There are a lot of ways that we get pretty creative here. Many of you who are clients know that we love peanut butter and spray cheese. It's fabulous for getting pills in, and Buddy agrees. With many dogs, what we'll do is either hide it in a pill pocket—a little bit of peanut butter or a little bit of spray cheese. Unfortunately, some sneaky little dogs are very in tune and know that you're hiding stuff in pills or the pill pockets. Those little dogs, what we'll have to do, Buddy will be our little example here. He's like, "Oh no." What we will do as my poor Buddy dog is going to show us, is we're going to open their mouth, and we're going to pop that pill right down there, just like that. He's very embarrassed now. But there are a lot of different ways to get pills in their mouths. If you have any worries or any trouble, and it's just not working out in your household, certainly give us a call, and we can teach you some other neat little tricks that we have in getting medications in pets because it can be a chore sometimes.

There are several out there, and I would recommend talking with your vet to see if they're appropriate. It's more of a case by case, and again, we want to determine what's safe.

We calculate the dose, usually by body weight, and then we figure out how long the pet needs it. Is it more of an acute injury or more of a chronic, old-age type of deal where we're treating some osteoarthritis or something like that? Your veterinarian will calculate that dose based on those factors.

There are lots of NSAIDs out there. I would say that we stay away from human medications for dogs. We have a lot of veterinary-appropriate medications, so no Tylenol, no Advil, or ibuprofen. I would speak with your vet, and then we can formulate a good plan and discuss those options. NSAIDs in dogs can be tricky sometimes, and we want to make sure that it's safe for your pet. It might not be a good option for those with liver or kidney disease, but there are other options for those guys if they need it.

So, typically what we're going to have you guys do is consult with your veterinarian because there are many different types of pain medications out there, and not every one medication is going to be appropriate for the things that we're treating. So, you want to sit down with your veterinarian, have a good head-to-tail exam on your little pet there, and then they can identify exactly where the pain is, how severe it is, and what would a good plan treatment-wise moving forward.

Every time you bring your cat to the veterinarian for a well visit, we'll always look at their teeth and we grade them on a score of one to four, so we can follow the progress. One is the best they can be, four is the worst. So we'll always examine them, examine their teeth with an oral exam, and write a comment on there. So we'll follow that along as we go.