Masking meds for those stubborn ones.

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Ensure and Boost must be used within 48 hours of opening. I'm pretty sure it must be the same with Glucerna. It's written right on the bottle.
 
I checked everyone on the bottle and it's not written, seriously. I had a friend and my boyfriend check too.. :/
Thanks tho, i got a new bottle and froze it in cubes.
 
My girl is taking baytril and I was just about to post the latest mixer she'll take with gusto -- soy infant formula -- until I saw earlier in this thread that calcium is a no-no for doxy. So I looked up baytril and found that magnesium, calcium, and aluminum all inhibit the absorption of baytril. That likely rules out all of the infant formulas! argh!

This evening we try something else from this post :)
 
Well, my first time medicating...After a long excruciating (for me) 45 minutes of getting the right dosages (thank you SOOO much Moon and Julien!! :bow: ) I trucked upstairs with my roommate to give Trouble his first dose of pain meds (simply baby advil...grape flavour :sick2: ) and yea, he likes it about as much as I do...It took three tries to finally get enough into him that consisted of a approximation of the dosage (probably a little more than low end but under the high end for sure)...I hate having to force him, so this thread has given me a lot of simple ideas to try out...I am wondering if there's anything NOT to mix ibu with though?? I'm going to be giving it to him roughly 3 times a day, more if he needs it, so will probably have to be creative.
Thinking of trying just the spoon method first, then maybe some bread or a tiny bit of blueberry yogurt or was wondering about almond milk?? We don't have soy but have a lot of regular, vanilla, and chocolate almond milk. Would this be okay for him??
 
I don't think there's any dietary considerations with ibu, but I could be wrong.

Baby cereal and ensure usually worked for me, but I don't tend to mask it any more... I just pop it on in.
 
I've been very fortunate as all of my 4 are very healthy and have been resistant to myco. However when my girls got back from being spayed I used just little bits of cheddar to mask the antibiotics for 3 days. However if I ever need a solution appropriate for the long term administration this thread has been immensely helpful.
 
Not the healthiest (don't use for overweight rats!), but I use mayo for my hairless girl. She'll eat anything when it's mixed with that - I just put it on a spoon and she licks it right up. She's a skinny little thing so I don't feel SO guilty about the fat content . . .
 
Hm, I don't have a problem giving Baytril, Algernon LOVES it for some reason lol

I mix his pain meds with baby cereal, he just grudgingly eats it though (he KNOWS!)
 
On that note about doxy sticking to things with calcium... Lilly refuses to take liquid mixes and has never been faced with a syringe - she panics when we try to hold her still in the first place. I had a revelation and put a tiny peice of bread on a spoon and dripped the doxy onto it, let it absorb, placed a small peice of cheese in the middle and folded it like a sandwich - she noms the whole thing like it's a treat, which I guess is all it is if the doxy stops working with the cheese in there... bread has some iron and calcium too, but she's not used to drinking anything from bowls, my hand, or a syringe.
I'm assuming that's probably the worst masking I could do in regards to the effectiveness of the doxy, which really sucks because I thought I was being clever till I read some of this thread (too long, didnt read it all)

Is there any food that's absorbent that will work WITH the doxy? Or do I have to try some more forceful ways? I like the idea of dipping the tip of the syringe in cool whip but, as sad as this sounds, I don't have money for coolwhip or ensure until tomorrow D:
 
Mine all think I'm going to torture them if they see me coming with a syringe. :giggle: So, cool whip is the definite favorite, followed by a mixture of low cal mayonnaise and a touch of jam or jelly (this was recommended by Miss Guardian, I think). Also, the old standby of applesauce, plus a dab of olive oil and peanut butter.
 
Applesauce was the first thing she turned her nose to lol. She licked it off the spoon a few times then looked at me like, "#&%!, you crazy!"
Trying jam or maple syrup tonight. I'm glad i found this out after only two days of wasted meds - better than a week, or after all of it was gone.

wow I suck at spelling today.
 
We have a winner!
strawberry jam :D

edit: so first I just sucked the dosage into the syringe, coated the tip with maple syrup, and went to the cage. Lilly must've smelled it from afar or something because she was scrambling to get at it before the door was open. It went into her mouth, and it's .5 ml - I figured that one teeny squirt couldn't possibly choke her.
Well i was right, but I was wrong to think it wouldn't scare the absolute s!#& out of her! She backed away with her ears back and this "OH GOD NO!" look on her face.

Cuddles ensued.
 
wow i must be lucky when i had to give autoum meds she did not like it at first but then she would love the tast of the chicken i would not have to hold her just open the cage and she would come running up and never want to let go lol. but i love all the ideas for my other rat great work.
 
Banana baby food had to be mixed with Nesquik chocolate syrup to mask the flavour of the baytril. Strawberry baby food worked alone. Pea baby food also worked alone. Guess banana flavour isn't very strong!!
 
My Rilla really needs her anti-inflammatory and abs, but she absolutely refused Metacam (it was such a battle trying to get it into her) and she then became suspicious of all meds. I had been advised to switch her to Pred.

Anyway, after a few days of torment, I found the winning mixture for the Baytril/Clavamox/Pred :
Strawberry Nesquick (our usual)
Rice baby cereal (thickener, has no calcium in it)
and (gross me out!! :sick2: )
juice from a No-Salt-Added tin of salmon
Kool Whip

Totally disgusting, but she now takes her meds with minimal fuss.
 
Emily hates her Baytril but will take it with peach juice. She LOVES it. I've also been able to get her to take her baytril mixed in chocolate syrup with a little olive oil and sprinkles.
 
CHOCOLATE SYRUP! :dance: I never thought of that. I tried it tonight and it WOORRRRKKKKSSSS!!! Thank you :D

:joy: :joy: :joy: It's going to make my life so much easier. Ah, I love you chocolate syrup. :cuddle:
 
I wrote down all the tips for masking meds I could find. That chocolate syrup thing sounds like a good idea.

I tried baby cereal with stevia which didn't work. I tried yogurt and it sort of worked (he ate most of it).

I need to try something that will work more effectively.

Chocolate syrup sounds okay but isn't it too much sugar/chocolate if you need to be feeding your rat meds daily? I also don't understand the cool whip syringe thing. Are you just supposed to put cool whip on the syringe and then squirt it into the rat's mouth at the same time? Wouldn't the rat notice?

Anyway, I'm going to go to the grocery store and buy a few things to bring back home so that at least I will have some options that I could try out if I'm having difficulties.


There are so many products that contain calcium and I've read that calcium might interfere with doxycycline. I just read the box of baby cereal that I've been using and it contains calcium.

I think I'm going to try a bread-type recipe tonight. I think there are breads that have very low calcium and you might be able to find soy milk that has not been "fortified" with calcium and other vitamins cause I read that soy milk usually contains very low levels of calcium.
 
Okay I think I'll summarize the list of things people use after I've read the past 10 pages of this discussion:

peanut butter (small amount)
honey
juice
Ensure (use within 48 hours)
bread (mashed and mixed with meds and juice)
cool whip (on syringe or mixed with meds)
strawberry nesquick (seems to be popular)
jam
soy milk
mashed up: bananas, avocado, potato, sweet potato, peas
baby food

I don't really understand how I should mix the strawberry nesquick with the meds. Should it be just strawberry nesquick and meds or should they both be mixed together with something like bread?
 
My rats just started their doxy and they wouldnt take the meds straight from the syringe... :gaah:

So I mixed the doxy with soy yogurt and it was sucsessfull! :nod:
I also made some fresh fruit puree whiched seemed to also do the trick... thanks for all the ideas everyone, I'll try one of them tonight
 

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