No Mommy, the Medicine Tastes Yucky

I used to give Moree and Smokey all their medication via peanut butter bread. The dogs loved peanut butter and would just gulp the pill down with it. Moree was my picky eater, and it worked for him. I figured it would work for all my dogs.

I never expected it to stop working for Smokey, but it did, toward the end. He got to the point that he could get the peanut butter off the pill and then spit it out. But by that time, he didn’t want to eat much of anything.

June is a Beagle. She eats everything. When this current infection started, she even had some pills that I didn’t even need to put peanut butter on, she’d eat them right out of my hand. For a while, I’d just dip the pills in peanut butter and she’d lick them right off my finger.

Apparently, though, the pills don’t taste very good (or smell good) and the taste was strong enough that she stopped licking my finger. That was fine, little peanut butter and pill sandwiches it was. It took a little more time, but she was getting her pills.

And then that stopped working. At first I thought maybe it was my wheat bread. It smells kind of strong, and I could see how she might not like the crust. So I used the white bread. Still no luck. Did she stop liking peanut butter? (The answer is no, she will eat peanut butter off my finger or peanut butter bread without any pills no problem.)

She even got to the point where she could pull the bread apart and eat the side that the pill didn’t stick on.

Now, she needs her meds. This infection is never going to go away if she doesn’t eat her pills. And I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of shoving them down her throat. Plus, shoving them down her throat is actually harder on her than it was for Moree or Smokey- something about that Beagle tongue.

I was nearing my wits’ end.

Enter friends who mentioned that they used pill pockets.

We’ve only used the Greenies brand so far, but PetsMart carries at least one other brand. And for now, these things are life savers. You put the pill in the pocket and then mold the rest of the treat over them. The treat smells very strongly of yumminess. And apparently tastes strongly enough to override the yuckiness of the pills, because June is excited for her “treats”.

Not only has it made giving June her treats easier, but it takes less time and is not as messy as making mini peanut butter sandwiches twice a day. They are kind of expensive, but I’ll take that expense over the cost of worrying that June is somehow not getting her meds.