He definately has giardia - Page 2

I'll have to remember the liverwurst trick.  Most of the time we just coat the pill with butter and shove it down as far as we can.

Allaboutthedawgs,
When I give pills I back the dog up to a wall so he cannot retreat, then I straddle over him at about his withers. Then I grab him under the neck area with my left hand, then I push my hand into his mouth with the right hand and push it back into his mouth as far back as I can. Then I close his mouth with my left hand by pushing up on the under side of his muzzel. With my right hand I rub his neck up and down until I see his tongue pop out 2 or 3 times, this shows me he has gone through the swallowing process. 
Some keys to this working is to  reduce the animals ability to squirm out of your control, thus the need to straddel him and have your crotch tight against his withers with your legs bracing him from each side. Also the wall to prevent retreat. When you do the pill injestion part keep his head firmly in place against your lower stomach area. I also coat the pills to make the process easier.
You must have control of your dog ! This process is important in establishing with the dog that their are times that you will have to be in complete control. If for no other reason I want them to understand that their are times that they will need to trust me. The butter also rewards them for the process that I just put them through as most dogs like the taste of butter.
When it comes to medicine or other critical areas of life, I take control, I do not believe in letting the dog dictate to me what he will or will not do. I recomend you try this with just butter and no pill for awhile. It is important that you are able to do this because your dog may not be able to eat even with the liver etc. Don't short yourself out by taking the less resistive ways. Trust me this gets easy after awhile.

Allaboutthedawgs,
You may know that Giardia can be difficult to get rid of. There are a number of good antibiotics that vets will use, sometimes in combinations, but it is also important to keep their living quarters clean and free of these buggers. Quad- Amonia is the best their is, but hard to find. There are a number of issues to be aware of , but rather then right a long list of them I would encourage you to post again if you are having trouble getting rid of them. Vets often don't deal with it often enough to know the best overall cource of treatment, so it is good to do your own research as well. If you already know all of the above, please excuse me, I am just accutely aware of the battle this can be.

Good ole' Flagyll--it is not a chewable....l had never thought about liverwhurst   but i use peanut butter sometimes or keep a can of  Nuto Max chicken for just this....or salmon  in a can ,,or tuna fish  

I think liverwhurst is the best idea...I like it once in a while on bread with lettuce and miracle whip.....only once in a while...

Do  you have a creek or pond on your property....or well water straight out of well not filtered..? or did this pup come with it..I missed how this got started...?

Hey Dawgs,

Well, and this is in approach to humans, I have a certain med, Welbutrin XL, which CANNOT be chewed because it has a delayed release formula, that works throughout the day...If it disolved all at once, it'd wear off mighty fast...I wonder if this is kind of like an extended release formula too??? Just something to think about.

Yes, some medications have to be taken whole. And I've never yet had a dog or a cat I couldn't pill with the stick it down the throat techique. If you do it really fast, then it's usually done before a cat can scratch you. Catch them when they're sleepy, and it will be over before they fully wake up!

I've never had a dog that's as easy to pill as Ranger. I was giving him worm medicine, 5 tablets wrapped up in a deboned chicken thigh. One of them fell on the floor as he was chewing it. As soon as the thigh had been swallowed, he sniffed the pill, then scarfed that down, too!! And this is the dog that when given one lone piece of cooked broccolli in his dog food, ate every last crumb of his food, and left the broccolli sitting there!

Hey dawgs did you try the liverwurst?

Hey guys. Thanks for the backup. Well, I have been able to get it down him but it wasn't pretty! I didn't have liverwurst but I squished it in bologna and made a ball. Tried throwing a few "dummy" balls to him first.Then the one with the pill. Little bastard sucked off the bologna and spit out the pill. :) So, I said no more screwing around and shoved it to the bottom of throat and like Olskool said, it was like trying to feed a crawdad. Luckily he backed up to a wall and the light went on for me. Now we are to the point where I get it down him but he gnaws my hands pretty good trying to push it out.

I'm with you Olskool. Sometimes it's not comical for him to be a handful. And he does need to know that I decide when that time is. Also, I have a cursory understanding that it's hard to get rid of but would like more info for sure if you have the time to share it. Much appreciated. Can you email me allaboutthedawgs@msn.com if you have a moment?

YellowRose I don't know if he came with it. If it has a sort of delayed onset he may have but he hasn't had the pistachio soft serve poops until very recently.  As far as ponds, etc. on the property-boy, don't I wish! No we're in the desert-dirt, cactus and dirt! But, we are in monsoon season and it rains almost every day and then there is standing water for a couple hours. Could there be giardia in the soil that is maybe floated out with water?  Vet says most dogs here get it from bird droppings. Or rabbit. We are in training for SAR and lord knows he can't pass a turd of any sort without scooping it up. Maybe I could set him up by putting rabbit crap with something truly gross on it so he wuold have an aversion to it? Isn't that what they do to keep a dog from eating food thrown over a fence?

Deeswolf-yeah, we saw that! my husband freaked. He thought Vandal was having a reaction to the medicine. He looked like he ate an alka-seltzer!

Thanks again all,

Dawgs

LOL! He sounds like a pup who is a pain taking his meds! Bologna and hotdogs have never worked for me. I really didn't think liverwurst would either but its only a couple of bucks a package so I tried it. It really did work. Give it a try, the stuff sticks like a paste around the pill. If he spits it out you can just pick it up and go back to craming it down his throat! That works too, just a pain. I find if its easier its better, old age...dam I gotta quit saying that!

Pilling is no fun.  With my last guy for the last couple years of his life he had to have 6 pills 2 X a day.  He was very difficult to pill even before that.  All the usual tricks didn't work, he absoloutly clamped his jaws shut - no amount of sticking my finger in between, push on the tongue nothing worked & of course he sucked any kind of food off & spit out the pill.  I found that if I showed him the treat first he didn't fight the pilling.