Tips on giving a pill?!?!?

[jdm11]

My pudgy is suffering with a liver problem, not cancer, and not tumors, liver looks fine but doesnt explain the extremely high enzymes. Well we started a new medication called Denamarin. If your not familiar, Its a pretty big capsule and its to be giving an hour before a meal on a empty stomach once daily, for best results cannot be cut,crushed, or dissolved. Our problem is Pudgy is very very picky and a little monster! We tried pill pockets and that work for about a week and he caught on and now he smells the treat and wont even budge. So my wife and I tried the throwing it in the back of his throat and blowing in his face method and no luck what so ever everytime we would feel him swallow and think he swallowed it and let him go and he would start walking and next thing you knew he was spitting out the pill!!!! Normally I wouldnt want to force him to do anything he wouldnt want to do, but he really needs this medication to save his life, any tips or trick from anyone of you would be very helpful!

Oh yeah I must add pudgy is a diabetic so hiding the pill in table food is not the best plan for us :(

[Tinker's mom]

I was going to suggest liverwurst because it's soft and would hopefully mask the med smell, maybe you can use it since it's only once a day.

[puglyfe]

I normally use hot dogs but idk if that would work or not with the diabetic issue. With my stubborn dogs I put the pill in the back of their throat, hold their mouth shut, and tilt their head up all the way for awhile. They will eventually swallow it but don't just wait til you think they swallow the first time, 9/10 they'll just spit it out when you let go.

[Kat]

I'm going through that with just giving a tiny pill for antibiotics for my two. I feed raw, so I just wrap the pills in some raw chicken skin, they don't smell or taste the pill whatsoever. Raw chicken hearts also work. If you don't want to use raw meat, I'm sure you could also boil a chicken heart or some skin, or hide it in a cube of cooked chicken. I make both of mine sit and do some tricks, as if the chicken skin is a treat, not a pill hider :P

[pugtown]

Would a capsule be better? It comes in capsules. I have some from starwest-botanicals.com which also has powder and extract. I also have a liver treat with milk thistle by DrBeckerBites.com. I usually use a piece of plain cheese, then pill cheese, followed by another cheese chaser but you could use meat, like mentioned above.

[jdm11]

All good answers and appreciate it but ive tried most and still hasnt work. Has any one ever used a pill dispenser, the one you attach and kind of like shoot to the back of the throat? Bad thing about pudgy is he chews his food real good and if he feels something in the middle he will spit it out and seperate it, hes a lil booger when it comes to pills and will sniff it out lol

[pugtown]

liver chips/treats

Detox Bites

Maybe a couple drops of extract is all you would need. I'd contact the company and inquire about the dose. Then maybe you could just put a few drops in his food, starting with one drop and working your way up to however much he needs. Or squirt directly into his mouth.

Milk Thistle Extract Organic - Starwest Botanicals

[Shannon C]

I wrap mine is cheese

[BuggLover]

I wrap mine in cheese too, and Winston isn't a very picky eater so it's not hard to give him pills. My parents have a hard time with their dog though. They put the pill right at the back of his throat, hold his mouth closed and tilt his head up then massage his neck to get him to swallow... it generally works, but he is a border collie cross so it is easier to hold his mouth shut.

[Katie <3 Nano]

I have a friend back home who had the same problem with her dog who was a picky eater, but had to have his pills. She ended up training him to catch treats in the air. She would say 'sit', and then 'catch!' and gently toss the treat and he would catch it. After a while, she would start hiding the pill in the treat he would catch. Since it happened so fast, he wouldn't spit it out and never noticed the pills inside it. I'm not sure if this would work with a pug, but I thought i'd share since you've tried so many things.

I wish you the best of luck, and hope that you find something that works.