So last Tuesday Missy suffered a major accident. She was in the backyard at night when something suddenly spooked her and caused her to run through our sliding glass door. I have ran into the door a couple of times my self but never thought it was possible to actually go through it. She suffered some pretty bad cuts on her right front leg and back left leg as well as a major cut in her forehead. This happened at around 8 p.m. so we had to rush her to the ER (luckily it is only 10 min away) since she was bleeding pretty bad. They had to shave her forehead and legs to stitch her up. She is doing much better now. Anyways a couple questions:

1. She is taking antibiotics, they are capsules. The vet told me to coat them with a little peanut butter to get her to take them. However, she is smart and now wont open her mouth to PB anymore (which she would love). Any tips on getting her to take the pills?

2. How long before her fur starts growing again?

I would change it up and wrap it in cheese or a piece of hot dog, i usually throw a few treats and as they are catching them and swollowing them add the one with the pill and she wont know what hit her.
As for the fur, i have noticed that it will take some time for it to grow back.
Poor girl, I am glad she is doing good.

1. It might sound mean but if she won't take it, you're going to have to force her mouth open. Place the pills as far down her throat as you can without choking her and close her mouth. Then you can either rub her neck below the jaw or blow in her nose so she'll swallow it. I don't know if either of those things actually work, but when I did it with Callie, she swallowed them every time. Sometimes it took two tries. Otherwise there are pill pockets but i don't know how they work. Maybe you can hide it in her food? That's how I get Callie to take her supplements. But with antibiotics, I need to make sure she gets them so I do the forcing method. You might need a helper after she figures out what you're going to do.

2. Her fur will grow back within a month. Callie was spayed about a month and a half ago now and you can't see where they shaved her. There are supplements you can give her to help skin and coat, but I don't know if they'll really make that much of a difference.

Im going to try the hiding it in a hot dog or cheese first, if that fails I will have to force them.

For the fur, someone told me to give her fish oil capsules (which I assume would be as hard to get her to take), has anyone heard of this before?

The fur will take a bit longer than a month. Depending on the areas and coat it could be from 2 months-6months+ Odin was shaved by his idiot last owners and a year later he was looking mostly normal.

As for pills my dogs are used to taking them by having them stuck in their mouth. I don't trust any other method, personally.

Saber is a pro at taking pills. I tilt his head back, open his mouth and drop the pill as far back in his throat as I can. He swallows it no problem. It might take a few tries to get the hang of it.

Well I tried the hot dog method, (cut out a little cavity in the hot dog) and it worked. I made sure she ate it and swallowed in front of me. Lets see how long it takes for her to figure it out.

Has anyone else heard of giving fish oil for the coat?

Cali is the total opposite of Saber. I give her a pill in a treat, she eats the treat but after that she spits the pill out, put it in a little sausage piece, same thing. Open her mouth and put it in like they suggest. a few seconds later its on the floor. She is a smart dog. I have tried it all, but continuing to toss down throat will work for her, but it takes about 4 tries first

I give my dogs fish oil about 3-4 times a week. I use this most of the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-All-Natural-Supplement-Pump-Bottle-Dispenser/dp/B0002ABR6E/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1350421209&sr=8-12&keywords=fish+oil+liquid

Blaze love it he get disappoint when it isn't in his food. He does not like the pills.

I am so sorry to hear this about your baby I hope she heals fast.

That's great, that way I dont have to deal with trying to give her another capsule. Thanks!

Kevin, Saber is just a good boy I guess! He will even come to me when I show him the pill, lol!

Missy, I personally don't use fish oil. I started Saber on coconut oil instead.

I also use coconut oil with my furkids, they love it.

I really use both coconut oil and fish oil and sadines once a week.

they also make treats for giving pills. http://www.1800petmeds.com/Greenies+Pill+Pockets-prod11029.html this is just one kind to give you an idea. not sure how big the pill is your giving.
glad your girl did not get hurt worse and is on the mend!

The pill pockets is kind of what I did with the hot dog. I just carved out a cavity and stuffed the pill in there.

I will NEVER give the pill pockets made by mars. I know a dog who died 20 minutes after getting one. Sorry for the horror story -

Now back to oils. I give Mercury Free fish oil and Coconut Oil. They are very different and do different things. I suggest doing both, you can even do a hair mask with the coconut oil.

As far as the pills go, I shove them down. Cato has it down to a science and knows now that its simply easier to swallow it. If I shove it down, I know they get it.

I give Adobo & Biko the same fish oil caps that we take, twice a day. Keep them in the freezer and I swear Adobo just loves to crunch hers up. The real reason why I freeze them is so I can avoid "fish burb."

A trick to make sure they don't figure out the pill is in the treat is to have another treat ready to give, so the dog will swallow the pill filled treat quicker anticipating the next treat. I usually do treat, pill filled treat, then treat.

There are dogs like my SIL's golden who will slowly chew till the pill falls out of the treat. We just have to put pills down his throat.

Sorry to hear about her accident..

First of all, if you do decide to force it down her throat. Remember what it feels like to swallow a pill dry, not so great right? You're supposed to put water down the back of their throat to help it go down, a baster or something similar would do the job. We do this with all the dogs, it's the only way I know they actually had the antibiotic.