Originally Posted by Abby08 (Post 2736192)

Well, that is kinda my problem too, afraid they might choke, that is why I let my hubby do it most of the time. He has lots of training and has done it way more times than I have, but even I have done it successfully with both cats and dogs. None of our animals have choked to death yet and have taken their meds whether they wanted to or not ;)

But, you don't put it down so far that you can't see it, just make sure you close their mouth quickly hold their head up in the verticle direction and blow down their nose and stroke their throat before they have time to think about it and work the pill back up to the front of their mouth ;)

We used the additional technique with the oral syringe water squirt with our last collie to give her meds when she would no longer eat on her own.

The method with giving a couple of blank treats first and then the pill hidden treat works for us too.

Sometimes when you have given a pill in a treat and they have figured it out, you just have to try a different method and don't use the same technique each time.

Originally Posted by RMKC (Post 2735564)

the only thing that worked for my 2 was the greenies pillpockets, i bought them at the Vets ! Good Luck !

Originally Posted by Abby08 (Post 2735803)

My husband is a licenced vet tech,( he no longer works in that line of work,but he does keep his licence up to date and attends educational classes for that purpose.) but he remembers how to give a pill. He opens the dogs mouth, so that he has hold of the upper muzzle and the bottom part hangs open with tongue out as usual . You put the pill as far back as you can see on the tongue. Quickly use your other hand to close the mouth, hand closing muzzle and holding closed but not so tightly they can't breath. The dogs face and muzzel should be pointed up vertically at you.

While holding the muzzle closed, stroke their throat gently with your other hand, and blow a quick long breath into the dog's nose. They should swallow and the pill should go down the hatch ;) hold it closed until they swallow! very important! allow them to breath so don't hold muzzle too tight. Sometimes on a stuborn one, you can take a small food sryinge filled with water and poke it into the side of the mouth and squirt a little water into the mouth and that will induce them to swallow too.

Sometimes you can coat the pill with Nutri Cal or Butter or some kind of slippery flaovorful beef or chicken juice or something sweet like honey or kayro syrup to help it go down ;):animal36

Another friend told of their clever dog figguring out there were dreaded pills in his treats. They took a hot dog and cut it up in to several same size pieces, they put the pill in one and gave the dog the first "plain" two which he quickly gobbled up and then poped the third one to him just as fast,(with pill inside) into the dogs mouth, he gobbled it up and they gave him the last one as an added bonus treat. Just treat all the treats the same, so they won't know a pill is in one of them. Don't let them see you put it in either, they are pretty smart for being "dumb" animals ;)

I hope this helps! My husband always gets the medicine job at home, and sometimes he has to do it more than one time, but he usually has success the first time but sometimes on rare occasion it will take 3 times ;)