I wrote last week about our dog’s bout with hematomas in his ears and his “cone of shame” treatment. In addition to the protective cone to keep Chester from scratching or flopping his ears around, he’s been given three medications to take. One is an antibiotic, another is to control any allergies that may have caused the condition and the third is a sedative to help him get through the ordeal.
Getting him to take the medicine has become an increasingly difficult twice-daily task. At first, we were wrapping the pills separately in bits of cheese, but he quickly figured out that we were trying to fool him into taking something he clearly did not want. Next we tried peanut butter squished around the pill. It worked for a couple of days but was extremely messy and he again figured out that we were trying to put one over on him. And he managed to coat the whiskers on his chin and the inside of the cone with peanut butter residue.
Our next method was to just jam the pills down his throat. Luckily for us, Chester missed his puppy class on how to bite someone. But he certainly figured out how to circumvent the “direct injection” method because he REALLY doesn’t like that approach.
After cramming the pill far down his throat, he cleverly moved the pill around his mouth and then spit them out at high velocity across the kitchen floor.
So today we came up with a new method, which seems to be working so far. It is called the “drilled meat” approach.
Using my electric drill and a 7/16 inch bit, I drilled a hole in the side of a leftover piece of brisket that I had smoked for Father’s Day. (It was really good, by the way.) I inserted one of the three pills into each piece of meat and gave it to him. It seemed to fool him and he gobbled down the chunks of brisket ravenously, apparently oblivious to the presence of the medication. A picture of my clever scheme is below. As you can see, I’m wearing safety goggles and Chester is ready to grab the chunk of meat. I don’t actually do the drilling anywhere near him, but he’s always hovering nearby.
Tune in later to see if he continues to fall for this trick.
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