Peanut Butter Houdini

Now Jason and I are very familiar with Satchel's resistance to taking his medicine. As you may have read in an earlier post, Satchel has A LOT of supplements and two prescription medications. There are just a couple of pills that we consider 'essential' - pills that he must have every day even if he doesn't want to.

Now that phrase, "...even if he doesn't want to" is completely foreign to Luna. How in Thee World could a dog reject anything wrapped in flavorful doughs (crescent roll, pizza, cinnamon roll) or frosting or peanut butter? Luna simply does not understand Satchel's insanity with his medicines. When we say, "It's time for your medicine!" Luna is very excited and starts to drip with drool.

Satchel goes through phases. Sometimes he takes all of his supplements with no issue, other times I have to be very very very very patient and then force him.

The last few weeks have been very stressful at Casa Curtin-Hess. As we were consumed with caring for Koko, we noticed Satchel becoming more and more unstable. I thought he might be feeling the stress in the house and therefore was pacing and panting more and therefore was fatigued and therefore was stumbling more. After saying goodbye to our Sweet Koko, Satchel became completely unable to stand on his own. When I described his behavior and appearance, THANK GOD our vet diagnosed him with Vestibular Syndrome which is totally curable. There are ideas of what causes VS, but nothing is certain, and it often disappears within 3 weeks. It's Bad Doggy Vertigo. Satchel requires Antivert for the severe dizziness and Tramadol for the pain from falling. This means 2 more pills to add to the mix, and of course he's in a 'I don't want those' phase and feels sick to his stomach from the spinning feeling.

We've tried everything from frosting to chicken to poptarts to peanut butter. Satchel is being a real bugger about it all. It's been suggested to us that we just 'pill him' and make him swallow each one. Welllll, complicated Satchel had laryngeal paralysis surgery last year which tied his throat open permanently so to 'pill him' puts him at risk for having pills in his lungs. Not an option.

I find peanut butter to be the most effective right now. I embed the pill in a big hunk and stick it to the roof of his mouth. He can't spit the pills out. He just has to keep licking and swallowing and licking and swallowing, and poof, the pills are swallowed. Or so I thought.

Satchel is so crafty. He reminded me tonight. The weather has his sinuses making him miserable. He has dark circles under his eyes (in part from having sleep trouble) and his nose is dripping. He and Luna get 200mg of Benadryl per day which equals 4 little pink pills 2x/day. I gave him a big dollop of peanut butter with the 4 pills embedded and he quickly flipped 3 of them out! How does he do that!!!!???? His new nickname is Peanut Butter Houdini!!!! I gave him more peanut butter and they went down. Or so I thought.

Jason discovered several minutes later that our crafty Satchel was 'cheeking,' as we like to say, that Fourth Benadryl!!!!

The one on the Left is the 'cheeked' Benadryl.
The one on the Right is an untouched Benadryl for comparison.

I got him to for sure swallow the Tramadol, his heart medicine and the Antivert, but he only got 3 Benadryl tonight.

God blesses Satchel and He blessed us when He gave us Satchel over 12 years ago. Among our sadness and tremendous stress, Satchel finds a way to make us smile and even laugh.