My aggressive dog with heart/kidney failure won't eat or take meds?

Question

Hi. My Chihuahua is in heart failure and has been for almost 5 years. It's been managed well with meds. However, the meds have now caused kidney failure. His appetite has very much decreased and now he is refusing his hear meds. He will take food if it's something he really likes, but is now very suspicious of all food and will spit the pills out. I can't get them in his mouth another way because he is very fear aggressive. I've tried every food/treat I can think of. What can I do? Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Male | neutered | 13 years and 11 months old | 5.4 lbs

Dr. Heidi DVM, CVA, CCRT, CVTP, CVSMT, CVCH · Accepted Answer

I'm so sorry to hear that you are having this problem with Memi. Balancing heart and kidney failure can be a challenge, so it will certainly be important to find a way to keep Memi eating and taking his medication. My best suggestion is to look into a compounding pharmacy. I am unsure of which ones are available in Canada, but we commonly use a company in the US that can compound medications into liquid or treats instead of pills. That tends to work very well for cats or picky dogs. I would recommend talking to your vet about finding a compounding pharmacy to make Memi's medication into a form that is easier to get into him. In the meantime, the best trick I have found for getting pills into picky dogs is wrapping them in a little Braunschweiger or liver pate. It is stinky enough to hide the flavor of almost any pill. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

My aggressive dog with heart/kidney failure won't eat or take meds?

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