How To Administer Herbal Remedies To Your Dog Or Cat

We have listed some of our tips on giving herbal remedies or supplements to your dog or cat.

The easiest way to give herbs or supplements to your pets is by mixing them into your dog or cats food. However, some cats or fussy dogs can smell anything added to their food and will refuse to eat it.

So if you need to administer remedies regularly, this can become very distressing for both the animal and yourself. Once they see you with the bottle, they run a mile and hide!

If your animal is unwell or super fussy, then it’s best not to mix anything into their meal as it may turn them off eating. Instead you can try mixing with a small amount of something strong smelling such as sardines or pink salmon and offering this separate to their meal. This often works best for cats.

When administering Liquid Herbal Extracts:

If syringing liquids, it is important to avoid squirting down the throat as you may get liquid into their windpipe so always syringe gently into the side of their mouth slowly.

Herbal extracts should always be diluted before giving orally (no need to dilute if using a pill pocket or mixing with food). Dilute with a little water or better still use chicken, meat or fish broth or apple sauce to help hide the taste.

If using herbal liquid extracts for cats, puppies or fussy dogs we recommend removing the alcohol by adding the drops to a tablespoon of boiling water and allow to cool before administering dose.

Drops may be placed into an empty capsule before dosing to help hide the taste, especially for bitter or strong-tasting herbs.

Or better still place drops into a pill pocket and seal top before feeding.

When administering Tablets or Capsules:

Capsules may be given whole or opened and mixed with food.

Tablets can be given whole or crushed with the back of a spoon and mixed with food.

Add a little coconut oil or butter to capsule or tablet before dosing whole to help it go down. Ideally feed straight after to ensure it reaches their stomach quickly.

One of our most popular tips on giving herbal remedies to your dog or cat is to make pill pockets.

Pill pockets are an easy way to dose your pets without fuss. Most of the commercial varieties contain gluten and sugars so we have listed some easy suggestions on making healthy pill pockets as required.

You can make up a small batch and store in the fridge for a few days to use as required.

To make Pill Pockets:

Blend the ingredients together well and roll into small balls. Make a hole in the middle using a straw or chopstick. The size of the balls will depend on the size of your dog and the pill or capsule you are using.

Place the tablet, powder, capsule or liquid drops into the pill pocket and squeeze the top over to seal then feed to your dog.

Almond pill pockets
1/3 cup almond butter or organic peanut butter
1 Tablespoon almond flour

Chicken & Salmon pill pockets
2 Tablespoons chicken mince
1 Tablespoon mashed pink salmon in water
1 teaspoon quick oats or oat flour to bind
Mix all ingredients together well, roll into balls and make a hole with chopstick and bake in moderate over 180C for 20 mins.

Nutty pill pockets
1 Tablespoon organic peanut butter or almond butter
2 Tablespoons brown rice flour, almond or coconut flour
1 Tablespoon water or non-dairy milk (rice, almond or oat milk)

Coconut pill pockets
¼ cup coconut flour
1 Tablespoon coconut oil (liquid)

Pumpkin/Apple pie pill pockets
Mashed pumpkin or stewed apple
1 teaspoon gelatin powder

Fishy pill pockets
Pink salmon or sardines mashed
Enough rice flour, almond flour or oatbran to bind

Fruity pill pockets
Some dogs love fruit so you can also try placing pill in a chunk of apple or banana

Try some of the above or get creative depending on what your dog/cat likes!