Here's a new (or new-to-me) product I spotted in my grocery's pet food aisle recently: the Omega Paw Portion Pacer. It is a stainless steel ball designed to help dogs slow down their eating when it is included in a bowl of food. Curious, I checked out the price.....$9.99. Then I remembered that a friend of mine had mentioned using a medium-sized rock, scrubbed and sanitized, in her dog's food bowl. Both would achieve the same result: a dog that has to work around the object taking up space in the food bowl. For dogs and breeds who 'wolf' their food, and especially those prone to bloat, this can be very useful. When given a choice, I'm all for the free item myself! How 'bout you?
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A pet store shopper asked me today, 'What can I use to wrap a pill that is less expensive than Pill Pockets?' We explored a variety of moist packaged treats, and then I said, 'A lot of people tell me they use pieces of processed cheese--the kind we use to make grilled cheese sandwiches.' Of course, that works best for pets that like cheese!
If your pet likes a different type of treat or food, you can improvise a pill wrapper to suit his taste. My cat Tiny, who's not so tiny now, used to take a tiny dose of amitryptilene for anxiety and allergies. It worked great for her, but tasted terrible, so it was hard to get 'down the hatch.' I thought about the foods she likes, and carrots were at the top of the list. (Alert! Please don't yell at me for the next part of this post....spending a little money saved a LOT of time, which is also worth saving!) So, I made a type of vegetable 'leather' out of strained baby food carrots dabbed onto wax paper in portions about 1/4 inch across. In a sunny windowsill the carrots dried into a tiny flexible sheet. These could be peeled off the paper and wrapped around her daily pill fragment, which she ate in her moist food without noticing it. I'd love to know what you use to disguise the medicines our pets must take.... |