Not always do dogs willingly and without protest accept the medicine given to them. Sometimes it is a challenging task for a dog guardian. Therefore, I will tell you how you can effectively smuggle the treatment to your pet so that he does not notice.
The quickest way to give your dog medicine is to hide it in food. If your dog has trouble swallowing tablets, you can crush them and then add them to the food or break them into smaller parts and hide them in portions that the dog will eat in one bite, e.g. sausages. Mix the liquid medicine with the aromatic food so that the dog does not detect a change in its taste.
What will you learn from this article
- If you must give your dog the medicine in its entirety, you can mix it with wet food.
- If the tablet is too big for your dog, you can crush it or break it into smaller pieces.
- Mix the medicine in liquid form with a very aromatic food so that the dog does not feel a change in its taste.
How to give your dog medicine
Giving a dog medication can be a real challenge for the owner. I remember my pet’s first illness when the vet prescribed him pills. My dog was utterly unable to take medication at that time. Each time he was given medication, it was a stressful event for him and me.
Today, the situation in our house looks completely different. That’s why I want to share some tips that have proven helpful for my four-legged friend.
Giving your dog medication in an easy and, above all, effective way is a handy skill. When my pet is sick, I need to take care of his well-being and relaxation so that he can recover peacefully. So if I can reduce his stress a bit, I always try to do it.
Medicines for the dog
However, before I tell you how to give your dog medicine easily, I wanted to talk about one significant issue: the dog’s treatment. First, never give your dog medication unless you are sure it will not adversely affect his health.
Just because a medication worked for your friend’s dog doesn’t mean it will work for your dog. Always check your dog’s medicines from several sources. If you are unsure about it, consult a veterinarian who knows your dog’s medical history.
I want to make you very sensitive to this issue because the health and life of your four-legged friend are at stake. I know you certainly want the best for him. Please have limited trust in what others advise you because their knowledge of the dog’s health can be negligible.
How to give a dog a tablet
How you give your dog, the medicine depends on its form. We will first deal with the tablet, which is much more difficult to administer than liquid medicine.
Dog tablet administered whole
The hardest thing is to give the dog a tablet that must be swallowed whole. It will be much easier to crush or break it into smaller pieces. But I will tell you about it in the next post.
The most effective way to give your dog medicine is to put it in food. I don’t think this will surprise anyone. However, it would help if you did it, so the dog does not realize it is a trick. Otherwise, the tablet may spit out. My student acted precisely like this. He could eat food and extract a medicine pill from it.
Choose a type of food that your dog loves. Then you will be sure that your pet will eat his whole meal with great pleasure and without thinking. It must be such a meal where you can hide the tablet. If the canine notices or smells it while eating, there is a very high probability that he will spit it out.
Therefore, adding a tablet to a bowl of dry food will not be a good idea. Choose a meal with a variety of textures. If the canine senses something hard in it while eating completely soft food, he may realize that something is wrong and, as a result, spit out the tablet.
Crush the dog tablet finely
If there are no contraindications to this, you can break up the dog’s medicine into smaller parts. Thanks to this, it will be much easier for you to give the tablet to the dog, who is extremely sensitive to pills and can pick them out of every dish.
I always crush the pill with a fork. Mix the medicine in this form with your pet’s food. You must choose wet food. Dry food will not be suitable for this method of washing the tablet.
This method worked exceptionally well when my dog had no appetite due to illness, and I had to give him medicine to improve his health. I mixed the crushed tablet with water. That’s how my pet could take his medicine smuggled in the water even if he didn’t want to eat.
You can try this method if your dog doesn’t want to eat and you need to give him medicine.
Divide the dog’s tablet into smaller pieces
Some dog tablets can be huge. My pet is not a big dog. If the pill given to him were too big, he would spit it out because he couldn’t swallow it.
Therefore, you can divide the pill into smaller parts in such situations. It’s best to put them in pieces of food that your dog will eat immediately, without any thought. Sausages work best for my dog.
I usually split the pill into two pieces and put it in the sausage pieces. These portions must be small enough, so the dog does not have to divide them but chews them in the mouth without any problems.
Ensure that no piece of the tablet has fallen out while eating. That is very important because if the dog is sick, it must take a specific dose of medicine. If he had not swallowed part of the tablet, he would have received an insufficient amount of the drug, which made his treatment process less effective.
I always give the dog the medicine so I can easily see if the pill falls to the ground. I don’t recommend giving your dog medicine outside in the grass. Then you can easily miss it if the puppy spits out the tablet given to him.
What to do if your dog spits out the pill
But what can you do if your dog spits out his medicine and you can’t break it into smaller pieces or crush it? That solution should be used very rarely, only in critical situations.
If you know that your dog will not want to swallow a pill for anything, put it in his mouth, close enough to his throat that his body immediately wants to eat. Hold the dog’s mouth for a moment so he cannot spit out the pill.
Try to keep this whole situation as short as possible to minimize your pet’s stress. You can reward your dog with a favourite treat to distract your dog from what happened.
That is a method that can be perceived differently by dogs. For one, it may not be engaging in any way, but for another, it can cause trauma related to swallowing drugs. Therefore, as I mentioned, use it as a last resort.
Dog bowl |DELI amber
How to give your dog liquid medicine
If your dog takes medicine in liquid form, giving it to him will be much easier than in the case of tablets. The key here is the choice of food you will give your dog the medicine. In such situations, I advise against experimenting with new food. Choose the one you are sure your dog will eat whole with taste.
You should give the dog liquid medicine in wet food. Dry may not work in this case. From my experience, I can tell you that it is worth choosing the most aromatic flavour that day. In this way, you reduce the risk of your dog sensing that there is smuggled medicine in his food.
The dog must eat all the food because he will only take the total dose of the medicine. Therefore, please do not overdo it with the size of the portions. Give your dog as much food as you can. Be sure he will eat all at once.
The dog must take medicine
If your veterinarian prescribes medication for your pet, it is your job as the canine guardian to ensure that he takes it. You cannot explain to your dog that it is essential for his well-being. Therefore, first of all, you must act so that your dog does not feel the stress of giving him the medicine.
How does your pet respond to medication? Does he take them without any problems, or do you have to smuggle them in food or water?
If you have any questions or want me to discuss a topic in the next post, share it in the comments section.
or CANADA 
PLEASE join us at