Assuming the position waiting for a dog treat: Make medicating your pets easier with pill pockets or flavored meds
Recently, I had the misfortune of discovering there is actually such a thing as beef flavored medication for dogs. I say misfortune, because I made this discovery due to the fact that my Frenchie had gotten an ear infection. Like most Frenchies and other snub-nosed breeds, he's prone to allergies. Blessedly, he hadn't had an ear infection since I began him on local honey back in the early summer of 2014. But this one managed to slip in under the radar due to a tiny droplet of water in one of those deep wells of his trademark bat ears. Sometimes, try as you might, these things still happen, no matter how vigilant you are in trying to prevent them.
Flavored Pet Medications
If there's only one bright thing I can take away from the entire situation, it is the newly acquired knowledge of these flavored dog pills. Hello, beautiful, where have you been all my life?! Apparently, around, because upon inquiring with my vet I was informed these special blends, as it were, have been around for a while now. I knew about the flavored heart worm chews, but this was something else. Besides antibiotics such as baytril or the generic enrofloxacin flavored with a hint of chicken or beef, there are heart medications and a whole host of other pills and chews infused with this yummy goodness.
Compounding Pharmacies
I was also educated on the fact that compounding pharmacies can specially blend formulas for pet medications that may not normally be available in a flavored version. This would be especially useful for pets facing the prospect of long-term or lifelong medication and you're tired of playing hide the pill every time you try to dose them. Another candidate for these specialty blends would be persnickety puppies that you don't want to have to hogtie (just an expression) in order to medicate. These squirmy little bundles of joy have a tendency to chew and gum away until you think surely the pill must be gone and out it pops on the floor, slimy and dissolving. Good luck getting it down then.
Cost Prohibitive Medications
While flavored chews and specially blended animal pharmaceuticals are not new, they do cost a bit more. That's because most pharmaceuticals are mass produced and compounding pharmacies must do everything individually by hand. They harken back to the days of yesteryear and only started making a resurgence in popularity about 10 or 15 years ago as the demand for their niche services started to make themselves known again. As far as why the mass produced flavored pills are more expensive, who knows. Maybe they're still trying to recoup their investment on the concept.
Pill Pockets
Greenies Pill Pockets: Makes medicating your pets easy
If specialty drugs and personalized prescriptions are a little beyond your price range, there's always Greenies Pill Pockets — that or a hunk of cheese or a scrap of lunch meat, unless of course your pet's on a restricted diet. The pill pockets have been my go-to source for quick and easy dosing for sometime now. The really nice thing about them is they come in different sizes and you can modify the pocket to fit smaller pills by pinching off the gummy/doughy end and creating a seal, more or less. You're supposed to do this for any size pill, but they're especially convenient for customizing.
Ask Your Veterinarian
If for some reason you are precluded from using either of these methods for rendering medication, there are a few things you can do to make treating your dog easier. For more information on painless methods of medication delivery, click here to read up on it. And FYI, flavored meds aren't just for dogs, either. They are currently made for felines and other critters as well. Just ask your veterinarian the next time you bring your pet in for a checkup. He or she should be well versed on the subject. Remember, for every dark cloud there is a silver lining of enlightenment, like mine, and sometimes life's little inconveniences lead us to valuable knowledge in the end.
