Long Story Short

Willie was placed on a course of the antibiotic doxycycline and a monthly dose of immiticide, or heartworm preventive.  He had no arsenic injection and required no period of confinement because this treatment eliminated any complications from dead worms breaking apart and traveling through Willie’s circulatory or respiratory systems.  And while I still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of the existing worms living out life cycles of up to three years, I’ve accepted this as the safest and kindest treatment method available.  Any and all microscopic worms in Willie’s bloodstream – and his G.I. tract – would be killed by the heartworm preventative, and to reassure my friends with dogs – and anyone we might meet at a dog run – Willie’s condition is absolutely not contagious.

This was my first experience delivering medication to Willie, and I wondered how we were going to convince him to eat the small, aspirin-like pills the vet supplied.  “We sell these ‘pill pockets,’” the vet said, gesturing to the display on the wall, “but they’re a little expensive. You could put a little butter on the pill before you offer it to him, or maybe give it to him with cheese or chicken or ice cream – there’s got to be something he likes.”

Ice cream?  Butter?  We hadn’t ever given Willie any “people food,” and didn’t plan to start now.  When I talked with Michele at The Natural Pet Center, she suggested I try “pill paste,” and handed me two small, round containers.  “We’ve got bacon or peanut butter flavor,” she said, opening a lid to show me its contents – a fragrant, brown substance something like modeling clay.  “You just dig out a little bit with your finger or a spoon,” Michele said, “and then wrap it around the pill.  My dog loves it.”

So did Willie.  He quickly came to associate breakfast and dinnertime with these bonus chewy bacon flavored treats and sat without prompting, wriggling and wagging, while awaiting each one.

“I guess if I had to choose between arsenic and bacon,” Richard said one morning while Willie wiggled, waiting, “I’d go for the bacon, too.”