Trouble giving medications to a pet, argh...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For a while, I was one smug pet owner. Sure, I have to give medicine to my ferret twice a day, but she loves the stuff. Gobbles her medicine right up. No problems. The vet had warned me that oh, she’ll hate the digoxin. She’ll foam, she’ll spit. Nope, drinks it right up. Even eats up the crushed enalapril pill if I mix it into some vitamin solution.

Then my ferret came down with an intestinal virus called ECE (epizootic catarrhal enteritis), or more commonly referred to as “green slime disease”. This name comes from what happens to their stools, ew. She’s old and needs to get through this well or it could be fatal. So I get more meds to take home - amoxicillin and Flagyl to prevent secondary bacterial infections, a dosage slip for liquid Pepto-Bismol, and a warning that she’ll hate the Flagyl. I figure well, she loved the digoxin, how bad can it be?

Bad.

I was worried when she didn’t like the amoxicillin much. It’s the pink liquid stuff, I thought that was usually pretty agreeable to kids, and ferrets tend to have a sweet tooth. The Flagyl was worse. She refused to open her mouth after smelling it. I tried to squeeze the dropper into her mouth, but she squirmed. For an ill ferret, she was pretty lively. If you’ve ever tried to hold a ferret that didn’t want to be held, you’ll understand where the phrase “slipperier than a greased polecat” comes from. Trying to force open her jaws and hold the dropper with the other hand would give her enough leverage to wriggle her body enough that I couldn’t keep her head still properly. I held her by the scruff of the neck (supporting her body), knowing that should trigger a yawning reaction. No luck, she knew what that’d mean and held out. Finally I managed to work the medicine dropper between her jaws on the side of her head and shoot it into her mouth.

Man, the vet was not kidding when she said the ferret would foam at the mouth; I swear I was watching a chemical reaction. Scrubbing Bubbles has nothing on this stuff. Yellowish (that’s the medication color) foam started coming out of her mouth and she was hacking and obviously doing the universal motions for ‘ew, get this taste out of my mouth now!’ by working her tongue around, smacking her lips, and pawing near her mouth. My husband saw the foam buildup from about 15’ away. I brought her to her cage and gave her some of a liquid/oily vitamin solution that ferrets love, and she started lapping it up to clear out her mouth.

I guess I broke her trust in medicines now, though. I brought the dropper over with the digoxin in it later, and she turned her head away. I had to coat the end with some of that oily solution to get her to lick at it, then squirted the digoxin into her mouth.

“Only” 9 more days of antibiotics dosages… shudder

2

I have always had dogs and I know how hard it can be to get a pill in them once they have been “insulted”. Once they get a whiff of it any attempts are all but useless.

I usually dip the pill in something soft and flavorful. My dogs like butter or gravey. If the pill is particularly nasty I put a dab of peanut butter on a small piece of bread and sort of form that into a ball, then dip that in a bit of butter and they wolf it down before they know they’ve been tricked. I have on occasion had to force the jaws open and stick the pill down the throat and hold the mouth closed until they lick their nose, but I only do that as a last resort. I had a shih tzu that loved cooked carrots (funny dog) so I would either boil a carrot or buy some canned cooked carrots and make a slit in the side of the carrot and stick the pill in there. Easy as pie.

I guess the trick is to use something they really love as a rare treat and keep the pill as intact as possible. I never used their regular food cause I didn’t want them to hold a grudge against it.

I don’t know much about ferrets; can they take a whole pill given in a bite of food? Could you put the pill in a small ball of bread and dip it in the oily stuff they like or does it have to be crushed?

Flagyl is indeed some nasty stuff. It not only tastes terrible but the taste seems to stick in your tongue and you taste it for hours. I am an RN and I have had to put flagyl pills in an empty gelatin capsule so that the patient can take them. Check with a druggist or your vet and see if they can supply some for you.

3

I think most liquid medications can be obtained in pill form, too—ask your vet. I have no trouble pilling my cats, but liquid? Forget it. They have both gotten the “Danny Thomas Spit-Take” down to a fine art.

4

Unfortunately, I won’t be much help for ferrets or liquid medication, but for pills, my dog is no problem. She has to take thyroid pills once a day. The pill goes (whole, not broken) right into a chunk of Skippy canned dog food, which is then like a treat. The rest of the can of food gets mixed in with her dry food over the course of a couple of days. I don’t know how that would work with a ferret, though…

5

My cat has, over the years, figured some pretty clever ways to avoid taking the pills I try to give him. He’s also, however, learned to trust me and he seems to know that I’m just trying to help him. Sometimes he gets finicky, though. But usually it’s routine – he sits on my lap while I steady him with the hand that’s holding the pill, use the thumb of my other hand to get his jaws open, then chuck the pill in there. If I do it right it’s simple and easy. Sometimes he’ll waggle his tongue around so he can intercept the airborne pill before it hits its target and spit it out, but usually he’s good about it. He outgrew the stick the pill in the food trick. It actually put him off tuna for a while when I used to overuse that ploy.

6

I’ve seen dogs do some tricky maneuvers with pills. An English setter that my inlaws owned once sat there with his owner’s hand clamped around his jaws while the other hand stroked his throat to encourage swallowing. Finally he did a big gulp motion, and was held for another minute or so to ensure that it went down. He was let go, trotted into the next room, and ptui, the pill goes flying out of his mouth.

I’ve been considering mixing it with the fruit-flavored Pedialyte that I’m giving to help keep her hydrated, but that means she has to drink the whole amount - and if not, more force-feeding will result.

I’m not sure how she’d take pills; I crush her enalapril for her heart condition, and she takes that well dissolved in that oily vitamin solution I mentioned (Ferretone, dogs and cats have a version called Linatone).

7

My dog changed the rules to the “put the pill in food” game really quickly.

I use to cut a slit in a piece of hot dog and put the pill in the hot dog. My dog discovered that if she spit out the pill and ate the hot dog she would get another peice of hot dog. I think she thought that is what I wanted her to do. Pretty soon it didn’t matter what kind of food I tried to hide the pill in. She would eat the food and spit the pill out at me and then look at me and wag her tail like I was suppose to give her more food.

I think maybe my dog is smarter then I am.

8

I don’t know about ferrets. When my dog is being stubborn with pills I can usually tear something really good like a hot dog into pieces and hide the pill in one of them. I’ll then start feeding the dog pieces of hot dog or whatever one by one, with the pill in the middle somewhere. That way he’s unlikely to detect the pill because he’s in the midst of a feeding frenzy and has to hurry up to swallow the next piece.

For liquid medicine, though, I don’t know. Could you possibly dilute the really bad stuff in something that is (to a ferret) really good?

9

I have ferrets too, and I know what that’s like.

We have a bad biter (Phrenic) who has lost all the hair on her tail. sigh I know what that’s a sign of. Not good.

I guess it’s time to go to the vet.

Good luck DeniseV

10

I fool my dog everyday by encasing his pill in nice soft cheeze. He wolfs it down. The trick is to never let them know they are taking a pill. Good luck with your little ferret. I hope she gets better soon.

11

Poor fuzzy!

My ferret, Smokes, has gone through ECE and he almost died. I had to force down amoxicillin, pedialyte, and some sort of anti-nausea business, three times a day. It was pure hell.
I had to get rough with him, scruffing him and forcing the meds through his jaw teeth. I had to gag him with the dropper, squeeze down the liquid, then hold his mouth shut with one hand, pull his head waaay back, and massage his neck with the other. I was worried about adverse effects, but after showing my method to the vet I got the a-okay.
I had to give him the antibiotics for several weeks, but he didn’t really develop an appetite again for over a month and it took several months to get his weight back to normal. It’s a very tough illness.
He’s nine years old now and frisky as ever, but earlier this week he had an abcessed tooth. Woke up one morning and the whole side of his head was swollen and his tongue was hanging out. Soooo, going through another round of antibiotics and pedialyte. He doesn’t have much of an appetite (who would?). So I’m back to the dropper again!

Lady Venom: Smokes lost all the hair on his tail last year and we had the same dread. It was just a flea allergy though :slight_smile: Hair’s all back, fluffy as always.

12

I have had success by creating the “feeding frenzy” mentioned already. With a pill, I wrap it something…bread or cheese. I offer the decoy first so they think…yummy. Then I give the one with the pill and quickly offer the follow up so they want to consume it quickly and get to the next treat. When administering a liquid, I use a syringe. My dogs are not cooperative but it seems that they tolerate it. It is tough business. I once had some success using Gerbers Ham baby food. This was a medication that could be sprinkled. But my dogs love baby food so that worked really well. Good luck.

13

I have permenent scars on my chest from the time I tried to worm my cat. I have decided that it’s far easier to worm my family and let her deal with intestinal parasites her own way.

14

I can’t help with the liquid medication, but as jacksen9 mentioned, the jarred baby food meats are great for hiding crushed pills.
Check with the vet first to make sure you can crush the pills!
My cats are partial to the baby food chicken.

15

It’s definately not a flea allergy. I have 6 ferrets who have never been exposed to flea’s. :frowning:
Krista

16

Lady Venom, I had a ferret who lost most of the hair on his tail and hindquarters. He had an adrenal gland problem, but ended up dying in his sleep of natural causes (old age) while we were still observing him on the adrenal condition.

It’s less likely, but some ferrets experience hair loss on their tails that’s temporary, for reasons like one poster mentioned above. One woman noticed blackheads on the tail, and regular cleansing methods like one would use on human blackheads cleared that up; the fur grew back in.

As for my ferret, I solved the foaming problem by mixing the flagyl with an equal amount of Pedialyte. She still hates it, and I still have to scruff her to get her to sit still for all of her meds, but she doesn’t hack/spit/foam at least.

Semi-TMI:
After her doses last night, I got up from my sitting position, and immediately as I stood, she sort of… released her bowels. Light tan carpeting, light tan slacks. Ew. Fortunately, she seems to have gotten past the “liquid” stage, which is a really good sign! So I was in a better mood than I might have been, heh. She’s also been drinking and eating, so I think she seems to be on the road to recovery.

17

I’ve checked her thoroughly for black heads. Nothing. I almost wish there were. They’re pretty easy to deal with. I’m dreading my trip to the vet next week. If it is adrenal, we’ll deal with it. Her belly still feels soft. She’s eating and drinking pretty much normally. She is sleeping a lot, but she’s still very hyper. She is a REALLY bad biter due to being neglected and NEVER handled before we adopted her (Phrenic) and her cage mate, old man Schizo.

I’m glad to hear your fuzzie is taking her meds. I hope she has a speedy recovery!!

Krista

18

Whoops! Mods, feel free to discard one of the above!

:wally

19

My dog knows I’m trying to help her and takes her pills like a good girl. She hates the green liquid ear stuff that stops lake water from infecting her ears. It’s the only thing she still tries to hide from.

Poor wittle Princess FuzzyButt.

20

Bitz the Wonder Mutt has to take a daily pill for incontinence (so embarrassing since she’s not quite 3 YO, but it happens with a lot of spayed females, I hear).

I tried slipping the pill behind her fangs, tilting the head and massaging the throat. She endured it well for almost five minutes before she made the gulp. I let her go and the pill popped out of her mouth with a look on her face like, “What did you do that for, Dad?”

I coated the pill in butter. She rolled it around her mouth for a little bit and spit the pill out completely butter free. Same results with peanut butter.

I started wrapping the pill in a sheet of packaged lunch meat. Most days there aren’t any problems (given the way she wolfs treats), because the whole slice is gone before she realizes there’s a pill. If she finds it, though, I almost invariably have to pick pill pieces up off the floor, re-wrap them and try again. Only once have I had to make more than 2 attempts, though.

The worst was when her allergies started acting up in Feb. Huge, grey/yellow eye boogers. The vet perscribed an ointment to use for three times a day for five days and then as needed for flare-ups. Imagine the sheer joy of trying to put a 1/4 inch long dose of thick ointment into the eyes of a 94 lb. Labrador/Rottweiller mix who most certainly did NOT want that thing anywhere near her beautiful golden brown eyes.

It ended up looking like I was trying to kill her. I’d make her sit, kneel behind her, put her in a headlock, tilt the head back and hold open the eye (all with one hand), and then as quickly as was safe (i.e. without poking her in the eye with the metal tube) ooze the ointment in. Then I got to switch hands and do the other side.

I’m convinced the fact that Bitz has the most gentle and mellow disposition of any dog I’ve ever known is the ONLY reason she didn’t eat me while I slept that week.

Here’s hoping that after the nasty medicine is gone Gobbles will remember that she likes the other meds and ease back into being a good girl. It’s possible. I doubt a week or two is long enough to build a lifetime association, but I Am Not A Ferret Expert.