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Caxis
12-19-2005, 06:12 PM
I need to give our Rat some medicine (Doxycycline and Enrofloaxacin) but she dislikes taking it. (Using a syringe)

Is it OK to mix these with juice or something?

.sarah
12-19-2005, 06:49 PM
I don't see why not. Only thing is, you have to make sure he drinks it all.

Uabassoon
12-19-2005, 06:53 PM
With Mokey we used to mix it with some soy milk.

CathyBogart
12-19-2005, 08:53 PM
With my ratties I used to mix it with yogurt. :) :)

Caxis
12-19-2005, 10:27 PM
I've tried juice and yogurt, but she won't take it that way either.

Is there a special way of mixing it?

lv4dogs
12-20-2005, 09:24 AM
My rats have always loved their meds mixed in with other foods, especially jelly or jam.

There is really no special way of mixing it but you do need to make sure your rat will eat all of it so I wouldn't add to much food to it, just enough to mix it & cover up the taste.

Sugary foods are not that good for any animal or human but for rats it seems to drown the bad taste out better than most other foods, or maybe they are just too into the sugar to tell? At least I've always had better luck mixing it with sugary foods.

You can experiment a little too, one rat may prefer the taste of something else better than another rat would.
Maybe try adding the meds to a little bit of canned cat food? Like a teaspoon full or so? Some of my rats loved meat more so than others & they seemed to like their meds that way.

If you can't find anything to mix it with that she will willingly eat on er own you will have to syringe feed her it.
Good luck!

Caxis
12-20-2005, 06:09 PM
It's hard giving it her through the syringe. She just won't take it without me forcing it into her mouth, and even then she spits of most of it.

And it seems she doesn't like jam or milk.

Uabassoon
12-20-2005, 06:17 PM
Have you tried yogurt? I know lots of rats love the stuff.

Caxis
12-20-2005, 06:18 PM
She likes yogurt, but won't take it with the medicine.

Uabassoon
12-20-2005, 06:21 PM
Hmm, maybe baby food. Something like banana flavored.

lv4dogs
12-21-2005, 11:25 AM
It is a liquid right?

Are the 2 meds combined or are they seperate?
If they are seperate but you combine them try feeding them seperate, maybe one tastes worse than the other & you can disguise the taste easier that way?

Have you tried mixing it with canned cat food?

You can also call your vet, see if they can mix with some Pet Tinic (a liquid supplement a lot of vets have that they mix with bad tasting meds). Or maybe they even have a different med that tastes better that will work for her.

areias
12-21-2005, 06:05 PM
I was going to say baby food, or cat food, too. :) How do you give her the meds alone? Have you tried scruffing her, and then using the syringe, a little at a time? Other than that, I don't know.

buttercup132
12-24-2005, 01:14 PM
if she likes bannanas maybe fill the syringe up put the syringe in the bannana and push the med into it , i never had to give my rats meds mine was too sick and the others had problems with there legs so sadly they all had to be put down :(

Caxis
01-08-2006, 07:42 PM
Ok. I've finished giving her all her medicine (Used the entire Enrofloaxin bottle, and just a tiny bit of Doxycycline left) But she's started to make those sounds again :( I guess I'll go talk to our Vet and see what to do.

Caxis
01-12-2006, 03:25 PM
I've started her on Echinacea, and it seems to be working good, but since it's only been 2 days, I haven't noticed a large difference. I still hear her making sounds when she sleeps, and sneezing quite a bit, but she's a LOT more active than before.

After a week, I'll post what happened.

areias
01-12-2006, 10:26 PM
Well, it's good that you've caught and are treating it. :) I hope she feels better! Good luck, keep us updated.

Caxis
01-17-2006, 05:41 PM
It's been about a week now, and so far, there hasen't been any change other than it getting worse :(

There's a lot of porphyrin on the walls, and she makes this sound when she's sleeping too. I'm not sure what I can do at this point; I've given her all the medicine, and the echinacea, but niether of those have made any changes, and it just keeps getting worse.

Uabassoon
01-17-2006, 06:11 PM
I'm so sorry to hear that your rattie isn't getting any better :( They are such delicate little creatures. I'll keep her in my thoughts that she makes a turn around and recovers soon.

I know that when I first got my rat Mokey she was sick for about a month, it took a lot of time and effort but she did eventually get over it.

Caxis
01-25-2006, 12:13 PM
Well, it got even worse. She started losing weight, and couldn't even sleep for 5 minutes without waking up to sneeze. We ended up putting her down, as there was nothing much we could do to help her.

Here are some pictures.

Maggie and Rex
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9797/apict017525fc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Maggie and Alice
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2414/apict005223xw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Alice was put down about 2 months ago because she had a HUGE tumor.