So, you’ve just arrived home from your local veterinary clinic with some oral medication for your pet. Your next challenge is to know how to give your pet a pill.
Trying to administer oral medication to your furry friend can be stressful for both you and your pet. Thankfully, there are a few tried and trusted methods to get your pet to take a pill.
Hide the pill in food
One of the easiest ways to give your pet a tablet or some other oral medication is to hide it some food. You know what your pet dog or cat’s favorite foods are, so you could wrap the pill in that. For example, delicious treats from butter, cream cheese, or peanut butter can be excellent ways to get your pet to take a pill.
You could also try putting the pill in some commercially available treats that your pet loves. For example, a delicious dog biscuit with some peanut butter hiding the pill may be just the thing to get your pet dog to take his or her pill.
However, you may find that your pet dog or cat has figured out your plan and spits out the pill. If that happens, wait for at least 30 minutes before trying again with a different treat.
You could also have a few treats prepared for your pet and make a fuss when you secretly administer the pill to your pet. In the excitement, your pet pooch or puss hopefully won’t realize that they’ve swallowed the pill.
It usually isn’t a good idea to crush tablets into powder as this could affect the effectiveness of the medication. If you want to do this, speak to your vet first.
Direct administration
If hiding pill in your pet’s food is unsuccessful, you may have to try administering the medication by hand directly into your pet’s mouth.
For many pet parents and pets themselves, this can be quite stressful. Ideally, you need to have your pet in a sitting position in front of you. Try to make the experience more pleasant by making a fuss of them. Getting the pill to the back of your pet’s throat usually requires both hands to open your pet’s mouth and hold it open. So, before you start, make sure and have the pill in your hand.
If you are still unsuccessful, visit us at Huntington Beach Pet Hospital. Our trained staff can show you techniques that we use to give pets pills and make sure that they get back to good health quickly.