First, the corticosteroid, prednisolone, which is meant to control the inflammation and ease the discomfort. He gets 1 1/2 of them a day, tapering down over 12 days to 1/2.
The second, cephalexin, is an antibiotic. Ten days of that, three pills twice a day.
These are big pills. Granted, he's a big dog, but how to get them into him? Fortunately he will eat anything if it's in a treat, and the greatest treat in the world is cheese. So, these seemed like a no-brainer.
Smaller dog Nipper has a tendency to work the pill out of treats, and eat the treat and leave the pill, but fortunately he will let me shove a pill down his throat without too much grief. Even more fortunately, he has not had to have any pills in a while. Even more fortunately, neither dog has needed any treatments that have to be administered in the buttular area. That's a bridge too far for me.
One further pharmaceutical note: Readers of the Great Lileks's feature on Chain Store Age may have recalled learning this fact about medicine bottles:
As I noted at the time, nowadays Plastainers for human drugs are orange and animal drugs a bright emerald green.
Cheery, huh?
(Now I'm wondering if the modern pill bottle is a Plastainer or some other trademarked name. The original Plastainer had no childproof cap. I can barely keep up with my own business, let alone the varieties of materials science in the prescription drug trade.)
BONUS DOG-RELATED PIC! The local robins made an unprecedented second nest under the deck this year, and Nipper sort of helped:
He often gets brushed outside, leaving fur around, and the white fuzz on the right side looks like some of his. Further, the yellow streak on the left side looks like a piece he has torn off one of his tennis balls. Way to go, Nipper! It's the Circle of Liiiiiiiiife!
We look after a semi-feral "neighborhood cat", along with some other families.
ReplyDeleteWe took him to local vet to get an infected scratch taken care of.
He put up such a fuss that on the way out, vet's assistant gave me a little green plastainer (first time ever using that word!) full of gabapentin pills, with instructions to give two of them to the cat two hours before bringing him in for follow-up checkup.
Hahahahaha, good one Ms. Veterinary Assistant!
Needless to say, he was unsedated for his follow-up.
two words: liver wurst. Never had a dog turn it down or spit a pill out if it was in a nice chunk of liverwurst.
ReplyDeleteWell, Woodstock, at least you tried! Maybe you could sell it to other cats on the street corner.
ReplyDeleteand Ruffin, thanks for the tip -- if the cheese ever loses its potency with our dogs, we have a backup.