oh brody boy, one day you will be a healthy dog......

[myboybrody]

Hi again, I swear my poor Brody has everything he could possibly have wrong with him, the poor guy is only a year!

Thankfully he hasn't vomited since last Friday- so its been a whole week!! that makes me so excited.

The new problem:
3 weeks ago before all the vomiting started, we took him to the vet for an ear infection. inside the flap of his ear he has a lump of some sort that is filled with blood and breaks open every so often. they put him on mometamax, we tried that for a week, didnt even touch the ear infection (the are calling it a bacterial & yeast infection) we took him back last week and they put him on a new ear drop called synotic solution, we tried that for a week. It seems to only be getting worse and breaking open more often and bleeding everywhere. so i took him again to the vet yeterday & they put him on an oral rx called cephalexin & prednisone. They said they couldn't put him on those rx previous weeks due to the vomiting.

I had asked the vet yesterday why the couldn't lance the ear and drain all the fluid in it, and he said that wouldn't help, I find that hard to believe. I asked him also what he is calling this ear infection now- he said an advanced case of a bacterial & yeast infection. I asked how long this can last.. he said hard to determine. I am just concerned that these new meds wont help & he will not be able to hear! I am also having the toughest time getting him to swallow the meds... he is so smart & will eat whatever i wrap around it then spit out the pill!

any suggestions on how to get him to swallow the pill, I've tried peanut butter, hot dogs, canned dog food, pill pockets, you name it! I know I can put it in his mouth and hold it shut and rub his throat to get it down, but I would much rather give it to him in a treat!

I think I just needed to vent! I am so sick of going to the vet & the cost of every visit is killing me & i am getting married in 3 months so money situation is getting tight!

thanks for reading!

 

[sriley]

I know what you mean about Boxers being a little too smart and not taking their meds. Buddy, my first Boxer, was on chondroitin/glucosamine along with several heart meds and he, too, was a real stinker when it came to taking his pills. I had to do one of three things:

1) Take a piece of bread (I would cut a slice into 3 strips and use 1 strip a day) and sort of push the pill into the bread and smother it with Cheez Whiz.

2) Push the pill into a cube of sliced watermelon. Buddy absolutely LOVED watermelon.

3) Use 1/2 a Timbit and stuff the pill inside the donut. Here in Canada, Tim Horton's is a coffee shop that has a cult following. Timbits are basically little, round bits of donut (about the size of the hole that appears at the centre of a normal donut).

Normally, I would try to stay away from feeding my boy donut, but near the end, his health was getting pretty bad and he was getting pickier in terms of taking his meds, so I pretty much had to resort to Timbits to get his pills into him. I weighed the pros and cons and decided that a Timbit a day wouldn't hurt him, but not taking his pills would literally kill him. Good luck. Please keep us posted.

 

[sriley]

P.S. Perhaps a second opinion from another vet clinic is in order to take care of Brody's ear problem. Poor fella! I hope he's on the mend and recovers quickly.

 

[JSNseki]

I have the same problem trying to get my dog to eat her pills. What I used to do is shove the pill inside a piece of smoked sausage and then have another piece without the pill as a chaser. She used to get so excited about the second piece that she would just swallow the first one to get to the second one. She eventually caught onto this and can actually eat the sausage and spit out the pill. If anyone has any other tips, I would love to hear them. As of right now I just went back to the old method of shoving it into the back of her throat and holding her mouth up and closed. Hope this helps!

 

[lmorey]

When Cash had an ear infection not too long ago, we went through a couple of rounds of antibiotics before we could get him well. The vet first gave us an oral antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim (SMZ) since he had a bad reaction to cepha caps in the past. When that didn't really seem to help, she gave him an ointment, Entederm. It was pretty hard to get the ointment in his ears, but it worked like a charm!
As for getting your boy to take his medicine, have you ever tried Greenies Pill Pockets? They sell them at my vet (and at Petsmart, etc), and they are pretty much the only thing we have found that will work for Cash taking antibiotics. For his everyday kidney vitamins and supplements (he was diagnosed with kidney failure at 10 months), he has no problem eating them along with his food. Weird, I know!

 

[SteveL]

I have tried almost everything and the only thing I have had 100% success with is American cheese. I wrap the pill up in a piece of a slice and start with an unmedicated piece then the medicated piece then another piece for chaser. I can get about three medications out of one slice of cheese.

 

[livers25]

I have tried almost everything and the only thing I have had 100% success with is American cheese. I wrap the pill up in a piece of a slice and start with an unmedicated piece then the medicated piece then another piece for chaser. I can get about three medications out of one slice of cheese.

I agree here. This is the only way I can get my dogs to take any pill medication.

 

[johann]

Sandwich meat works pretty well for Johann (his fave is bologna).

I read somewhere (on here?) that using mini marshmellows works well-just mush the pill into it.

 

[myboybrody]

Thanks for the ideas!

The way I have got it to work is by giving him a real treat (with nothing in it) then immediatly giving him the one with the pill in it, while also making him do a trick. IT WORKS!

His ear is starting to look a little better, hasn't bled in a week, still is swollen but I think we are heading in the right direction now. FINALLY!

 

[Swampo]

When we had our Indigo, she had a blood filled lump on her ear. It was a hematoma. The vet drained it and stitched it up and it was good as new. As far as pills go...peanut butter works for us!