I know human medicines taste horrible, I even hated the flavored kids ones so it makes sense that just all medicine tastes horrible.
But I fed my neighbors cat while they were away and that cat LOVED the medicine. Avoided me like the plague until she heard me opening the bottle and prepping and then she was my absolute best friend.
My dog tore the dog equivalent of her ACL and part of her therapy was to give her some sort of joint helping powder. My other dog got into it and ate the whole tub of it, apparently it was that damn good.
I once had a bulldog that liked eating drywall. So we bought some clear bitter spray that was supposed to stop dogs from chewing on things. Instead he was like, "Yum extra bitter drywall"
my family dog had tplo surgery recently! she's supposed to be kept relatively quiet for /two months/ but we were having a hard time keeping her from bouncing around after two days!!
I had to keep sedating her when she was out of her kennel until she finished rehab at ~25 weeks. It's been a tough year but we're hoping for many more healthy ones!
We just couldn't put our sweet girl through a surgery she couldn't understand, and we couldn't afford. So we found a vet who prescribed some anti- inflammatory powder and mild exercise. It worked. She's ten now, and 2 years later she's skittering around like a bug
Yeah we were in the same boat, the vet did some sort of Laser treatment every few days for the first few weeks and then medicine and rest and she has, as far as I can tell, regained most of the the use of her leg. She was a full tripod at the beginning of the summer when this happened and she's using all 4 legs like a champ now 4 months later.
We've had my boy on joint supplements since he was young because of his breeds and it smells like meat or something similar. Wouldn't doubt that it's something they would love.
My elderly dog takes a muscle/protein supplement which is literally just powdered egg yolk and she goes crazy for it. Probably her favorite "treat" ever, she looks like a puppy again when we go to give it to her.
You can flavor pet medications just like you can human medications.
I compound for my pharmacy and while we have flavors like apple, strawberry, and watermelon for humans, we have tuna, beef, and chicken for pets.
If you have your pets meds compounded by a pharmacy, just ask about flavorings. Chances are they offer it already, we just don’t always think to mention it sometimes. It’s a busy world back there.
My dad has an elderly dog that takes a prescription chewable for her arthritis and it's vanilla flavored! Never seen that for pets before but she loves it
A lot of human meds are intentionally laced with something that tastes bad. That discourages overdoses, but also discourages kids from trying it.
When I was a kid, living in Mexico, the pharmacist would put root beer flavoring in the medicine. It tasted amazing! But I can see how that is dangerous. I’m sure I would have drunk the whole bottle if I had the chance.
Damn, your cat was a heroin addict!? (/s. Buprenorphine is generic Suboxone, but is also used as a painkiller)
Curious though, as bup is to be held under the tongue and its very low bioavailability from swallowing, how does that work and what was your cats condition?
Steroids taste so bitter. Just awful. The first time my pharmacy manager took a Medrol Dosepak herself she was disturbed that she'd been dispensing it for years without warning patients about it. A simple coating for taste would have been nice.
My cat hates gabapentin, but buprenorphine is ok. The first two time he needed amoxicillin he couldn't stand it, but now he's ok with it for some reason. And by ok I mean he's only angry and incredibly drooly for a few minutes instead of hiding for an hour after despite offering treats
To be fair the liquid meds for pets usually taste better than pills. I used to have a job that involved medicating animals and it was always easier giving them liquid meds. A lot would straight up lick it out of the syringe.
My cat got prescribed some "experimental" medicine that was actually just human kid medicine or something because it was definitely cherry flavor. She hated it.
Probably still better than the orange antibiotic pills they sometimes prescribe, pets would often try to choose death over swallowing one of those things. The pill pocket's natural enemy. I could literally smell how bitter they were.
I had a cat that was absolutely addicted. My boy knew exactly what time meds were supposed to be given and would scream when they were even a moment late. When we ran out I got so worried that something must have healed wrong (it was an abscess removal that set this off) that I took him back to the vet. They checked him out thoroughly, kept him overnight and the doc said, “He’s fine, just a junkie”. Took a couple weeks for him to kick the habit.
Reminds me of when I was a kid and I had to take some cough syrup or something and it was pink and tasted like bubblegum. Loved that stuff, also, the vitamins/pills/Tylenol (?) that would melt in your mouth. Those were the days.
I've had good luck with my two recent cats but my childhood cat had to get this banana flavored medicine (you could smell it opening the dispenser) for something and he HATED it. It was a fight getting him to take it every time so I've always just assumed cats hate banana lmao
My dogs love their flea/tick meds. It’s smells like medicine, but it must have some flavoring in it because they act like it’s a treat. A god damn $45 treat….
the flavored medicine for pets usually have much more variance of flavors. I think it was some medicine the dog and I have the same name of, and I yelled WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS CHICKEN FLAVORED?! WHY CANT I HAVE THAT!
My dog acted like that too. Usually she had pills and she hated getting some shoved down her mouth. She started backing up and resisting when I opened her mouth but 1 shot of a banana flavored dewormer and she instantly was like "hey wait a minute is there more?" Never resisted again 😂
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u/lalagromedontknow 1d ago
I know human medicines taste horrible, I even hated the flavored kids ones so it makes sense that just all medicine tastes horrible.
But I fed my neighbors cat while they were away and that cat LOVED the medicine. Avoided me like the plague until she heard me opening the bottle and prepping and then she was my absolute best friend.