Administering oral medication to axolotls

[LSuzuki]

So, anyhow, my 4 young adult axolotls have a cilia and bacterial infection and I have been giving then medication orally. (The vet's assistant did a wonderful job coaching me through the first dose.) However, as we all know, axolotls are slippery and do not like the procedure one bit...

Anyhow, I decided to try HitmanSougo13's "How to: Force feed an adult axolotl" (http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...olotl/70199-how-force-feed-adult-axolotl.html) trick of wrapping the axolotl in a wet towel, and it worked wonderfully. It was less stressful for me, since they didn't squirm much at all, and I believe it was less stressful for them since they were back in the tank much sooner. However, I noticed that the towel felt slimy afterwards, so I am concerned that too much of their slime coat may have rubbed off (despite them not squirming much).

Questions for those of you with experience in such matters:
1) Is it safe to do this (towel wrap when giving medication) once a day for, say, 10 more days?
2) Are there any other things I can do to reduce the stress of the axolotls?
3) Are their any other tricks to make this process easier/safer?

Thank you!

 

[HitmanSougo13]

Hi there!

I am glad that helped you out! Maybe change the towel as it can be rougher than it looks especially if it has a lot of fluffy pieces. If you tetras's de coordinator then I do imagine there is slime from our slimebabies. I personally have not notice slime from the axie so I don't know for sure if the towel can be a factor and also keep the towel moist.

I don't know if it is possible but maybe ask the vet lady if you can just inject the medicine into the water of a sick tub as axolotls do absorb medicine through water but I don't know at what percentage.