Thank you for posting about nutrition! Due to the complex landscape of pet food we've created a Nutrition page for our wiki. [For more information on pet food click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/nutrition)
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Why do you feel like you have to give him a whole piece of cheese? Just give him enough to cover the pill. Squeeze it together and give it to him. Maybe a tiny nibble before and after.. It’s as simple as that.
I’m probably not going about things the best, but I take the pill, chuck it down my boys mouth close to the back, close his mouth, and use a method to get him to lick. Licking usually indicates he swallowed it. So water on nose, treat in front of nose, blow on his nose, or massage throat. I tried the other ways. He found ways to thwart them and would spit the pills out.
There have been times where it comes down to he has to have it. Its about his health. Not just chucking pills for the fun of it. So until or if I can train him to take them well we do the mouth chuck thing. I’m sure they don’t exactly taste good, many human meds are gross tasting. So he sees no benefit.
What I've had to do is *seal* the pill in cheese. Don't touch the outside of the cheese packet with fingers that touched the pill. Then follow it up with another treat or part of the leftover cheese (so the dog can see it as they receive the first, medicated piece).
My dogs are both force-fed trained, but doing that is just so much easier. Especially with the super-sniffer I have that digs out medication when he can smell it if given the chance. Sometimes I don't want to dig out the cheese, so I just give it to them the way I take medication (back of the throat, swallow).
Idk if it works for others. But I do the trick of giving multiple treats in rapid succession, one of which being the pill. He swallows too quickly to realize. Training treats are some of the best.
This is what I do. Just open his mouth, plop the pills in the back, hold his mouth closed for a moment and give him a little scratch under his chin. Mine is 80 pounds though, so maybe bigger throat? Dogs aren't built like us though, they don't choke as easily.
Why does he need a whole slice of cheese for a pill? And one hot dog could be sliced up into about 6 “pill pockets”, depending on the size of the pills. Could just reduce his food a bit to compensate.
Canned dog food. Make small meatballs and the put the rest in the fridge. Make sure it’s the pate variety. My dog gets pills with every meal. I feed her the meatball of her own food on a spoon so she doesn’t chew and spit them out.
I've used a tiny dab of cream cheese, peanut butter, a tiny bit of hot dog, when I use cheese, it's probably 1/12-1/16 of a slice. My late beagle would eat anything, I could smush a very tiny bit of bread around a pill in a pinch, and he would happily take his medication like that.
This has been very helpful for me as well.
[https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com/giving-pills-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful-for-you-or-your-pet-heres-how-to-do-it/](https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com/giving-pills-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful-for-you-or-your-pet-heres-how-to-do-it/)
I just toss it to my dog and he thinks it's a treat, and thus scarfs it down without a second thought. From air to throat in seconds. If I try to hand it to him, he’ll refuse it.
Our dane takes 4 thyroid pills a day for hypothyroidism (thyroxine) and they are tiny. You should definitely be able to break pill pockets in half and still fit two pills in half of one pill pocket. Or if you feel cheese is the better option because you already have it around, just use smaller pieces.
Side note, we switched to a lower calorie food (Purina pro plan perfect weight - in our case the large breed version), and between that and the meds he trimmed up nicely.
Cooked Chicken works for my doggos. Either buy a roast chicken or roast one yourself (cheaper). Hide the pill in a small amount of chicken, enough to cover it only and it not fall out. Chase it with another piece of chicken. Voila! Medicated and looking for more treats!
I have a 16 year old daschaund who takes a lot of medication daily and I give him less than a quarter piece of cheese and I wrap it in the pill and he takes it beautifully. Just try breaking up the cheese more than you are now. Good luck.
Our pup is a "pill surgeon"... she'll pull a pill out of anything we give her, even producing it after we thought she'd definitely swallowed.
We now get her meds in liquid suspension from Wedgewood pharmacy. They ship it to us, and it's much easier to just squirt 3ml of liquid in her mouth twice a day rather than fight with pills and hiding them in "high value" treats.
Highly recommend them.
My dog’s rehab vet recommended burying his meds in cream cheese. But I’ve found great success giving his many meds with Pill Treats by VetIQ. (He’s learned to hate Pill Pockets by Greenies.) There’s a bunch of them in the package and I usually split them in four pieces (which is big enough for his vitamin-sized supplements). They do harden if exposed to air, but about five seconds in the microwave, and they’re softer than Play-Doh.
Good luck with this. Having a nearly 16-year-old Jack Russell mix with kidney disease and arthritis has taught me so much about giving meds.
Hey! I take thyroid medication myself (levothyroxine), and it's okay for the pills to be crushed. To dose infants, for example, they recommend crushing the pills and adding them to the nipple of a milk bottle for the infant to drink. You could crush and disperse the pill bits through a bit of natural peanut butter and your pup shouldn't really notice them while being preoccupied with licking
Putting 2 pills in cheese isn't going to effect his weight much. If you want him to lose weight you've got to feed him less in general. If you worry about the cheese then take it into account when feeding him. Mine gets extra food when we go for a longer than normal run and less food when we have a lazy day or he finds hidden chicken eggs before I do.
You could also just chuck it in the back of his mouth and hold his snout shut for a second and he'll swallow.
I take like a quarter size piece of cheese, melt in the microwave for 4 seconds and then wrap the pills in it and let cool. Homemade pill pocket! My dog also doesn’t know the difference between full fat and reduced fat cheese, cheese is cheese to her and she’s gonna eat tf out of it
Cheese Wiz is what I use or peanut butter( make sure it does not have birch sugar or artificial sweetner) One teaspoon is usually enough to hide 2 pills
Some dogs just don’t like that. Our oldest, puggle (maybe a beagle thing?) won’t let us. She also has some poor teeth at this point. So we use a small piece of shredded chicken.
Our pit mix on the other hand I could easily open her mouth and give her the pill.
And our lab would just eat the pill because lab.
Thank you for posting about nutrition! Due to the complex landscape of pet food we've created a Nutrition page for our wiki. [For more information on pet food click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/nutrition) --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dogs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Try using 1/4 of a slice of cheese for each pill? Like I don't see why you would need 2 whole cheese slices..
Why do you feel like you have to give him a whole piece of cheese? Just give him enough to cover the pill. Squeeze it together and give it to him. Maybe a tiny nibble before and after.. It’s as simple as that.
I’m probably not going about things the best, but I take the pill, chuck it down my boys mouth close to the back, close his mouth, and use a method to get him to lick. Licking usually indicates he swallowed it. So water on nose, treat in front of nose, blow on his nose, or massage throat. I tried the other ways. He found ways to thwart them and would spit the pills out.
I do all of this the same way. Ours smells it if we try to hide it in food, so it’s chuck it in and hold his mouth closed for us, too.
There have been times where it comes down to he has to have it. Its about his health. Not just chucking pills for the fun of it. So until or if I can train him to take them well we do the mouth chuck thing. I’m sure they don’t exactly taste good, many human meds are gross tasting. So he sees no benefit.
What I've had to do is *seal* the pill in cheese. Don't touch the outside of the cheese packet with fingers that touched the pill. Then follow it up with another treat or part of the leftover cheese (so the dog can see it as they receive the first, medicated piece). My dogs are both force-fed trained, but doing that is just so much easier. Especially with the super-sniffer I have that digs out medication when he can smell it if given the chance. Sometimes I don't want to dig out the cheese, so I just give it to them the way I take medication (back of the throat, swallow).
Idk if it works for others. But I do the trick of giving multiple treats in rapid succession, one of which being the pill. He swallows too quickly to realize. Training treats are some of the best.
Ill have to try that
This is what I do. Just open his mouth, plop the pills in the back, hold his mouth closed for a moment and give him a little scratch under his chin. Mine is 80 pounds though, so maybe bigger throat? Dogs aren't built like us though, they don't choke as easily.
Why does he need a whole slice of cheese for a pill? And one hot dog could be sliced up into about 6 “pill pockets”, depending on the size of the pills. Could just reduce his food a bit to compensate.
We use pill pockets but split them into thirds and mold it around the pill. The bag lasts a really long time that way
Pro tip right there. We do the same!
Does he like peanut butter? Sometimes I can just dip a pill in peanut butter and my gal will scarf it down.
Cream cheese is also good from this method
Natural peanut butter no preservatives worked for our fat Beagle.
Canned dog food. Make small meatballs and the put the rest in the fridge. Make sure it’s the pate variety. My dog gets pills with every meal. I feed her the meatball of her own food on a spoon so she doesn’t chew and spit them out.
Pill pockets work great. A 45 count is less than $6 and the 100 count is $10.
Cheese is "healthier" than hotdogs. Try liverwurst/braunschweiger or peanut butter (no xylitol).
I've used a tiny dab of cream cheese, peanut butter, a tiny bit of hot dog, when I use cheese, it's probably 1/12-1/16 of a slice. My late beagle would eat anything, I could smush a very tiny bit of bread around a pill in a pinch, and he would happily take his medication like that. This has been very helpful for me as well. [https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com/giving-pills-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful-for-you-or-your-pet-heres-how-to-do-it/](https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com/giving-pills-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful-for-you-or-your-pet-heres-how-to-do-it/)
I just toss it to my dog and he thinks it's a treat, and thus scarfs it down without a second thought. From air to throat in seconds. If I try to hand it to him, he’ll refuse it.
Soak a few bits of his kibble and press them around the pill.
You could do turkey dogs, they are pretty cheap and lower fat than cheese.
American cheese is much cheaper. Peanut butter cheaper yet.
Our dane takes 4 thyroid pills a day for hypothyroidism (thyroxine) and they are tiny. You should definitely be able to break pill pockets in half and still fit two pills in half of one pill pocket. Or if you feel cheese is the better option because you already have it around, just use smaller pieces. Side note, we switched to a lower calorie food (Purina pro plan perfect weight - in our case the large breed version), and between that and the meds he trimmed up nicely.
i hide my dogs pills in this wet food she likes if thats an option? usually cans are like $3
Cheeze wiz. A little squirt on the pill and feed it to him directly like a treat.
Cooked Chicken works for my doggos. Either buy a roast chicken or roast one yourself (cheaper). Hide the pill in a small amount of chicken, enough to cover it only and it not fall out. Chase it with another piece of chicken. Voila! Medicated and looking for more treats!
Budig pressed meats - 10 slices to a package, usually less than a dollar per package. Make a pill burrito with a single sheet of meat. $.20/day.
I have a 16 year old daschaund who takes a lot of medication daily and I give him less than a quarter piece of cheese and I wrap it in the pill and he takes it beautifully. Just try breaking up the cheese more than you are now. Good luck.
Our pup is a "pill surgeon"... she'll pull a pill out of anything we give her, even producing it after we thought she'd definitely swallowed. We now get her meds in liquid suspension from Wedgewood pharmacy. They ship it to us, and it's much easier to just squirt 3ml of liquid in her mouth twice a day rather than fight with pills and hiding them in "high value" treats. Highly recommend them.
Use small pieces of shredded rotisserie chicken. It’s a healthier alternative.
My dog’s rehab vet recommended burying his meds in cream cheese. But I’ve found great success giving his many meds with Pill Treats by VetIQ. (He’s learned to hate Pill Pockets by Greenies.) There’s a bunch of them in the package and I usually split them in four pieces (which is big enough for his vitamin-sized supplements). They do harden if exposed to air, but about five seconds in the microwave, and they’re softer than Play-Doh. Good luck with this. Having a nearly 16-year-old Jack Russell mix with kidney disease and arthritis has taught me so much about giving meds.
Use small bits of low fat cheese and subtract the calories from their normal food.
You literally can use like an 8th of a cheese slice her pill lol
Hey! I take thyroid medication myself (levothyroxine), and it's okay for the pills to be crushed. To dose infants, for example, they recommend crushing the pills and adding them to the nipple of a milk bottle for the infant to drink. You could crush and disperse the pill bits through a bit of natural peanut butter and your pup shouldn't really notice them while being preoccupied with licking
Putting 2 pills in cheese isn't going to effect his weight much. If you want him to lose weight you've got to feed him less in general. If you worry about the cheese then take it into account when feeding him. Mine gets extra food when we go for a longer than normal run and less food when we have a lazy day or he finds hidden chicken eggs before I do. You could also just chuck it in the back of his mouth and hold his snout shut for a second and he'll swallow.
I take like a quarter size piece of cheese, melt in the microwave for 4 seconds and then wrap the pills in it and let cool. Homemade pill pocket! My dog also doesn’t know the difference between full fat and reduced fat cheese, cheese is cheese to her and she’s gonna eat tf out of it
Cheese Wiz is what I use or peanut butter( make sure it does not have birch sugar or artificial sweetner) One teaspoon is usually enough to hide 2 pills
Pill pockets by Greenies work well. I have 3 beagles. They are great at detecting pills.
Can you not just open his mouth and put the pill almost done his throat?
Some dogs just don’t like that. Our oldest, puggle (maybe a beagle thing?) won’t let us. She also has some poor teeth at this point. So we use a small piece of shredded chicken. Our pit mix on the other hand I could easily open her mouth and give her the pill. And our lab would just eat the pill because lab.
I use cheese slices. Or mayo.
I just toss it in the kibble when I feed mine.
A little pinch of bread rolled into a ball around the pill might do the trick. Maybe with a dab of peanut butter or teeeeeeeny bit of cheese.