Smokey used to fight; It's only because I've had to give him the meds for so long that I worked out how to persuade him to take them. A few notes on how:
-Bribery. I give Smokey one small leaf of coriander/mint/etc, or half a large one, per 1ml syringe full. I have found that this works best if you don't just hand over the leaf, but make it hard to get, so he gets really focussed on it. What I do is: 1) let him sniff the leaf for a couple of seconds, but not eat it. 2) make him take 1ml of medicine. 3) let him sniff the leaf again for another couple of seconds. 4) finally, let him have it. The point of all this is to minimise the significance of the medicine in the process. He is focussed on getting the food, and the syringe is a minor inconvenience on the way to getting it. This may sound time consuming, but it's quite quick in practice since he doesn't fight it.
I find leaves are better to give than fruit. I used to give him bell pepper as a reward, which worked, but taking it at the same time as drinking made him burp.
-Temperature. Smokey will take much more liquid if it is fairly warm.
-Syringe. Smokey tends to bite the syringe, and after a while it gets rough on the end, and he starts to dislike having it in his mouth. I try to make them last a bit longer by smoothing the end down with a knife, but it's simplest just to chuck it and use a new one. It's cheapest to buy them in large packs anyway.
-Sometimes he seems to get a sore mouth, and will refuse the syringe for that reason. Daktarin oral gel helps with this.
)
|)