Help! I need tips of giving meds?

[caliopi]

We took Puffin for his check up yesterday and to get his wings clipped and his beak as we noticed it was getting rather long.

Vet suspected he has liver problems due to having seed. He also has a chest infection we think has been caused by the central heating and we have to give him antibiotics.

So this morning I gave him the seed/pellet mix as suggested by the vet. I put the bowl in his cage and then took the rubbish outside. I came back to a very puffed up Puffin greeting me with " Why did you do that?"........

We also put the meds on some passionfruit again as advised by the vet if we were not confident using the syringe. I sat down with my cuppa and heard a thud.....yep he had pitched the passionfruit right out of the bowl then said " did you like that?"


Short of taking him to the vet each day I am really not sure how to do this. Does anyone have any tips?

 

[Mayden]

We do syringe training with our birds. We mix basically get pureed fruit and feed it to them via a syringe. If you can get your bird eating from that which is a 'treat' then swap it out with meds every so often...

Our birds are great with meds because of this, they just anticipate a treat when it's really medication. If any of them refuse the med syringe, we just swap it out for a few mouthfuls, then back to meds again. Bunnys are the same too.

Don't know if that's an option for you to try?

 

[Grateful]

Hello
try using a spoon with juice and put the meds with it mixed this worked for us

 

[BillsBirds]

A trick I've used with birds is to put meds on the end of a pretzel rod. They eat the pretzel, and the meds. Try other absorbent foods like bread, or cracker, or cheerios.

 

[caliopi]

Thank you for your help. I really like the idea of using bread or something similar. But given we are in this situation I also like the idea of getting them used to the syringe by using it for treats!

It is just hard because my husband and I are going away for a week on sunday and it will be our kids ( all adults) who have to do this and that is some bite he can give when not happy!

I thought worse case scenario we could go to the vet daily but I need to be able to do this.

 

[triordan]

I use bread and then a very thin layer of almond butter on top

 

[goalerjones]

I just give birdy shots for antibiotic therapy.

 

[MikeyTN]

Is it your Eclectus or your King Parrot???

Vets are able to add flavoring into the meds for you, that's what my med did before as she added cherry or strawberry flavoring. My birds actually liked it, they fussed at first but after a few taste they got to like it....

 

[Pajarita]

Yes, you can get avian medicines compounded with flavors but nothing (and I do mean NOTHING) masks the terrible flavor of Baytril (I tried it myself and it's terrible!) so the syringe with the baby food thinned with a bit of juice would do it (all hand-fed birds get all excited when they see a syringe -they have good memories!- unless they were force-fed).

But, my dear, you should not be free-feeding pellets and seeds. That's actually a bad practice for all parrots but particularly bad for ekkies which require huge amounts of fiber-rich fruits and veggies which they will not eat enough of if they have seeds or pellets in the cage.

The upper respiratory infection was, most likely, caused by lack of vitamin A so, if I were you, I would start feeding him carrots and sweet potatoes asap (dark leafy greens are also very rich in betacarotene -the vit A precursor- but it's much harder to get them to eat than baked sweet potatoes which all parrots love).

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Last go around with antibiotics, I chose the injections for 10 days, once aday. instead of the liquid for 3 weeks twice a day.

Lately giving benadry kids version with a syringe - and he won't take it from the syringe due to the taste - bubblegum is not his thing i guess.

been mixing it with little bit of applebutter on a teaspoon and he licks it off till the spoon practicall shines.