How to give pill to a Cane Corso

[Zeela]

Zeela just had surgery on Wed. for cherry eyes and she got spayed.
Having a horrific time trying to get her pills down. Tried everything(food wise), she spits it up and
holds them in her throat until she can spit it out. Nightmare, she needs her antibiotics.

 

[Courtney H]

Did you try peanut butter? Or sliced cheese? Peanut butter works best for my dogs! They also make pill pocket treats that work great.

 

[Smokeycat]

I found that coconut oil works the best for Kryten. I just have him lift his head to get his treat and drop it into the back of his mouth. The pill slides down his throat before he realizes he was tricked.

 

[Zeela]

Great idea about the coconut oil, I will try it. Thank you, Smokeycat.
As far as the peanut butter, cheese, pill pocket treats, Yup, tried them all even meatloaf and she still spit them out.
She is a stubborn one and way too smart.

 

[glen]

I cook a sausage then cut it in half put the tablet in a slit then put it back together i cut the sausage into 4 so that does 4 tablets the things we have to go for our mastiffs

 

[Michele]

How about the pill pockets!

 

[TylerDurden]

Peanut butter and coconut oil have worked best with our EM.

 

[Jarena]

Don’t know if this is helpful at all but when my girl was little I just had to kinda poke it down her throat. But now that she is a little older I realized that no matter what I put in her food bowl with her kibble for her regular meal, she will just gobble it up. So for her monthly pills I just toss them in with her breakfast now

 

[Boxergirl]

I give too many pills to mess around. I just open their mouths and shove the pill in the back of their throat. I then follow immediately with a super tasty handful of treats to make sure the pill goes down. I started when my guys were little lining them up when the oldest got his pills. I'd pretend to pill the others too and they all got treats. It's worked great whenever the others need meds. I've also used cream cheese with good results for dogs that aren't mine, again following the cheese wrapped pill with super tasty things.

 

[Steven C]

I agree with everyone on Peanut butter, Nessa loves it and would eat anything with it. If there is no peanut butter, I use Turkey dogs also what works best for training her. Pill pockets did not work me with my other dogs.

 

[Cwright2003]

My senior dog used to take his pills with the pill pockets but have stopped wanting them because he started chewing on the pockets and then found the pills inside. So I now put his Tramadol in bread, wrap it up really well so that there's a layer of bread around all the pills, and squeeze it in my fist into a really tight ball. He doesn't have wheat allergies though. I've found that with any food that has moisture in it, the Tramadol starts dissolving right away and he can pick up the taste and will just spit the whole wad out. The bread soaks up his saliva so the moisture doesn't reach the pill before he swallows it. So far, so good!

 

[Jakesmum]

I know I'm late to this post. If I don't have anything on hand then I put them in the back of his throat and hold his mouth closed until I feel him swallow and then give him his food immediately after. I try to always have cooked veggies on hand though, this last week was boiled potato pieces, he swallows them so fast he doesn't even know the pills are in it. Tonight I'll be cooking a squash to use for the next few days for his pills. Cheese works for some of them except the ones that he can smell, those are the ones I have to hide in veggies. Also hard boiled eggs work really good too.

 

[Nik]

We use cheddar cheese but we have to do a little training section and have several cheese without pills and only the one with. We roll the cheese into a ball around the bill and squash all the non pill pieces into a ball as well.

We then go into training mode. The first "reward" is always pill free. Sometimes the second one is also pill free. We always make sure that they see there are more rewards left so that they gobble the current one down in hopes to get the next. And we make them earn each one with a series of tricks. There is always a pill free one after the one with the pill and always at least one pill free one before the one with the pill. So a minimum of three cheese balls for each pill delivered. It does work though. They are too focused on the next treat to pay attention to the one they are currently inhaling as fast as they can.

Also it has to be sharp cheddar for our's. Mozarella and string cheese are too mild. You want the intense flavor.

 

[Zeela]

I tried everything. The best is I took her back to the vet on Sat. & he said she doesn't need them.
I wanted to choke him for not telling me when I called him several times about it & for torturing her & myself.
Not happy, she is doing fine though, her left eye does not look so good. Hopefully, it heals better. Thanks all for your input.

 

[Cher]

When I had labradors, all I did was to shove the pills in the back of their throat as far back as possible, close their mouth, and hold my hand over their nose. It was easy breezy. The Mastiffs are different. They're a bit bigger, so it is tougher to do all that with them. I put the pills in peanut butter and they eat it willingly. If not, then I open their mouth and put the peanut buttered pills inside. They will then get so busy trying to swallow the sticky peanut butter with the pills, they don't have time to spit the pills out.

 

[DennasMom]

For really nasty pills, I do a 3-step process...

1. Load the Drool: put a tasty treat in front of her nose and wait for the water works to get started... give her a little piece as a 'starter'

2. Pop in the Pill: open up mouth, toss pill as far back as possible, and then hold her nose shut and pointed straight up in the air... pet her throat until you feel her swallow. Since we've loaded the mouth with drool... swallowing will happen soon.

3. Reward: BIG reward of the tasty treat used to "load" the water works.


Of course, not giving them at all (just read your update) is the BEST option... LOL!!