My dog, Dave, is fairly indiscriminate about which foods (and non-foods) he’ll eat, but he has a special fever for peanut butter, even when it’s globbed around a large, chalky allergy pill.
But, as it turns out, a spoonful of peanut butter doesn’t always help the medicine go down. Shelagh McCaffrey, a veterinarian who specializes in hospice and palliative care, cautioned against using peanut butter for some medications, including the antibiotic doxycycline, which is prescribed for respiratory illness or tick-borne disease. Peanut butter is so sticky that it can get caught in the throat, and if a medication like doxycycline gets stuck for a while, it can do harm to the esophagus, she said.
So if you use peanut butter, you should always be sure to follow it up with some food or water to push it down into your dog’s belly. And check the ingredients list before you give any peanut butter to your dog, to make sure it doesn’t contain xylitol. A sugar substitute, xylotol is toxic for dogs, so keep it well away from your pooch. Dave is a big fan of Costco’s Kirkland Signature Organic Peanut Butter, which contains only peanuts and salt.
Dave eagerly eats his allergy pill wrapped in a glob of peanut butter. Katie Anania for NYT/Wirecutter
Of course, peanut butter doesn’t have a monopoly on deliciousness. “When our dogs got older, we conned them into eating pills with cheese,” Abigail said. Depending on your pet’s food sensitivities, you can also hide pills in all sorts of foods, such as spray cheese, cream cheese, turkey, butter, tuna fish, and anchovies. However, some “proteins may not be a good option for pets with food allergies,” said Amy Nichelason, a veterinarian and professor at the University of Wisconsin.
Churu is a purée made with chicken or tuna mixed with tapioca starch (and other ingredients), and many cats find it irresistible. McCaffrey said she’s a fan of using liverwurst for dogs because it’s malleable and has a strong odor. Because dogs especially have a powerful sense of smell, the liverwurst’s odor might mask the presence of the pill, she explained.
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This purée comes in squeezable tubes and a variety of flavors. It has fewer calories than many crunchy cat treats.
If you do mix your pet’s meds into any kind of food, make sure it’s “not their regular food and not in the same location as their regular food,” according to Nichelason, so they don’t develop a food aversion.
And while dogs may have a slightly better reputation for cooperating than cats do, they can be challenging in their own right. Wirecutter writer Evan Dent’s dog, Winnie, has cheeked pills so many times that he’ll “find pills strewn around the house, with no idea what day they were from.” Luckily, Winnie can take a day off from her meds here and there, but that’s not the case for all dogs.
