5 Tips On How To Give Your Dog Their Vitamins
Giving dogs pills and medicine is truly a tricky task because most dogs don’t like the smell or taste of drugs. Whether you want to give them treatment pills or supplements and vitamins, they’ll most likely try to resist and fight you. Even once they’ve swallowed the tablet or pill, they might end up spitting it out or vomiting it up.
Nonetheless, there are still ways in which you can make your furry baby take his vitamins. Here are 5 tips to help your dog to take his vitamin:
- Sprinkle The Vitamins On Food
If your dog is resisting due to not liking the taste, smell and size of the vitamins, there’s something you can do to remedy the situation. You can crush vitamins like Glucosamine for dogs into powder and sprinkle or mix with the food.
Ideally, you should mix the powdered pill with pasty or moist food. This is because your dog can easily notice the vitamin powder in dry dog foods. If your dog’s regular meal is dry, you should moisten the dry food first to add the vitamin powder evenly and invisibly into the food.
You should ensure that the powder is thoroughly mixed with the food so that it won’t be visible to the dog. Dogs are highly sensitive so, if you don’t play this trick right, your pet might end up rejecting the meal with the vitamin in it.
You should try to mix only a minimal quantity of the powder into the meal. This is so the vitamin’s smell and taste doesn’t overpower the dog food’s. You can then continue to add the powdered vitamin from time to time when you give your dog food.
- Liquidize It With Water
If your dog doesn’t like the taste of solid medicine, you can try a liquid option to get him to take the drug. Instead of mixing the vitamin’s powdered form into your dog food, you can mix the powder into water or dissolve the vitamin in the water.
This liquidized form will be easier to drink compared to the solid form. Besides, it won’t taste or smell repulsive to the dog like the solid form might have. If the dog likes this method, you can incorporate this into his diet and coax him into taking this before he is given food.
- Conceal The Vitamin Within Food
Sometimes, vets advise that dogs take vitamins as a whole because they perform faster and more effectively whole than they do powdered or liquidized. To give a vitamin to your dog whole, you can take a chunk of your dog’s food or snack, mold it around the vitamin, and feed it to him. He’ll most likely swallow it along with the vitamin in his excitement to eat the food or treat.
But if he chews on the treat/food with the vitamin in the middle, he could spit it out and never accept that particular treat or meal again. So, you should apply caution when using this method. Also, if a type or brand of vitamin particularly repulses your dog, you might have to consider buying another type. That might just be the lasting solution to make your dog take his vitamins.
- Bribe The Dog To Take The Vitamins
Just like you can sweet-talk kids and persuade them to take drugs, you can do the same for dogs. Before you try giving vitamins to your dog, first try to pet him and put him at ease. Make him feel comfortable and happy by playing with him and rubbing his fur. You can then bring forth the vitamins and pretend as though you want to swallow the vitamin.
His inquisitive nature, as well as his desire to eat what you have with you, could make him want to take the vitamin. You could even create a fake competition with him to see who will first gobble up the vitamin. Dogs are naturally competitive, so he’ll most likely rise to the challenge and want to take the pill. It also helps if you offer treats as a reward.
Don’t overlook the place of treats and rewards in getting your dog to take his vitamins. If he sees that you want to offer him treat or food as rewards for gently taking his pills, he’ll love to take them.
- Firmly Feed The Dog The Vitamin Directly
At times, no amount of petting or cajoling can make a dog take his pills, particularly if he is stubborn and he really detests the tablet. This means that you might have tried concealing the vitamin in pill food or powdering/liquidizing with no positive result.
At that point, you should give him the vitamins the firm way. First, sit your dog down and hold him firmly so he won’t try to run away. Next, slowly and gently open his mouth.
While doing that, try massaging his muzzle so he can loosen up the mouth. Once that is in place, you should place the pill at the back of his throat and close his mouth. Hold your hand to his mouth and keep it closed for some minutes, so he doesn’t try to spit out the drug. While your hand is covering his mouth, continue to massage and pet him while whispering sweetly.
Try not to manhandle him as that would put a strain on your relationship with him. Your sweet demeanour will put him at ease until the vitamin finds its way down his throat. And you know what? With time, he might feel cool with the pill without you even having to force it down his throat.
Conclusion
Dogs are just like human beings – they don’t like pills and tablets. But, that doesn’t mean they can avoid it. The important thing to do is find a productive trick to use in giving your dog his pills. You can try the tips above before finally settling for one that best suits your dog. And the best part is that once he gets familiar with using his vitamins, he’ll see it as a normal part of his diet and no longer resist the drug.
