[alex99emmie]

Izzy B. has been on liquid phenobarbital since the first part of January when she started having cluster seizures. She started out with a tiny dose twice daily which I gave by mouth with a shot syringe. The medicine would make her sneeze afterwards and the vet said it was probably the alcohol in the phenobarbital that caused the sneezing. Then we took her to Oklahoma State University to try to find out what was causing the seizures and they tripled her dose of medication. She has had two blood tests since then that have shown she is still not on enough medication so we have had to increase it each time and now she takes a larger syringe but only about 1/4 of it. My problem is she is hating taking the medication more and more every day and she runs from me every time I try to pick her up to give it to her. It is not like with a pill where you can hide it in a weiner which has always worked for our larger outside dogs. The medicine has a pink color to it and though I don't detect the smell of cherries, I suspect it must have some flavor, but she hates it anyway. She also has a collapsed trachea so the more she fights me the more she gets choked on the medication. This morning she coughed for about 15 minutes after taking the medication (it took me at least 10 minutes to "trick" her into catching her)!!!! She has wised up now and I have tried hiding the fact that I am drawing up the medication but you all know how smart Yorkies area!! She knows the timing (8 a.m. and 8 p.m.) and she takes off running. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (P.S. I put the syringe to the back corner of her mouth and try to administer the medicine slowly but sometimes it all shoots out at once, especially if she is struggling to get away - maybe I should be giving it a different way????) She always opens her mouth wide as soon as I put the syringe to the corner - I don't have to pry her mouth open or anything. I always tell her what a good girl she is after she takes the medicine, lots of praise and then, if she isn't choking or coughing, I give her a treat, but even that doesn't seem to matter to her anymore.
Thanks.
Barbara