Boy Is He A Pill!

After having my little doggie, Oliver, vaccinated for kennel cough, he went to play with Pippen, my daughter's dog, and her poochie friends at the doggie daycare in Charleston. He had a blast, and we had a breather from two overly energetic pocket beagles, who did nothing but run and play and chase each other inside and out of the house all day and night. I do have to admit that it really was much calmer with them out of the way for the day.

A few days after we left to begin our treck home, stopping in Charlotte for another few days first, we noticed Ollie being a bit more subdued than normal and coughing in the mornings. After a few more days, the coughing became more frequent and he wasn't eating as much or as enthusastically as he usually does.

By the time we were home and he almost completely stopped eating and was sleeping most of the day, as well as, coughing a lot...I took him to the vet.

Yep, it was confirmed, kennel cough. She proceeded to tell me that even if a dog is immunized, he can still get it. So I left the office with arms full of meds and a special canned dog food to feed him because of his sore throat.

The vet told me to hide his meds in his food, so he wouldn't know he was eating it. It worked the first time! He was so excited to get soft dog food that he gobbled it down. The next time, he picked through the food and I found one of his pills in the bottom of the bowl when he was finished. The time after that, he pick both pills out and put them on the floor and continued to eat. I picked up the pills and him and put them in his mouth and encouraged him to swallow. He did.

That is when he declared war. From then on, each and every time he had to take his pills, he fought me. I tried to hide them in hot dogs, he ate around them and left the pills on the floor. I tried cheese and picked through it and left them on the floor. I then proceeded to put them further down his throat than the first time, he swallowed. Wallah!!! It worked!!!

Well, I always thought he was smart and the following day he proved it. I put the pills way back in his throat and held his muzzle closed, he swallowed three times, when I let go, he started to shake his head and work up the saliva and that's when it happened. He literally spit the pills across the room along with lots of disgusting foam loaded with doggie germs. Can you say EWWWWW!?!? He had learned to cheek the pills and then spit them out each and every time we tried to get him to take his meds. It finally took two of us to do it. One to hold his head up and the other one to put the pill down his throat as far as it would go without hurting him, while the first one person massaged his throat on the outside to get him to swallow.

Now his energy is up, he is eating his regular dog food again and growling at us if we get too close. He is not coughing much anymore and I am once again a happy dog owner. I am hoping and praying that he never gets sick again, or if he does, that we can get liquid medicine that we can sprinkle in liverwurst. I think he may like that. Hmmmm....