I'm glad she's doing well. I've always had good luck with cooked burger with the pills crushed and mixed in.
I sure hope Zoie is feeling better quickly, but you might consider asking your vet if you can give injectable pain meds. A quick injection of a subcutaneous dose might be easier on both of you. With all the loose skin Zoie has, it should be real easy to give her a shot.
I'm hoping we don't have to do any more cutting on her. Yes it is super easy to give her shots and she doesn't even feel them. I'm seriously considering shots if she has to pain meds again. Judging by her reaction, the meds must taste terrible. Her appetite is picking up a little but at least this time she has more weight to spare. Actually, she doesn't need to gain any more and would probably be easier if she lost a pound or two, because of her arthritis, but I'm just happy she's at a decent weight now.
Poor Zoie. I hope by now she's feeling MUCH better. It's amazing how they recover so quickly and once she has her painkillers inside her she'll improve.
A little better but her appetite is still down. She ate well last night. We had spaghetti for supper and I added a couple of tablespoons to her dry food. She ate it with all the "gusto of a hound dog" as my step-father puts it. Old dogs just don't bounce back as fast as young ones do. She doesn't seem to be as sore, maybe its the painkillers.
I am so happy that Zoie is doing better. It sounds as though you have been able to get her to take the pain medication. I hope that her appetite continues to improve and her pain decreases. She is a very lucky dog to have you as an owner.
You can buy a pill crusher from most pharmacies - that would make the pills easier to dissolve so you can syringe them down her. My vet sends oral pain meds home with my poms. I'm sure he would have done that for Zoie since she is hard to give pills to.
Hope she is feeling better soon!
If she is on Prednisone it will definately help with he appetite and water intake. THey do taste horrible though....I don't blame her! Get better soon Zoie!
What a sweet basset hound - I love them! Glad it wasn't cancer!! I have to give my dog a pill daily which is prednisone. I can tell it is bitter. I put it in a "wad" of margerine and put it WAY BACK in his throat, then clamp his mouth shut and stroke his neck so he swallows. Not fun and he struggles a bit but it works!
I think Zoie has something wrong with her neck as a result of a very bad landing when she took a dive off the porch 3 or 4 years ago. When I try to pill her, she tenses up, which probably makes it worse, then you pry her mouth open and she screams in pain. I don't think she is just objecting because sometimes she would cry for several seconds after. I have also seen her cry out, but not as bad, when she yawned. She hasn't done that since she started the prednisone. Zoie didn't want her chicken and rice this morning, but finally ate it this afternoon. I could tell by her movements how badly she needed that low dose of pred. She does seem to have less pain though, even though she is now waiting at the bottom of the steps for me to pick her up and carry her to the porch. I almost always lift her down but she usually climbs up the steps. My version of weight lifting. LOL
