Managing Medications At Home

Giving medication effectively to our dogs

It can be really difficult to give our dogs their medication exactly as prescribed, especially if we have more than one dog and they are on more than one medication. There aren't strong stats with pets' medication but it's thought to be similar to human's taking medication, where an astonishing 30-50% of medication is taken incorrectly - in other words, not as it's meant to be taken.
Problems can include:

Storage mistakes

Not keeping medicines at the right temperature (eg fridge vs cupboard, in direct sunlight etc).
Using out-of-date medicines
Running out of medication

Dosing mistakes

Forgetting to give it at all, or forgetting we have given it and giving it again (or confusion with other people in the household about giving it)
Giving too much or too little
Confusing mg vs ml in liquid medicines
Giving the wrong dose by the dog’s weight
Using the wrong syringe/spoon for liquid meds

Wrong medicine, wrong part of the body, wrong animal or even wrong species

Giving the wrong medication - eg because packaging or pills look confusingly like each other
Putting the medication in the wrong place – ear drops in eyes, eye drops in ears etc
Giving the medication to the wrong dog
Giving dog medicine to a cat (or vice versa)
Using human medication for pets. Sometimes this is accidental – people getting into a muddle over whose medication is whose, and unintentionally giving our dogs our own or our family’s medication.

Dogs not wanting to swallow pills

Dogs can be expert at detecting the unusual, sometimes unpleasant, smell, taste texture etc of pills.
Many will be familiar with our dogs leaving the pills in the bowl if they’re given with food, or hiding, spitting out or even vomiting up the pills. (Apparently cats are even worse)

Giving it incorrectly

It can be even harder trying to give our dogs eye/ear drops, and injections pose particular challenges.
Common mistakes include:
Not shaking liquids before use
Not completing the full course
Giving it with food when it’s meant to be before/after and vice versa
Splitting or crushing tablets incorrectly

Don’t miss the short quiz at the end of this page!
Test your knowledge & maybe learn some more stuff about managing meds at home

STRATEGIES

1. Deciding – if/which vet

Process of initially deciding whether to go to vet could include:

Discuss with vet receptionist or vet nurse if possible
Contacting an online vet or vet nurse. This is sometimes a free option with pet insurance and other pet products
If your dog has a specialist (eg for skin, sight etc), it might be possible to email or ring them. Photos and videos are particularly useful when the vet isn’t directly with the dog.
If you keep notes about your dog’s health, check these. You might keep notes about symptoms noticed (with photos), questions for vets, what vet said etc.
The following options can provide helpful information or it could be useless or even dangerous, so should be used with caution, and ideally checked with the vet or vet nurse:
- Google or ChatGPT
- Some pet shop owners can be very knowledgeable about some issues
- Facebook dog forums – local, breed specific, rescue organisation.

2. Discussing – with vet

a]. Preparation:

Make notes when they occur to you, rather than waiting til just before the appointment, including timings – of symptoms, medication taken, visits to vets about it etc. Some of this they’ll have on their records, some they won’t.
Stuff to bring to vet:
- photos and/or videos to show vet
- list of or their actual current medication
list of info and questions eg:
- Symptoms, when you first noticed them, if they’ve changed etc.
- Concerns about the symptoms, possible diagnosis/prognosis, treatment etc
- What you’ve tried
- What do they think is wrong?
- Implications – how bad, how long might it last
- Treatment choices, pros and cons of each
- Medication – buying online usually much cheaper than getting from vet
- Potential costs

NHS has useful list of questions to ask your doctor, which apply equally to visiting the vet - click here

b]. When with vet:

Go through list of how your dog has been and your questions
Show photos/videos
Make a record of what the vet says eg:
- Write via your phone or with pen and paper
- Ask vet’s permission to do a voice or video recording
- The vet could record the info onto your phone
- Your vet may be able to print out a written summary or treatment plan, which could include recommendations of what to read, watch etc to understand situation better
If medication is non-urgent, it's usually cheaper to buy online, even if you have to pay for a vet prescription

3. Delivering – getting hold of medication

If it’s not urgent, it’s often much cheaper to buy the dogs’ medication online.

If it’s not urgent, it’s usually cheaper to buy the dogs’ medication online. Your vet practice will tell you how to do this – eg if you should get a prescription from them first then order online, or buy online and then email the order number and details to the vets who will send the prescription to the online company.
Pet Drugs Online is a very clear website, with excellent prices and very helpful customer services

Avoid the panic of running out of medication! Here are some ideas people use to reorder in good time

Visual Reminders

Keep the medication box in a consistent place and check when the final strip or bottle etc is half-used — that’s the reorder cue.
Some people use a sticky note or write the “reorder date” directly on the box when they collect it.

Pill Organisers (Dosette Boxes)

Make it easy to see how many days’ tablets remain

Digital Systems
Smartphone Calendar or Reminder Apps

Set recurring alerts (e.g. “Reorder heart medication every 26 days”).
Can link to smartwatches or voice assistants (eg Siri, Alexa, Google).

Avoid the panic of running out of medication! Here are some ideas people use to reorder in good time

4. Doing – planning and giving the medication

a]. Organising

Sorting out the space, for storage and giving the medication. This will depend on loads of things, such as:

How much space you’ve got available and where·
Where you give the dogs their food, medication etc·
Who else uses that space (eg kids, people with cognitive impairments) and
how safe it is to leave it easily accessible

There are all sorts of containers to keep the medication in, including specific medication ones (some with locks), or ones with different sized compartments for crafts, stationery, toiletries, kitchen, snacks etc. It’s handy to have one that will take occasional medication in different formats – eg pills, liquid in bottles, tubes etc.

b]. Keeping a record

Spreadsheet:

I find a spreadsheet essential to show me what needs giving when, and that I've given it (to the right dog at the right time, right dose etc!)

Downloading or buying medication log/calendar/schedule/tracker eg this one from Etsy:

Pill boxes for each day of the week:

Pill boxes for each day of the week, with separate compartments for morning/afternoon. Obviously only works for pills! A lot of my dogs’ medication is liquid – eye drops etc

c]. Understanding the medication – using the medication info leaflet

In addition to the information and advice given by the vet, there are valuable details in the information leaflet which is in new boxes of medication. (Sometimes the medication is dispensed without the box or leaflet but you can ask the receptionist for this information, which is also available online at the medication website.) It’s very hard remembering everything the vet says, and even if you take notes they might not cover all the details, so it’s important to hang onto the leaflet and consult it if you’re unclear about something to do with the medication.

d]. Reminders, alerts, etc.

I. Medication products:

There are all sorts of products (intended for humans taking their own medication) which could also be helpful for reminding us when to give our pets (which) medication. A Google search comes up with lots, for example these, some of which include pill containers and others which don’t, eg:

II. Alarms:

Traditional alarm clocks
Alarms on phones, watches, ovens. (I’ve got such a bad memory that I often use the label option on my iPhone alarm to remind me what the reminder is for!)
Alarms on smart speakers
Voice assistants on smart speakers (eg Amazon’s Alexa)

III. Apps for smartphones:

Reminder apps (not specific to medication) eg Just Reminder with Alarm (Android)

Medication apps which include alarms eg Medisafe, which brilliantly includes option for giving medication to pets. You can list the medication(s) and state the dosage, format (pills, drops etc), frequency, timing. You can also set treatment duration, get refill reminders and add instructions eg take with food.

IV. Other memory joggers:

Building it into a routine (as lots of people do with their own medication) eg co-ordinating it with breakfast, teeth-cleaning and other daily occurrences
Write on medication label (on bottle, ointment box etc) – eg WITH FOOD
Post-it notes

e]. Giving the medication

Concentrating! Most mistakes I make (wrong dog/dose etc, dropping pill under fridge etc) are because I’m not concentrating.
Consistency – eg I always put Skippy’s bowl on the right on the counter, (because she has medication added to her food), Booboo’s on the left.
Have dogs in different rooms, eg to prevent one tucking into another’s food which has their medication in it.
Bowls with dogs’ names and photos on them.

f]. Types of medication

Pills:

If it’s particularly difficult to give your dogs their pills, some medications such as antibiotics & skin treatments are available by long acting injection – it’s worth asking the vet if it's appropriate. They are usually more expensive than pills but guarantee the medication is given correctly and much less stressful for the dog and their human.
Can be best to prepare the medication out of sight, especially with very bright dogs.
Similarly, it’s worth washing your hands after touching pills, so they don’t pick up the smell with their super-power schnozz. (And some medication, eg some steroids, are meant to be handled wearing disposable gloves).
Disguising the look and/or taste is often vital. Particular favourites for disguising pills for dogs include hard cheese, soft cheese, ham, pate, sausages, chicken, peanut butter. The pill sandwich technique works well: give treat, then pill hidden in treat, then another treat.
Big pills can be made smaller using a pill splitter, or very dispersible by crushing them, with a pill crusher or just in a bag with the back of a spoon etc. The risk is that this can make them taste bad (because the contents aren’t covered by outer coating) so it might then need to be mixed into soft cheese etc or sprinkled over their food.
If the medication is in the food, you could use a ‘meal topper’ eg shredded or tiny training treats, or grated cheese, chicken etc
Perhaps the most effective pill taking method, if you and your dog can manage it, is to put the pill directly into their mouths, using a special technique. You have to gently open their mouth, get the pill to the back of their mouth and stroke their throat so they’ve definitely swallowed it. A vet shows how to do this in this video, and recommends dipping the pill in something tasty before putting it at the back of their tongue.
If you’re really struggling to get your dog to take their pills, variations of putting the pill directly into the back of their mouth include reducing the number of times you need to do this by crushing them and putting them in an empty gelatin capsule. Vets can advise about the right size of capsule to buy (00 is the largest) as well, again, as technique – eg using a syringe to whoosh some water into their mouth after putting in the capsule to help it to be swallowed.
Some dogs are receptive to you enthusiastically pretending or actually eating some human food and then giving the medication hidden in another bit of it. (Essential to concentrate for this one, so you don’t accidentally take the dog’s medication!)
Making a game of it can sometimes work – eg throwing bits of sausage around the floor for the dog to find, and then having one of the pieces with a pill hidden in it.
Some creative ideas to help with pill-giving can be found here

Liquid medication:

Always shaking liquid medication so that it becomes an automatic habit with these.

Eye-drops:

If you dog takes multiple eye-drops, your vet can tell you which order to put the drops in (eg liquid drops before ointment).
Usually there needs to be a gap of a few minutes between putting in different eye-drops. Again the vet will advise.
Liquid drops go in middle of eye, ointment onto bottom ‘ridge’. The dog’s eye should be opened and closed a couple of times after each drop/ointment. Helpful video by PDSA.

Ear drops:

Particularly if you are giving the ear drops without a second person, these might help:
- dog lying down, on their bed. If they are standing/sitting on the sofa etc, they might try to run off, and is also at a more difficult angle to get to their ear canal.
- before starting, I say “ears then treats” and as soon as the cleaner/drops are in, they get yummy treats
- keeping their hair cut short around the opening of their ear so there’s less of a palaver getting the nozzle in
With some drops etc, the nozzle needs to be inserted in the ear canal (I think these are usually the ones with long nozzles), whereas with others (in bottles with short tip), the drops are squeezed into the entrance to the canal. This is explained in this video which also has other info about giving ear drops.
After the drop goes in, you need to massage their ear canal

Ointment, medicated skin cleaner, etc:

Usually, applying ointment etc on dogs’ paws or elsewhere other than eyes is straightforward. The important thing is that they don’t lick it off (doubly problematic because it’s removed and could also be toxic for them), rub it off (on furniture etc), another of your dogs doesn’t lick it etc.
Ointment etc can often be part of a recovery package of treatment, and the dreaded ‘cone of shame’ (Elizabeth collar or nicer, softer versions) may be necessary to protect the wound and/or stop medication being licked off. Alternatives to cones include clothing – eg mini-socks, medical/recovery shirt, adapted t-shirt, or even baby gro! BooBoo managed to lick underneath the edge of her recovery suit so I added a doggy nappy to protect the wound. The photo below shows her rocking the suit/nappy combo.
Some medicated cleaner (eg for paws) has to stay on for a few minutes before being washed off. If possible, do this in a room where there’s no soft furniture or rugs for the dog to jump on, rub against etc so that the cleaner remains on the skin. I set a timer so that we both know when the time is up and follow this with treats.
It can be good to prevent licking ointment off by distracting the dog – eg timing their meals/walks/games immediately after the ointment etc is applied.

Here's a video of some of the ways I manage Skippy and BooBoo's multiple medications.

5. Debugging - trouble-shooting

When things are going badly (eg you can’t get the dogs to take their medication or can’t get the ear drops in etc), or for some other reason you want to stop giving the medication. it’s similar to deciding whether/when to see vet:

Discuss with vet receptionist or nurse
Ring vet nurse, especially if it’s a free option with your dog insurance
Email their specialist or perhaps ring them
Check health updates docs if you keep these for your dog.
With caution, consult Google, pet forums etc.

6. Disposing – dealing with left over medication

Left over medication (including during that heart-breaking time when a beloved dog has died), has to go to the vets, or to a charity set up to take donated pet medication. Worldwide Veterinary Service distribute all sorts of medical supplies around the world and Vets in the Community support homeless people in the UK. We’re not supposed to keep and use any medication which another of our dogs also takes.

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