My dog is on two twice-daily supplements that come in a powder form. At home I mix these into a little yogurt and she really enjoys it. I’m out of town for the holidays so she’ll be boarded at the kennel - since I have 3 dogs currently eating 3 different foods (sigh), plus supplements here and there, I try to do the baggie approach for each dog/meal to minimize how annoying of a client I am. The last thing I want to do is ask them to mix supplements for princess pooch.
I never know how to give the powdered supplements. I’ve tried just dumping them in the bag with kibble but I don’t think she eats it. Once I baked little treats with the powder mixed in but I have no idea if the heat process reduced the efficacy of the product. I don’t think a pill pocket would work since it would be pretty gross to chomp into a treat and be greeted by a mouthful of dust!
Any ideas?
Do they have a refrigerator available? Could mix it into something like braunschweiger and re-form them into little balls or cubes and put in a baggie.
Or if they have a freezer you could make little frozen yogurt bites with it mixed in if you have a spare ice cube tray or the like.
How long would it be for? A few days? How about mixing the supplement with some fish oil and then just pouring it onto the food in the baggie? I have done this before for my ponies and pup as well. It works well, is a tad messy, but pretty much all of the supplement is eaten and just pours into the bowl with the food. Just an idea.
Also, how big is this dog and how much powder? If you could put it into empty gelcaps you could put those in pill pockets and then just down the hatch…
Hmm that could work, I hadn’t thought about that before! I have some time to experiment at home to see what fits/ how practical it would be.
ETA: greyhound, about 60 lbs. Each scoop is 2.5 ml so 10 ml total per day.
That’s a good idea but I wonder if the kibble would get soggy or spoil (she’ll be there 9 days). You did get me thinking I could maybe put an oil packet inside the kibble baggie. Two steps for kennel staff but still all in one place.
I used to add oil to grain or kibble up to 7 days and it never did get soggy or spoil (in room temps). But your idea sounds good! 9 days is a long time so I would probably worry about it getting spoiled.
I mean, I suppose make sure that it’s okay for it to be put in a capsule, as far as absorption goes. But was just another thought.
I think I’d buy the single serving yogurts and ask them to mix it up and give to her. They can mix her dry food with it be feed it all at once.
One of my kids works in a boarding facility and they give supplements all the time. Hopefully, yours is flexible like that, but they just do whatever the owner does at home (sometimes with a little more TLC like heating the food if the animal is reluctant to eat). Supplements are less of a pain than that…
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Are the bottles opaque?
I’d be concerned with light effecting efficacy.
Have you asked if they’ll give the supplements like you? I think that’s a pretty normal thing for them to do, at least IME
Good thought to consider. Usually I put all the individual baggies in a big cardboard box, so that might provide enough light protection.
Honestly no, I haven’t even asked! I just assumed that would be too annoying. I’ll call and see if they offer that.
You can buy empty gel capsules on Amazon. I used those for a specific powder my girl hated with a passion.
Edit: sorry - I see someone else suggested this too. I scrolled to quick!
I worked in a 200+ dog kennel as a late aged teen / early adult and it was of our up most importance to make sure dogs got their meds.
If you can put them in capules staff should be able to orally give them. OR if your dog will eat food with it in the staff should do what you tell them to do. We also had a mix of cottage cheese, yogurt, non onion baby food jars, etc to help with giving meds. And I agree with ThatMoody, we did what ever was necessary to dose the dogs their meds.
If it was my dog, I would mix the supplement powders in and then just ask them to add the yogurt. 2 steps and easy.
I would simply call up the boarding facility and ask them how they want you to deal with this question.
I have no doubt they have dealt with this type of thing before and know how they prefer to handle it.
It is never wrong to offer to pay extra for special care.
Or the yogurt in the little tubes? Squirt it out, mix it in and plop that on top of her food?
Be careful with those which might contain xylitol
