What can be done about a dog refusing to take medication?
What Can Be Done About A Dog Refusing To Take Medication?
What can be done about a dog refusing to take medication? This is a question likely to be asked by a dog owner who has to give a dog a medical treatment. The success of an oral treatment for a dog depends very much on the dog owner being able to administer the medicine correctly and reliably, but ultimately the dog must swallow the dose. Many dogs will not voluntarily take an oral medication. This is why owners might ask for advice about a dog refusing to take medication.
Many drug molecules and other medicine ingredients have an unpleasant smell or taste. Medicines manufacturers try to help increase the likelihood that a dog will take a medication by manipulating the formulation to mask the taste and so make the product more acceptable to the dog. There are two main ways to do this: adding a flavouring; and including a coating.
Tablet formulations for dogs often contain one or two meaty flavours (such as yeast, liver, beef, poultry or fish) to disguise the taste of a drug and to appeal to a dog refusing to take medication.
Coatings can be used to cover the drug product to mask the taste smell. A coating creates a physical barrier that prevents the drug coming into contact with the taste buds.
But despite the best efforts of companies, some owners will still find their dog refusing to take medication that is flavoured or coated. In such cases there are several techniques that are used to help dose a dog. One of these is finding the best foods to hide dog medication.
Concealing foods to try for a dog refusing to take medication
cooked meat
banana
honey
peanut butter (being careful to check that the product does not contain xylitol, which is toxic to dogs)
soft cheese
tinned fish
However, even though a dog owner might use the best foods to hide dog pills in, a dog refusing to take medication may still be a problem because it may detect the smell of the medicine and be reluctant to take it, even when mixed with foods they would otherwise readily take.
It is important to tell pet owners whether a medicine can be given with food.
Other strategies to try for a dog refusing to take medication.
There are other techniques to try when using the best food to hide dog pills in has failed as a strategy.
Use of pilling devices (e.g. pill pocket treats and pet putty).
Using the ‘poke-down’ method. This consists of placing a tablet or capsule at the base, or far back, of the animal’s tongue, closing its mouth and repositioning the head and neck to their natural position while massaging the throat or diverting the animal until the dosage form is swallowed. The dosage form can become trapped so this is best done together with a small amount of food or water.
Crushing the tablet or opening the capsule and sprinkling the powder or granules on food. Note that crushing tablets and open capsules is an unlicensed (i.e. cascade) use of a licensed product, unless the product information (SPC) states that it is acceptable. It is important that veterinary professionals give advice to dog owners about when it is not OK to crush a tablet or open a capsule.
New developments that help with dosing
Pharmaceutical companies are researching how to create oral formulations that are voluntarily accepted by dogs. If a medication is truly accepted voluntarily by a dog, this would solve the problem of a dog refusing to take medication.
Can the claims about acceptability be believed?
There are many oral veterinary products on the market that are flavoured, or are described as chewable or palatable. Veterinary professionals need to understand what the phrases and claims mean.
Founded in 2012, Veterinary Prescriber provides evidence-based, practical and clearly-written information for vets and other veterinary professionals on medicines. We're proud to be wholly independent, which means that the information we provide is impartial and not influenced by commercial interests.
We love making sense of medicines, which means getting to the bottom of what terms like chewable and palatable really mean when pharmaceutical companies use them to describe tablets for dogs. That is exacetly what we have done in our CPD module on this flavoured, chewable and palatable tablets for cats and dogs.
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