Quick facts
- Take the stress out of giving medications
- Tuck the pill or capsule into the built in pocket and your dog gets medication along with a tasty flavored treat
- Designed by veterinarians to be a nutritionally balanced treat
- Enriched with vitamin C and E for boosting immune systems
- The #1 vet-recommended choice for giving pills
Top reviews
Check the ingredients
Looking for a cheaper alternative, these seem great, but the ingredients are not conducive for optimal health, especially a dog in our situation that has cancer.
wheat flour, corn syrup, wheat gluten, vegetable oil should not be on the consumption list for a sick dog, let alone one for cancer. Sadly, my search goes on.
Chicken, glycerin, wheat flour, natural flavors, dried corn syrup, corn flour, wheat gluten, chicken liver meal, vegetable oil, lecithin, brewer’s dried yeast, potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness), methylcellulose, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), mixed tocopherols, vitamin E supplement.
terrible ingredients
Complete failure with my dog
Obviously Pill Pockets work very good for most people, but not for me and my dog.
Veterinary approved…
Since then, my life has changed… thanks to Pill Pockets. I regret not inventing these, as it was one of those “duh” products that came out, making you wish you had the money-making patent. Whoever owns a dog that needs to be pilled chronically, pay heed. The Greenies Pill Pockets are awesome… that is, for dogs, at least.
My dog recently got put on a bunch of medications, and he’s super picky (although less so, since getting put on steroids!). Being that he needs a total of 5 medications a day, I found Pill Pockets to be a true life saver, as they improve both my dog’s and my quality of life. These little tasty, greasy, soft, malleable pockets are designed so that you can stick the pill (or multiple pills) in the center, and seal them into a hidden ball of “treat.” It’s like playing with palatable play-dough. Drop it in the food, and voila, it “makes pills a treat to give!”
The pros: Pill Pockets are easy, convenient, tasty, and come in multiple flavors (Dog: beef and chicken; Cat: salmon and chicken. It also comes in a hypoallergenic flavor – duck and pea – for both species with food allergies). More importantly, they are palatable – dogs seem to love them. Another pro is that they come in multiple sizes, and I’m able to stuff 5 pills – yes all 5 pills – into the larger “capsule” dog Pill Pockets.
The cons: One of my two cats won’t touch Pill Pockets. This is, of course, the cat who actually needs to take medication. He also won’t touch Feline Heartgard monthly chewable pills either, so I suspect he doesn’t like moist treats. So, try at your own risk, particularly if you have a finicky cat. The other con is that Pill Pockets are a bit greasy – they have a high vegetable oil content. As ingredients are listed in order of use, vegetable oil is #4 for the dog pill pockets. While this doesn’t affect the health of your pet, a hand-washing is a MUST after playing with Pill Pockets (which you should always do when handling your pet’s meds, anyway). That said, I know that the vegetable oil is needed to keep the Pill Pockets malleable (easy to fold and maneuver). The other con – cost. They’re not cheap, and if your pet is on loads of meds, it can certainly add up. Try jamming 5 pills in one capsule to help. But anything for Fido, right?!
Dr. Justine Lee, DVM, DACVECC
Author of “It’s a Dog’s Life… but It’s Your Carpet” and “It’s a Cat’s World… You Just Live In It”
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BEWARE: terrible flavor of usually good product line
I opened the package, and they smelled exactly like (forgive the imagery) diarrhea. And strongly. I thought someone had had an accident until I realized where it was coming from.
I thought maybe it was a flavor dogs like. You never know. Some cheese smells bad too. My poor dog spit it out and gagged when I fed it to him.
This is either a very misguided flavor attempt, or the completely sealed package somehow went rotten (not a good sign), or they filled it with rotten product at the packaging stage (also not reassuring).
Sickening, horrible, unfit to be put in the trash. Had to flush it.
OK product but unnecessary…
PILL POCKETS ALL BROKEN UP
Cheap Hotdogs work better
Giving pills to dog
For more economical choice, check out Pill Pockets for CATS
Andie has been taking pills for hypothyroidism for the past 9 years. Her pills are TINY. Wrapping them in meat or cheese never worked; she simply ate around the pill or spit it out. For years the only way I could get Andie to take pills was to, literally, shove them down her throat. (My hands are small enough and her mouth is big enough for me to do this. Thankfully she’s a very trusting dog!)
Then one day I was at the vet and noticed packages of something called “Pill Pockets”. They had two kinds — one for dogs and one for cats. Both came in flavors that Andie would like, but the dog Pill Pockets came in different sizes (small and large) while the cat Pill Pockets only came in one size (small).
I looked at each package very carefully and noticed that the packages for cats had 45 Pill Pockets, while the packages for small dogs only had 35 Pill Pockets. And yet, the packages for small dogs cost MORE than the packages for cats — huh? (On Amazon.com they are the same price, but the quantities are different.) So I looked at Andie’s tiny thyroid pills, then looked at the Pill Pocket pictures on the packages and decided, “I might as well save myself a buck and buy the kitty Pill Pockets. What the hey, Andie won’t know she’s eating something intended for cats!”
I’ve been happy with that decision ever since.
I’ve bought both the salmon- and chicken-flavored Pill Pockets FOR CATS and Andie likes them both. The pockets are the perfect size, just big enough for her thyroid pills, and to date she has gulped down every one, then begged for another! And I like the fact that I get 10 more in each package than I would if I bought the Pill Pockets “for dogs”.
Pill Pockets are GREAT product, for cats OR dogs. I wish I had discovered them sooner! While I have never used the Pill Pockets for Dogs, I am 100% confident that they are excellent. That’s why I’m giving this product 5 stars. If Andie’s pills were bigger I would get the Pill Pockets for Dogs, and I know she would like them just as much. For the time being, though, I will stick with the smaller Pill Pockets for Cats, since they last a few days longer.
So, this review is to pass along an idea that perhaps some dog owners had not considered: If your dog takes tiny pills like Andie does, go with the more economical choice and get Pill Pockets for Cats. Your dog will never know the difference!
The 28th Five Star Review
As of this moment, 100% of the people reviewing the Greenies PILL POCKETS have given them a five-star rating, and I’m enthusiastically joining the crowd!
If you’re a dog owner, you’ve almost certainly had to, at some point, give your dog a pill that he or she was reluctant to take. The usual remedy until now, (as suggested by our vet) was to simply shove the thing down the poor dog’s throat, and then rub their neck to help the pill go down.
Recently, one of our dogs –a large yellow lab named Chip– was suffering from untreatable throat cancer, but he still needed to take a number of pills to make his final days a little more comfortable. The vet specifically mentioned AVOIDING the “shove and rub” technique as it would be very painful for the dog –who at that point was even reluctant to eat his regular food.
Someone mentioned PILL POCKETS. We picked up a bag and lo and behold, they worked like a champ. Though Chip was still not really interested in eating a meal, the *very* meaty smell of the PILL POCKETS was irresistible to him, and he happily gobbled up his meds.
Sadly, we lost Chip about a week later, but then our other dog developed a minor skin rash that required he take some antibiotics. Eubie is a Border Collie, and they tend to figure things out before you do –and we were astounded when he wolfed down his medicine and then looked at us as if to ask “is that all –when do I get another?!”
My technique for using the PILL POCKETS is to stuff the pill(s) inside, pinch off the open end –and then, using my palms, “roll” the pocket into a smooth, round ball. With Eubie at least, he loves the smell so much, that he simply swallows it whole.
In fact, I discovered another great use for the PILL POCKETS and that is to take a rawhide bone and smear the nooks and crannies with a single pill pocket. Since they’re kind of “doughy” in texture, they’re perfect in this regard –and for a dog that will happily walk around the house with the rawhide bone for days without ever chewing on it, we’ve found that the “pill pocket infused” rawhide is something that he HAS to chew on. (In fact, he was SO focused on this task, that for the first time ever, he actually ignored the fireworks on July 4th…. it was truly amazing!)
– Jonathan Sabin
really bad packaging on item, item’s ruined
Greenies Pill Pockets
Worst smelling treat for dogs
Useless and gross
My dog outsmarted it
Great for giving pills
My dog doesn’t like these!
Max never turns down a pill in a pill pocket
Perfect (but PRICEY) Pill Pockets
Good Concept
I’ve tried breaking it into smaller pieces (she is a small dog), but she still won’t eat it.
This is a dog that LOVES treats and this is the only “treat” I cannot get her to eat.
It’s a good concept, but you may be wasting your money as I did.
life saver
Greenies Allergy Formula Pill Pockets for Dogs
The one draw back for me is the smell of the Allergy formula pockets – it’s pretty bad! I’ve used the beef flavor in the past and don’t remember the smell being so bad. I had to stop using the beef formulas because after finally reading the ingredients I found it had chicken broth/stock in it and my dog is allergic to chicken. Not sure why they put chicken of any kind in a beef version but I’ve found this in many beef products.