I wanted to start my 16-week old puppies on a heartworm/flea preventative that the vets down here in Houston love - Trifexis. We have to be extra aggressive this year because of the mild winter - fleas and mosquitoes are everywhere.
Kai, the boy, ate his pill right up in a piece of American cheese. Willow ate the cheese and spit out the pill. I gave a half-hearted attempt to give her her pill by force, but she spit it out again. I wrapped it in plastic and decided to consult here.
I know I can get this pill down her - I've done it with lots of dogs in the past. My question is - is it worth it, or should I switch to separate pills for the functions of heartworm and flea protection? (She ate the heartworm pill up just fine last month.)
If this was any other breed, I would be laughing at how dumb this question is, but basenjis are so different. Will she hold a grudge if I "pill" her the old-fashioned way? Does anyone have any other suggestions? She is kind of picky about treats, so I don't have anything excellent that she will gobble up, unfortunately.
Thanks in advance…
try cream cheese or liverwurst. hard to spit a pill out of that.
or just pill her the old fashion way then give her a meatball and tell her she's wonderful. She still may retaliate, but . . . i guess you'll know where you stand then.
Agree with agilebasenji
Guppy is such a good boy he eats the pill wrapped in anything-Norah however, is far more difficult and the only way I can get a Comfortis down her is to wrap it in chicken skin. I have a baggie saved in the freezer (or I did before we moved from FL) that contains their chicken skins. First I give them a small piece or two to throw them off and then I sneak it in there and they gobble it down. I give them another small piece afterwords too just for good measure.
I put pills for Watson in braunschweiger (a type of liverwurst) it is so smelly that he really dosen't waste the time examining it very closely 
I have however made him take pills the old fashioned way to…and we both survived and he still loves me 
I give him treats when he is good about unpleasant things he has to allow.
I also have found once you find the magic ingredient they cant say no to, give them the pill then quickly offer another piece, so they must swallow the pill one quickly to get the next treat.
Cream cheese is always a winner in my house!
Basenji's do not hold grudges as much as not trusting you, or learning when things are coming that they do not like and how to get out of them. They don't get fooled again, unless the best treat imaginable is involved. Thats how we give our baths. We feed them cheese and they do not mind the baths anymore, not that they like them, they just tolerate them for cheese.
If you loose a basenji's trust & they will be wary of you till you gain it back.
A small cube of cheddar cheese does it easily for us. Either that or a little cube of organic bison steak, which is reasonably priced here. That stuff almost gets inhaled! Then with the rest of the bison steak, it is given as a supplement to a couple of meals or as treats, depending on how big it was. Usually I pay no more than $3 for it.
I agree with have something also yummy right at nose so they swallow and go for the next bite. That said, Cara decided to spit her pills last month, I grabbed them up, shoved down throat, gave another treat… no fuss no muss. Same next time. Third day she decided to just swallow and not spit. They aren't stupid.
Sonny has to take a daily seizure pill in the morning and at night and lucky for me the pill is very small. the funniest part about giving Sonny his pills is he has learned the sound of the pill bottle when I take one out. ( he's blind)…..he comes running from where ever he is when he hears me tip the pill bottle and sits at my feet...to him that sound means he's gets cheese!!! he has no idea there's a pill in the middle!!
Sonny reminds me of my dogs. They love taking pills because it means they are getting food or a treat! Bambi will come out when she hears me get my pills out of the bottle
Jennifer
Oh the things basenjis will do for cheese! String cheese, cream cheese, sliced or cubed..it makes me laugh that we are all on here talking about how to get our dogs to swallow pills with cheese and all the while our dogs are looking at us like we're idiots typing about it…probably thinking , "uh, stop talking about cheese and go get us some!"
@sonnyboy:
Sonny has to take a daily seizure pill in the morning and at night and lucky for me the pill is very small. the funniest part about giving Sonny his pills is he has learned the sound of the pill bottle when I take one out. ( he's blind)…..he comes running from where ever he is when he hears me tip the pill bottle and sits at my feet...to him that sound means he's gets cheese!!! he has no idea there's a pill in the middle!!
That is incredibly adorable - bet it makes you smile! Give Sonny a hug from us.
Thank you for all the suggestions! We had success last night - I made the deluxe treat of all treats, with the pill in the middle: pill, then "lamb loaf" (dog food we use tiny bits of for training), then wrap that in cheese, with a little peanut butter on it. She ate it right up.
Only problem was that her brother came out of nowhere and tried to steal it (was so busy with my concoction, forgot to crate him). I ended up chasing both of them around, trying to make sure she ate it and he didn't. He looked so depressed, I made a treat for him, too…
Thanks again - I was not looking forward to performing the pill maneuver on her and getting glared at over that curly tail as she trotted away from me.
Okay as an aside, Arwen doesn't care about sliced cheese. It's not like I buy some cheap stuff, I get Kraft. She used to would ONLY eat it if I smashed it up to make it warm and soft. With Cara here now, she wants some when Cara takes her pills (she also zooms to my feet when I get her pills) but it is more like a "doing you a favor" expression. Til a few weeks ago when I got Velveta cheese and OMG she went crazy. Sigh. I tried to see if I could trick her– no, she really loves it, simply eats the other to make sure she gets her SHARE even if she doesn't want it.
Have you tried crushing the pill and feeding the bits gradually in something yummy that she likes. Alternate the 'pill' pieces with some without any pills in.
Mine have been very hard to pill forever. What works a few times will suddenly be figured out and won't work the next. In the beginning I tried wrapping it in cheese, then giving a few pieces of pastrami and sneaking one in with the pill inside, then grinding it up in a mouthful of peanut butter, and eventually all those things would stop working and after the food was well and good in there, the pill would come rolling out on the floor, and I would have to do it the old fashioned stuff it down their throat way - they learned with most things to eventually avoid me when they thought I was trying to con them, and kept their distance. Now, miraculously, they have decided they love the pill pockets sold by Greenies, and actually come running when they see the bag and boxes of pills come out. That has been working for about 4 months and I thank the universe every time they swallow those pills!
I put the girls working pills in the middle of a sausage (bite size). So they grab it and down it goes, none the wiser
Ps. I've had to force a few pills down once she stopped just eating them and until I found the sausage solution. Just give them a treat straight up and a cuddle and all is forgiven
My basenji would have been growling and chewing thru the fence just to get at the pitbull lmao.
