Giving Hayleigh Medicine

As you know, Hayleigh is my dog. She’s the epitome of spoiled rotten shih tzu! I took her to the vet tuesday before last and he treated her for an ear infection, both ears We got antibiotic ointment for her ears and an antibiotic chewable for the infection. I’ve never had any problems giving her medicine or vitamins. I just give them to her, she chews them, they’re gone. This time was pretty much the same.. for the first week!

Tuesday I got up, made coffee and breakfast and gave Hayleigh her pill. She takes it between her teeth, I turn to check breakfast and hear “click”… I turn around, she’s standing there looking at me and the pill is on the floor. I said “come on, you’ve never had problems with pills, eat it.” She stands there looking at me. I pick it up and hold it in front of her mouth again, she takes it all the way in her mouth, I’m thinking ahh here it goes she backs up one step, drops her muzzle to the floor and I hear “click”.

I turn around and look at her, she’s standing there all full of attitude kicking her back legs at me (comical to see really… she’s trying to tell me she’s the boss). So I scold her a little and tell her “eat it”. She puts her head down, picks it up with her teeth, looks up at me and drops it. This time I hear “click, click” because it hit on its edge and fell onto its side.

*sigh*

I get one of her favorite chicken treats out of the fridge. THAT got her attention! Now she’s ready to sit, lay, roll, shake, jump and stand! Anything but take her pill So I tell her “eat it” and point to her pill. She looks down at it, looks back up and me and lays down. I said “I did not say lay down, I said eat it… eat your pill.” She looks at me and cocks her head to the side like “pfft on you.”

Meanwhile, my wonderful husband is rolling laughing… which I’m sure makes things better, right?

So I pick her pill up off the floor and try sneaking it in with a bite of a treat. AHA! Success! “click” *sigh*

I pick it up again, cut it in half and try again. “click”

This time I mush the treat all around it and hide every corner of the first half of the pill. She watches intently of course, I mean after all it’s CHICKEN we’re talking about here! The dog’s crazy about chicken and turkey. I couldn’t help but laugh at the expression and the overall situation I’d found myself in that morning. I looked at her and said “mommy will win this, the medicine will make your ears better.” She cocks her head to the side again… now I’m sure she was thinking “oh no you won’t!”

I make her sit, she sits, I give her a treat just like any other time she does something good. I think she swallowed the pill, I start to put the other half in another part of the treat when I hear… you guessed it… “click.”

So I decide to get creative and chop the pill into quarters or smaller. Honestly it’s NOT a big pill!! Her kibble is bigger! Anyway, I chop it into small pieces and use a fork to mush the rest of the treat up with the pill on a saucer. I put it in the floor, wash my hands and head back toward the stove now that I’ve “made her a special breakfast”, right? Watching her out of the corner of my eye, she eats almost everything on the saucer… leaving only 2 small pieces of the pill.

It took 3 whole chicken treats to get the rest of the pill into her!

Three days of antibiotics left… wish me luck!