Wriggly guinea and medication

[BlueBird]

Hi there

I have to give not 1, not 2 but 3 loads of medication to a guinea pig which is nothing short of a madam. She is having none of it! Tonight I'm sure there was more down her chin, on the table, and all over me (and the husband) than went down her throat.

Shes so wriggly I had to get my husband to hold her firmly in a towel while I had to be super quick and hopefully get her mouth. What makes it worse is one is a tablet that we need to dissolve in water. So although it's 3 medicines that doesn't mean 3 syringes.

The whole experience was very stressful for everyone involved and not something I want to repeat on a daily basis for the next week and a bit. I'm surprised we didn't get bitten tbh it was that much of a mess.

Does anyone have a more effective way of giving a wriggly guinea medicine that really doesn't want it? The piggy burrito/ towel method is the best thing we have to hand but not exactly ideal. Any hints and tips would be a god send.

 

[piggieminder]

Sorry your post seems to have been missed yesterday. Mine are a bit wiggly to start with but I find once they get used to being medicated they get more accepting of it. Hopefully others will be along with suggestions now I've bumped you up!
Hope your piggy gets well very soon.

 

[Claire W]

I’m sorry that your piggy isn’t very easy to medicate. They rarely are.
You could try mixing the medicine with something tasty such as sugar free ribena. That’s what I use. Suck the medicine up first followed by the ribena so that piggy is tasting the ribena first.

But if that doesn’t work, I’m afraid it’s tough love and the towel method.

I hope your piggy feels better soon xx

 

[Betsy]

With my Rainbow Piggy Lenny, I mixed his medicine with fresh orange juice as he preferred it to Ribena.

 

[BlueBird]

Sorry your post seems to have been missed yesterday. Mine are a bit wiggly to start with but I find once they get used to being medicated they get more accepting of it. Hopefully others will be along with suggestions now I've bumped you up!
Hope your piggy gets well very soon.

Oh no worries. This wasn't exactly a "my pig might be dying" post. Better they are seen to before this one.

Interesting suggestions about the fruit juices/ ribena. It's obvious that she hates the taste. She has reactions like a full on yawn she finds it so terrible. It's a funny reaction but this is why she's so wriggly. The ribena might help a bit. They used to give us a cat anti-inflammatory that was really sweet that they liked so much they were greedily licking their lips after. But our new vet has changed it to a dog version which they don't seem to like as much which I usually gave last as a bit of a "sorry I know that was terrible" bribe. Lol

 

[LucyP]

I’ve put a bit of emeraid mixture in the end of a syringe to make them go for it - they love it so much they try to steal the syringe off you and don’t seem to notice the medication going in straight after. They were on emeraid for weight issues at the time anyway. Beat of luck, it’s horrible when they struggle but they do seem to get over the stress very quickly I think.