How to Give a Dog a Pill When He Won’t Eat
We want to solve the dilemma of how to give a dog a pill when he won’t eat for those of you who are currently struggling to medicate your furry friend when he or she is sick. Whatever you do, don’t worry. It’s actually much easier to persuade him to take his medication than you might think, thus leading to a restored appetite and a return to full health again in no time at all.
What to Do When Your Dog Doesn’t Want to Take a Pill
The first means of intervention you might have to consider is that it might be necessary to forcefully feed your dog the pill. This can be done via holding his head gently with his snout facing upwards and opening his mouth just wide enough to be able to slip the pill in.
Once you have done this, hold his mouth shut and try to massage his jaw gently underneath where the tongue is placed. This will encourage him to swallow. If you don’t feel comfortable with the idea of using this method, then luckily we have several other tips to assist your efforts that are just as effective.
Tips and Tricks on How to Give a Dog His Pills
When you’ve been endlessly thinking about how to give a dog his pills and feel like you’ve reached the end of the line, try one of these tips to see if you can persuade your furry friend to cooperate and take his medication.
- Conceal it inside a treat
This one isn’t original, but it definitely works. Even when dogs aren’t eating their food, they usually still find treats hard to resist.
- Get dissolvable medication
If you can get the medication they need in a dissolvable form, then this will allow you to give them their medication without them having to swallow it. They’ll have no idea.
- Create competition
If you have more than one dog, try to pretend that the pill is a treat and that you are going to give it to the other dog. This can easily trick a dog into wanting it.
- Use gel caps
It’s often the taste of a pill that puts your pooch off. If you conceal it inside a gel cap, they can’t taste it.
- Tease them
By teasing them with the pill, they may actually think it’s a treat. You’d be surprised how often this works.
- Seek veterinary advice
When you’ve tried everything, there is absolutely no harm in resorting to professional advice.
Conclusion
Even though you might have felt like there was no viable way to get your dog to take his medication, we hope that we have proved that there absolutely is over the course of today’s post. Try our tips above and just remember that if they don’t help, you can always seek the assistance of a qualified medical professional in the unlikely event that none of them work effectively for your dog.