ReplyDeleteJackson's mom
Yep! I'm going to have to say peanut butter or cream cheese will do the trick for any dog. It's sticky so they can't eat around it and spit it out.
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