Vaporware: Tubular Pet Pill

Every pet owner knows that giving medicine in the form of pills can be a traumatic event. Larger animals, like big dogs, can be tricked into eating the pills by embedding them in some favorite soft food like a bit of cheese. Smaller animals, like cats, typically do not eat food much larger than the size of the pill, so the embedding trick is much less effective.

There are two related parts to this concept.

1. The first is to reduce the filler, normally starch, content in pills designed for pets so they are physically smaller and shaped more like a rod.
2. The second is to encourage pet treat makers to provide foods shaped in such a way, like a tube, that a small pill could be put inside without the pet noticing.

With these two changes, pilling a small pet would be as simple as slipping a pill rod into a treat and letting the pet enjoy something special. No more trauma.

The alternative is to allow the active ingredient of each drug to be injected into flavored pellets at the pharmacy. This would prevent any problems with broken or lost rods, but would also prevent the ability to switch the treat if the pet suddenly associated the old flavor with the drug.