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Author Topic : Trouble giving dog his monthly heartworm pill....advice?
 CoffieDog
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2/1/2014 12:19:41 PM reply with quote send message to CoffieDog Object to Post   

My duck toller has the hardest time taking his monthly Trifexis pill (mosquitoes are here year round and topical flea meds don't work on him).

I've tried everything: hiding it in melted cheese/slice of ham, using those "pill pocket" treats, breaking it into smaller pieces, mixing it in wet food, etc.

but my dog is a very small eater (he barely eats his minimum of daily kibble food) and is very picky and he always seems to know it's there. so I always have to resort to putting it in the back of his throat, holding his mouth closed and stroking his throat until he swallows it. But even then he'll just sit there and refuse to swallow or move it around his mouth and spit it out. So it's a whole big ordeal getting it in him xP

Any advice on how to make this easier? What do you guys do with your dogs?
 Spyte
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2/1/2014 1:10:48 PM reply with quote send message to Spyte Object to Post

Our Shiba Inu is like that, she knows when there is a pill in her food.

We take a piece of bread, cheese or meat, put the pill in it, give it to her and as soon as she has the piece with the pill in her mouth we are giving her more food. That way she doesn't have time to really chew through it all and realize there is a pill there. It's worth a try.

We also use to have to crush it up, put it in a spoonful of wet food and just have them eat that right off the spoon.
 Dead Until Dark
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2/1/2014 1:13:32 PM reply with quote send message to Dead Until Dark Object to Post

Have you tried Vectra? Its topical, but Ive heard people get a lot of good results with it( Im in Houston, I know your pain with mosquitos).
If not, you can try canned cat food- make a meatball and hide it in it. the cheaper, stinkier, the cat food, the better.
 CoffieDog
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2/1/2014 1:43:04 PM reply with quote send message to CoffieDog Object to Post

this post has been edited 1 time(s)

I haven't tried Vectra, since topical things had not worked for him but I'll look into it! Is it water proof? He takes a lot of baths cause of shows and stuff.

ETA: he actually doesn't like wet cat food, we've tried offering it to him before. He does like dry cat food though, but even that wouldn't fool him into taking the pill lol

quote
posted by Spyte
We take a piece of bread, cheese or meat, put the pill in it, give it to her and as soon as she has the piece with the pill in her mouth we are giving her more food. That way she doesn't have time to really chew through it all and realize there is a pill there. It's worth a try.

That's what I do with my other dog, she is very gluttonous and gobbles down food quickly so she usually won't notice the pill.

But my duck toller isn't like that, he'll grab the treat carefully after smelling it then slowly chew the treat and won't accept another until he's completely finished. Yeah, he's weird xP all other duck tollers I know are food crazy.

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Last edited by CoffieDog on 2/1/2014 1:44:54 PM
 griffin
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2/1/2014 1:59:35 PM reply with quote send message to griffin Object to Post

Our dog was the same, the only way we could get her to take pills willingly was to crush it into dust and thoroughly mix it with wet food.

grif,
 Dalkeith
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2/2/2014 3:55:56 AM reply with quote send message to Dalkeith Object to Post

Do you have a yearly injectable heartworm prevention called "Proheart SR12" over where you are?

We have it in Australia and we love it. it lasts 12 months and is injected under the skin - same as the yearly vaccinations.
 gaylanstudio
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2/2/2014 10:31:53 AM reply with quote send message to gaylanstudio Object to Post

I've had pretty good luck with a breadball - a small piece of the inner part of a moist bread (rye works well).

I wrap it around the pill and squeeze and knead it until it goes sort of doughy, then I dip it in broth - chicken or beef. Goes down just about every time. I think the "dip" is the thing that does it.

Of course the smaller the pill the better and I'm giving pretty small pills. He eats his "Heartguard" during the summer without any problem. (We just have SNOW in the winter, about three feet of it now, no mosquitoes, or ticks.)

 CoffieDog
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2/2/2014 6:08:13 PM reply with quote send message to CoffieDog Object to Post

^^ the trifexis pill (it's actually a tablet) is pretty big and thick so it's harder to hide but I think I'll try that and break the tablet into smaller pieces. happy :)

quote
posted by Dalkeith
Do you have a yearly injectable heartworm prevention called "Proheart SR12" over where you are?

We have it in Australia and we love it. it lasts 12 months and is injected under the skin - same as the yearly vaccinations.
I haven't heard about that here. O.o at least my vet has never mentioned it. I'll ask my vet about it, but I'm a little worried about the cost of it though...

But even if I did use that, he would still have to take a monthly pill for the fleas xP (he kind of has a small case of flea allergy)
 
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2/2/2014 7:59:17 PM reply with quote send message to Object to Post edit post

I'm curious what you mean by topicals "don't work" on him? Most flea control, topical or pill the flea still has to bite the dog before it dies (but it keeps them from staying, procreating, and becoming an infestation). Certain topicals seem to be developing resistance in various parts of the country, but switching to a different kind of topical with a different active ingredient generally helps then.

It seems to me, most dogs will willing take HeartGuard in the meaty treat form. And then you just need to worry about flea/tick control. And then the question becomes, is there a topical that WILL work for him?
 Zahir
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2/2/2014 9:08:04 PM reply with quote send message to Zahir Object to Post

You can get a pill crusher that will grind the pill up, making it easier to mix in food. Try a good canned food like Merrick that has lot of "gravy" in it.

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A specialty show is a dog show which reviews a single breed, unlike other dog shows, particularly conformation shows, which are generally referred to as "all-breed" because they are open to all breeds recognized by the sponsoring kennel club.