Best Way to Administer Medicine?

[Tara]

My bun Tiddles has an upper respiratory infection. The vet gave us some antibiotics to give him, but he will NOT have any of it. I’m scared it’s going to make handling him a bad experience for him. The vet suggested wrapping him in a blanket in a “bunny burrito” but he can somehow eject himself no matter what we do. I don’t want him to associate being picked up and handled with bad things, but he HAS to have his meds. You can’t just miss a dose of anti-biotics you know? 

Any suggestions?

[Luna]

Luna also escapes from the bunny burrito. If Tiddles is old enough for veggies you could mash up some veggies in a paste-like texture and mix in the antibiotics. I use kind of an odd technique with Luna. I just let her sit and she will put her mouth on the end of the syringe like a baby bottle, and I will very slowly (so that she won’t aspirate the meds) keep pushing the plunger until the meds are gone. To get her to do this, I started by wrapping a veggie leaf around the end of the syringe. She loves veggies, so when she hopped up to it, she would sit and open her mouth to eat the veggie. When she did this, I held onto the veggie a little bit with my finger so that she couldn’t run off with the veggie right away. Then I would administer the meds bit by bit. Eventually, she associated veggies with the syringe, and now she will take meds straight from the syringe without any veggies.

[Author]

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