The Next Dark Age
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Strange New Product Review – Puppy Edition
So Gibbs is back on antibiotics (don’t ask) and I wanted to find a new way to give him the pills. Yeah, yeah – Pill Pockets. I worry about them because it seems to me that:
- Dogs figure out all of the hidden pill tricks eventually
- Gibbs is smarter than the average dog
- He is on antibiotics more often than I consider normal
- He is 10 months old!
So I am saving the pill pockets for an emergency. Do you want the story or not?
I went into Wags on Willow, the awesome new pet store in Northbrook. On a shelf with some canned food I found this:
All cage-free, hormone-free, gluten-free, blahblah organic. You add warm water and it makes a wet food. So I looked at it and thought that I could add less water and make a meatball out of it for the pills.
So I took the box over to Mary, the proprietor, and asked about it. She said she hadn’t had much customer feedback yet, but thought my idea wasn’t dumb. So we gave it a try. I chose the turkey with vegetables.
While Gibbs was eating his dinner, I opened the box. The herbal smell was pretty strong. It actually smelled like Thanksgiving stuffing, but with an undertone of..sour? acidic? Something I found unpleasant. I scooped out a spoonful and dumped it in a cup with a bit of hot water and stirred. It was kind of like instant oatmeal in that you have to wait a minute for it to thicken. Then I stuffed the pill inside. By that time, Gibbs had finished his dinner, so I gave it to him.
He dropped it on the floor and eyed it suspiciously. Then he took a couple of licks. Then a couple of tiny, tentative, bites. He took such small bites that he bit the pill in half and I was afraid we’d have a real problem, But eventually he finished it.
Day Two: same drill. It was clear that he wanted it, but he still took his time.
Day Three: ate it in three bites.
Day Four: he left his dinner to get his meatball. I made him go back and finish it. Then he ate his meatball in two bites.
Awesome.
This is rather high maintenance for me to do for full meals, and I avoid wet food if I can. Also, I didn’t do any math on the cost of the daily diet, but I imagine it would be expensive. And seriously, I do not like the way it smells. But for making pill-hiding meatballs, I am calling it a success. Here is a link to the manufacturer’s website. From the reviews, it appears to be a hit with the people that want to feed their dogs a raw diet. I am not that hard-core.
And now, you may have a gratuitous Gibbs pic:
He brings all of his toys to my bed now. I count six in this shot.
The Next Dark Age 