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Help With Making My Akita Take Her Medicine


Lena.
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Just wanted to ask for suggestions how to make my dog take her tablets/medicine...

After just a little over a week of adopting Mia, she's been lethargic and our vet diagnosed her with an ear infection. I have the drops for her ears but I'm also supposed to give her Clavulox in tablet form. I tried to put the tablet in her food (she's on a bland diet of boiled rice and chicken) and of course she ate everything except the tablet.

Do you have tricks you use to make your dogs take their medicine? My girl's not food driven, eats her food slowly and gingerly, and very docile. I attempted to put the tablet in her mouth but she kept spitting it out. LoL

Please help. Her eyes look especially sad because she's not feeling well.

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Ok.

Tried your suggestions and she just keeps spitting it out. I was holding her mouth closed for a good couple of minutes and she still spat it whole. LoL

Can I crush it and put it in her food? How I miss having a dog that just wolfs down food like it's going out of style...

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I'm a cruel bitch when it comes to tablets and we've had some very large tablets here. I open his mouth and shove the tablet past his tongue and then close his mouth and stroke his throat. he doesn't like it much but tolerates it.

how far back are you putting the tablet. you need to put it right at the back so they cant bring it to the front.

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You need to get the tablet far back over the back of the tounge so she cant get it back up to spit out. If she will eat it crushed that would do, but many dogs will not eat food with yuckky tablet powder all over it.

Oops pixie beat me too it.

Edited by melt
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Usually when I give my boys their tablets I have had to straddle the dog, put a hand under their chin and bring their head back. Open their mouth and push the tablet right down the back of their throat and then hold their mouth closed while rubbing along their neck until they swallow.

I had been using this method for our dogs because they were difficult about taking their tablets ... until one day I had a bit of chum (don't normally feed this stuff but it was needed to give a dog a bit of a clean out after he had eaten too many bones and was a little blocked up) and put that around the last of a tablet and they inhaled food and tablet. I then started breaking the tablets up and putting them in a couple of pieces of food. Line the dogs up and give them a normal piece each, give them a piece with a tablet and then line up another normal piece straight away so they inhale that piece waiting for the next.

Now ... with my two current dogs - they are just handed the tablet and they are stupid enough to think they are getting a treat and inhale the tablet whole and line up waiting for another :)

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Ok.

Tried your suggestions and she just keeps spitting it out. I was holding her mouth closed for a good couple of minutes and she still spat it whole. LoL

Can I crush it and put it in her food? How I miss having a dog that just wolfs down food like it's going out of style...

You're not putting it back far enough :) Back on the tongue, nice and far back like we do when we take tablets, hold gob shut, tip head back, stroke her throat... follow up with a yummy treat..

With our kelpie, i'd treat him, shove the tablet down his gob, and follow up with another treat.

Mr "I don't do tablets" kelpie now takes them if i throw them at him, cos he thinks he's getting treats after doing that a few times.. He's now like Tilly's dog. Makes life easier. The viz still spits them out, so down the back of his throat for him!

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Omg! Success!

I was uneasy with the whole shoving the tablet deep in her mouth since her mouth is as big as my hand. LoL

Thanks so much for the tip... Now I gotta do it all over again tomorrow and the next...

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Omg! Success!

I was uneasy with the whole shoving the tablet deep in her mouth since her mouth is as big as my hand. LoL

Thanks so much for the tip... Now I gotta do it all over again tomorrow and the next...

It's a bit gross, but you get used to it.. It's the surefire way to do it... Obviously if your dog is agressive or snaps, well it's not recommended.. but otherwise :)

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Definitely follow it up with yummy treat.

I had to wrap canex up in promite toast with lots of promite to get her to eat those. They must taste yuck. Hmm why don't they make dog repellent out of these things?

I sometimes use peanut butter, the crunchy sort so the dog can't sift out the lumps either.

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Oh Lena! I feel your pain!

Kuma is the "i don't do tablets" kinda dog too. He flat out refuses to swallow his tablets. So, it's a two person job in our house - me holding him steady and the OH sticking the tablet down his gullet, holding his mouth shut and stroking the throat. We always follow up with something super yummy.

Good luck!

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My dogs will generally take a tablet if its pushed into a bit of cheese or 4Legs.

If not, its the old "down the hatch" method using fingers to push the tablet down the back of the throat. It's actually easier to to this with big dogs than small ones.

Agree to follow up with a treat. In addition to rewarding them, it ensures that the tablet has gone all the way down.

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Buy a tasty sausage, cut it up (raw) & stuff the tablet into one of the sections. The tablet takes on the scent of the sausagemeat & most dogs don't know it's in there! However of my three, Mr cunning Kelpie knows I am up to something & accordingly refuses to eat raw sausage :thumbsup: , however he is easy to dose so he gets it down the neck!

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Glad you managed to do it Lena! Giving my cats tablets is an absolute nightmare, so I know what a struggle it can be! Mika particularly has lightning tongue reflexes. Giving Kyojin tablets/a syringe so far has been super easy as he thinks everything's food :thumbsup:

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It is very easy once you get the hang of it. Like others have said, open mouth and put your hand right in... down back of throat,,,, drop tablet as far back as you can, then follow with a treat. It won't take you too long to get the hang of it. Keep yourself from getting uptight, as dogs can sense this and start reacting to your tenseness. Just walk up casually, with the intention to succeed, and get the job done with as little fuss as you can.

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This is another one of those times where I'm so glad that Akira is weely weely stoooopid and thinks "if I was told to sit for this, it MUST be food". :thumbsup:

:birthday: OH told me whilst our Kelpie was on tablets for a month "You need to do them, he won't let me" (This was 2 wks in and I'd de-sensitised him and he'd now just eat them)... I said na, all you do is this... Told the dog to sit and threw it at him... Boom, down the hatch :cheer: So now OH can give him tablets too! He was amazed.. but that's because I was calm about it, and he was always worrying... but now he doesn't have to worry :party:

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