I've succeeded in administering medicine to my rat!

[purinpurin]

Indy and Loki are fine now (I force-fed their antibiotics, but at least that did the job), but now Dally (one of the rats I got from CCH) has a bit of a sniffle and is on a baytril/doxy/metacam combo.

He hates the stuff. XD He didn't even like baytril which smelled like bananas (I'm assuming it would also taste like bananas). I tried to give him a little bit of everything to entice him, but he refused all of them. So, I mixed up the medicine, injected it into a ball of bread, then rolled it around in a peanutbutter/olive oil/chocolate syrup mix. I let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours so that the bread would soak up the meds. When it was done, I held it out to Dally and he stole that thing away from me SO fast, I didn't know what hit me! XD

I should have done that sooner. I don't know why none of my rats wouldn't take the above treats individually (ex. if I gave them chocolate syrup, they wouldn't touch it), but whatever it was about the bread ball, they were fooled real good. :joy: So I thought I'd share that, in case anyone has the same problem as me. lol not that the bread-ball would be a guaranteed hit with all rats; but I figure it could be tried. :3

 

[lilspaz68]

I am glad all your babies are on the mend :thumbup:

 

[hprats]

Hey, the bread+olive oil trick did wonders for my Neville. I was kind of at my wits end about it, he HATED getting meds by syringe, I am sure it was doing more harm than good.

Olive oil was all that worked...so maybe you can ditch the chocolate syrup, haha.

I never let the bread sit in the fridge though? The meds would always absorb right away, and then I would avoid handling it because sometimes the meds would kind of leak out if I squished it. I would just syringe the dose, syringe a drop of olive oil, and be done. :thumbup:, it worked like a charm and is a bit simpler than the way you did it.

 

[mamarat]

It's a great feeling when the ratties are getting better.

 

[Godmother]

I have been at my wits' end trying to get meds down Cadillac and Jack, who are not going to make it if they don't take them. So I will give the bread a try tonight.