Let the Medicine Go Down
There are times when we need to take our pets to the veterinarian for its schedule vaccination or check-ups. Especially “not so good times” when our dog is sick or down with fever. We take them to the clinic and after some checking and confirmation from the vet, the vet will either give your dog an injection or some medical tablets. Pop, the tablets goes into its mouth, down its throat and it’s done. The veterinarian prescribe some medical prescription. You check out, pay the bills and happily drive back home with your dog and some medicine in the bag.
However when it is time to administer the medicine to your dog, you find it such a challenging task. You pop the pills into your dog’s mouth, you doggy is not cooperative and it spits the pills out. Palm to the face, OMG! Why is my doggy refusing its medicine? You resort to treats hoping that your dog will take it. Trying different ways of enticing it to take the medicine but without success. How am I going to make my doggy swallow the pills? It becomes a dilemma and if your dog is not going to take the medicine, it is not going to get better and recover.
A lot of the folks may be thinking that well, could it be that when their dogs are in the clinic, they seems to know how to behave and act accordingly, otherwise the veterinarian is going to be hard on them. Or is it the peculiar smell of the clinic that intimidates them to behave and take the pills without any retaliation. We want to believe that, but it is not true. It lies with the technique of how you administer it.
The technique of administering a tablet to your dog is to put and arm around the dog and hold it snugly against the body. Pull the upper jaw up, not too high, and shove the pill as far in as possible with your other hand. As soon as you put the pill in, close the jaws and hold them shut until you see it swallowing. If doggy is not cooperative and not swallowing, blowing in its face will help.
And for those given liquid medicine, you need to administer it with a syringe. It will be different from administering pills. You have to hold the dog’s mouth shut and work the syringe in between the teeth at the side, preferably at the inner side. Do be careful not to scrape and injured the gums. Slowly depress the plunger and let it swallow. Continue to hold the jaws shut until all the medicine is emptied from the syringe.
Some folks adopt the method of hiding medicine in the food of the dog. This is applicable if the medicine is a tablet or pill which is solid. This method is fine as long as your dog takes the medicine. Usually the tablet is hidden in a piece of meat or a ball of food. However for liquid medicine, it is not advisable as there is no way to confirm that your dog has taken its entire dose for its schedule.