Tips and Tricks for Getting Pets to Take Their Medicine
If you’ve ever attempted to administer medication to a cat with picky eating habits or a dog with a very skilled nose, then you know that they can be experts at spitting out pills and frustrating their worried owners. The next time your pet’s medication is due, try the following tips and tricks to help the medicine go down – no spoonful of sugar required.
6 Tips and Tricks for Getting Your Pets to Take Their Medicine
1. Give the medicine when they are hungry
Pets are smart, so it is best to try to get them to eat their medicine when they are hungry. They will more willingly eat food or treats (with the medicine hidden in it) right before their normal meal time when they have an increased hunger drive. Just be sure that your other pets don’t eat the food with the medicine in it.
2. Use high-value food items
This can be a very useful trick, as long as you choose the right kind of food to disguise your pet’s medicine. Go for a strong-smelling, high-value food that can easily conceal your pet’s pill like wet canned pet food, peanut butter, cheese, or a piece of meat.
3. Use Special Treats
There are several brands of treats available to purchase that are made with a soft formulation and a pill-sized pocket inside. With these, you can simply squish a treat around your pet’s pill for easy administration.
4. Get Your Pet to Compete
If you have more than one pet, giving them all a treat at the same time will create a competitive environment, distracting your pet from the medication that is hidden in their treat. Just be sure you remember which treat is which so you do not accidentally medicate the wrong pet!
5. Create a little confusion
Hide a pill in one treat, toss several non-pill containing treats, then toss the pill-containing one. You can make this even more interesting by making your pet chase the treat down like the prey that it is! This can work for cats and dogs.
6. Try a Compounding Pet Pharmacy
If your pet’s an expert at detecting pills they do not want to swallow, then we strongly recommend having your pet’s medication compounded into a tastier, more appealing form such as flavored liquid or even treats with the medication mixed right into it.
We know that giving medications can be tough, so we hope these tricks are helpful. If you need more guidance, or even just some encouragement, please call to speak with one of our technicians and they can help guide you through the process and even direct you to some instructional videos.
