Kayla, being the nosey yet loved furbaby she is... has allergies as I mentioned here. With this being said, she takes four Benadryl daily: two in the morning and another two at night, as well as her daily fish oil pill. We buy the Kirkland Signature products from Costco in bulk. The generic Benadryl is the "Allergy Medicine" (600 pills for $4.49) and the fish oil is 1000mg (400 pills for $9.49.) Since Kayla needs two bottles of allergy medicine and one of the fish oil it's $20 before tax/coupon, not too bad for a year supply, right? Getting her to take them is another story entirely!
Kayla HATES pills, with a passion. I can't sneak them into her kibble because she doesn't eat on a consistent basis. Since she's the only dog we have so she can eat when she feel likes it, and has been this way since she came home. We did try putting food down at certain times of day, yeah that didn't work either, she just wouldn't eat for a couple of days at a time. Now I just leave it out. She'll eat when she's ready.
Lucky for us, we found a great blogger that shared her own recipe for homemade pill pockets. This recipe allowed me to both save money as well as make the pockets fresh for Kayla and I know what's in her pockets, and I love this idea. Becky's original recipe is to the left, but we ran out too quickly, so I made four times the batch. At that time I was working on losing weight, so I had a digital scale on the counter at all times and I found that much easier to measure by, so I converted everything to ounces.
IMPORTANT: Make sure your ingredients don't include Xylitol.
It's EXTREMELY toxic to dogs!
It's EXTREMELY toxic to dogs!
- I put the mixing bowl on top of the digital scale and measure out the milk.
- If you're going to add in the applesauce I do it now. It's just one tablespoon.
- Next, I measure the flour in a clean bowl.
- Last I'll do the peanut butter, just because it's sticky and it's harder to get out of the bowl. You can help yourself by using some non-stick spray and coating the bowl before you measure it out.
- Mix together well in either a stand mixer, using a spatula, or even with your hands. You don't want the texture to be too moist, if it's clinging to your hands you need more flour. Add sparingly, because if you overdo it then the pocket will be difficult to cling to itself.
I roll it into a ball between my hands then I use my thumb to flatten it out a bit to make a blanket for the pill. I will roll the sides up over it making sure to pinch it together at the top, or it will try to unravel itself and my dog will eat the pocket but not the pill. She's a smart one I tell you.
After a while, Kayla got bored with her new morning treat (pill pocket) so I looked around the kitchen to see what ingredients we had and decided to add some applesauce. Now depending on the consistency of the applesauce you use, you may need more flour or less, or you could easily reduce the milk, whatever works for you. We use the Buyers Choice Applesauce, which is a WinCo brand (my husband works there! Go WinCo!) but if you don't have one in your local area, I recommend Musselman's too.
This morning Kayla did the chew, chew, spit out the pill. It's time to find a new pill pocket recipe. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.
Our pup eats Taste of the Wild: Pacific Stream if anyone is curious. The vet recommended that she have a fish based kibble because it's less likely they'll have an adverse reaction. Apparently, it's a semi-common thing for dogs to have some type of allergic reaction to beef, chicken, pork; or so I was told. Anything to help manage her allergies is worth it!
DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on, or purchase, one of the product links I may be eligible for a commission. By clicking these links I promise you will never pay more when buying a product through my link. Kayla and I thank you for your support! — LilKaylie