Turn Your Dog's Pill Time into Treat Time: Tips for Medicating Your Dog

I'm not a vet, but I speak from experience. My dog has a number of medical conditions and she has been taking a minimum of three pills a day for the last eight years. Depending on other health issues, that number has risen into the teens on many occasions.

Instead of pill-guns or prying open your dog's mouth several times a day, pill-time can become fun-time for your dog. Hiding a pill in food can be tricky, depending on the properties of the food, and challenging if your dog becomes suspicious about the pills or grows bored with the current choice of treat. My dog has kept me creative over the years and maybe the following suggestions can help you to turn the trauma of pill taking into a fun ritual that your dog will look forward to.

Qualities to look for

The food that you hide a pill in for your dog needs to meet certain standards:
It must be something that your dog will like.
It has to have adhesive properties so that the pill does not get separated from the treat.
It should be pliable like clay so that you can manipulate it to surround the pill.
If your dog has any dietary restrictions, these must be taken into consideration.

Cheeses

If your dog is a cheese-hound, there are a variety of cheeses you can try. Cream cheese or Velveeta are good choices. They are soft and can easily be molded around the pill and are relatively inexpensive. If your dog is a gourmet, you can try some Gruyere cheese.

You can use just about any cheese, cheddar, American, or mozzarella as examples, as long as you heat it up in the microwave to make it soft enough to wad around the cheese. You'll need to experiment as to the time for each type of cheese, but usually it will only need between 10 and 20 seconds. If you overheat it, you're likely to get a bubbling, scalding mess. Your dog will probably get tired of waiting for the treat while you are burning your fingers.

Meats

Baby food meat varieties provide a ready-made solution. If they are safe enough for a human baby to digest, it's probably okay for your dog, unless he or she is on a low protein diet, or has kidney issues. They work best as adhesives if they are cold, so just put your baby-meat-jars right in the fridge when you get home from the store. Gerber brands contain cornstarch, which makes a stiffer mixture for molding. Beef has the best consistency for this objective, then lamb as a second choice. Ham, chicken and turkey tend to be too runny, even after refrigeration, but not impossible.

If you want to use cold cuts, you should select a thin-sliced variety. If you select a thick slice of glossy bologna, the pill is likely to shoot out, possibly rolling under the refrigerator, as your dog takes it from you. Drier meats, like turkey breast, work better. With a thin slice of turkey breast, you can wrap up the pill in a neat, secure package.

Hot dogs are a favorite for drug delivery to dogs. I find these work best if they are heated up, slightly, in the microwave. You don't want to cook them long enough to split the skin. Maintaining the encasement of the link will help keep the pill in place. But heating it for a short time releases the juices, making it moist enough to be a more secure location for your pill. I usually slice the hot dog widthwise, long enough to fit the pill, but short enough to make a bite-size piece. You can take a sharp knife and, crisscrossing; poke an x-shaped opening on the sliced end. Be careful not to pierce the skin of the hot dog or your finger. Then just slip the pill into the opening, poking it down gently to imbed it without splitting the hot dog piece.

Other foods

What food is more synonymous with "sticky" than peanut butter? If your dog likes peanut butter, this could be a good alternative. Butter or margarine can also be used. The tub varieties are already soft, but you can soften stick butter to do the job as well.

Alternative methods

What if your dog just won't take the pill? People don't believe me when I tell them this, but it is true. I can imbed a pill in a wad of peanut butter, and my dog manages to eat the peanut butter and spit out the pill.

A capsule can be opened and emptied into a food substance. A tablet can be pulverized. For this instance, you may want to try those runny baby-food meats. Ham or chicken are good choices for this method. In this case, don't refrigerate. The soupier the mix, the better it will be for blending. Beech-nut brands do not include cornstarch, so they are a thinner constancy and better choice for this purpose.

If you have a multiple-pet household, you will have to watch and be careful that another dog does not eat the bowl of medicated food. I find it easiest to give each of my dogs a bowl of baby-food meat, to keep the non-medicated dogs busy with their own treat. But if your medicated dog has a tendency to walk away from his or her food, you might want to isolate the dog for this method.

Some vets do not advocate this method because they say that you have to make sure they get "every grain." I am not a medical person, but if this is the only method that works, taking almost every grain seems better than pills rolling behind the stove.

Every dog is different and has their own tastes, quirks and preferences, but I hope some of these suggestions can make your life easier when pilling your dog.