Cooper is on Meds...HELP!
 

I just had Cooper...my 12 week old lab to the vet because he's had diarrhea off and on for the last three days. She put him on some meds and told me to give him half a pill twice a day for seven days. She also said to give him pepto (pill form) twice a day till the diarrhea subsides. All that is wonderful and I'm so glad I had him checked out, the problem though, is that he hates taking them. I'm having a real hard time getting either pill into him. Any suggestions??

You can try a couple of things. The fastest is to hide the pill in something yummy, but if he already has diarrhea, it's probably best not to give him anything new to eat.

So, plan B: Pilling him the hard way. :D Tell him to open up and go Ahhhhhhh (or the command of your choice), wrap your hand around the top of his snout and push his cheek firmly but gently against his molars (move your fingers till you feel a place that will allow you to get your fingers between his the jaw bones). When his mouth opens (and with luck, it will open fairly quickly), wrap his cheek around on at least one side till it's under his molars. (That will discourage him from biting down on your hand while you're pilling him.) Then take the pill and slide it down the side of his throat with the thumb of your other hand. Treat him with some of his kibble immediately and tell him he's a good boy.

With a little practice, it should be pretty easy...but puppies are squirmy so :fingerscr and :goodvibes: to you. :D

Once he's done with his pills, you'll save yourself a lot of aggravation if you continue "pilling" him now and then with kibble. Give your command, and when the mouth opens, slide a piece of [I]kibble [/I]down the side of his throat, then give him another kibble bit as a reward and praise him. The more he gets used to it now, the less trouble he'll be to pill in the future. We start 'pill training' right away whenever we get a new dog. :thumbs up

hotdogs, cheese... sausage.... bologna.... hard boiled egg... more cheese??? can you cut squares and then slice a hole in the side, tuck the pill in it and it should go right down. what did they give you? soemthing that starts with an M???

-ashley

ok ok ok.... so maybe no sausage or cheese or bologna.... but its sure yummy!!!

-ashley

I just thought of something that Lukka'sma tried that seemed to work and is bland enough to probably be okay for Cooper. Boil up some elbow macaroni and cool it off...then stuff the pill in one of the elbows. Let him eat a small handful (10 - 15) should do it, including the one with the pill in it. Then :fingerscr that he doesn't notice the one that's different! :D

Thank you so much for the ideas...I wish I felt more confident about the pill training because the vet told me not to give him [U]anything[/U] other than his food, water, and medication for now. I'm definately going to give it (pill training) a shot though. Anything would be better then what we just went through!!

Want4rain...he's been given Apo Sulfatrim.

P.S. I have to tell you guys (because my hubby is at work and I just have to tell someone)....Cooper is already 29.3 lbs!!!! I just can't believe he's grown that much in 3 weeks!!!

:D Yep...labs are pretty hard on the food budget! They're fast-growing, and high energy! Eventually, the food bills go down...when the dog matures and slows down...at about age 10... :o Labbies! You gotta love 'em! :laughing: We had one that lived till the ripe old age of 15--he was the sweetest character! :cloud9: