Oral antiparasitics every two or three months throughout his life, the pills “against seasickness” on trips, that antibiotic treatment for skin infection … How many times do we have to give an oral treatment to our dog throughout his life ? Many, right?
Despite the fact that the administration of drugs is a reality, many owners are not able to get the animal to ingest that inexpressive and tiny product that their two-legged friend offers them.
For a dog to willingly accept the voluntary ingestion of the pills, we must accustom them as for the rest of routines, from a very young age .
The most appropriate thing is to open the animal’s mouth and introduce the drug into the oral cavity, as deeply as possible. We will immediately close the animal’s mouth and wait for it to swallow.
If we follow this method from a young age, we should not have to resort to the many possibilities that we will discuss below. Animals that have been taught from a young age accept the drugs without any problem.
An unaccustomed animal will skillfully “spit” the drug out of its mouth, immediately or some time after it has been administered.
To get the animal to ingest the pill we can:
- Hide it : the most common is to put it in a piece of sausage, in a cheese or surround it or impregnate it with pate, York ham, Serrano … There are many varieties. But reality tells us that the dog that does not want to ingest the pill, tastes the food and spits out the drug.
- Crush it : in many cases, pulverize the tablet and administer it directly in powder (you cannot spit it out as the pulverized drug remains on the oral mucosa and moistened tongue) or diluted in water. In this case, the problems that may arise are hypersalivation of the animal in the case of administering the tablet in powder form or even causing vomiting.
For all the comments, we can conclude by saying that it is best to accustom the animal from puppyhood . If you are an adult and it is practically impossible to administer oral drugs to the dog, there are always solutions. In these cases, the veterinarian will administer the drug in other “formats”, the most convenient is the one that ensures the entry of the product into the animal’s body, that is, by injecting the medicine.
Problems? The dog does not “like” them and requires a visit to the clinic to administer the product.