Best way to orally medicate an axolotl??
Hi guys,
Firstly, thank you all (especially Rayson!!!) for your advice and guidance.
After a trip to the vet on Tuesday night, it turns out that the little girl has a bacterial infection of the gills , which requires a daily oral dose of Baytril for the next 3 weeks.
The vet was very helpful, and showed me how to medicate her, which pretty much involves a tight grip and a bit of coaxing to get a modified syringe into her mouth. The modified syringe consists of a standard 1ml syringe with a plastic sheath off a catherter attached. The end, is therefore, a long and flexible tube.
I was a little concerned as it took the vet a few tries to do himself, as my little one is very stubborn.
He said the other option was to inject it into her food, which I figured would be the easiest.
So, I left the vet with a vile of Baytril ( he gave me heaps so I could experiment) and a bag of goodies, including needles, syringes and catherter sheaths.
Last night it was my turn and I started experimenting. I first tried to inject a worm, which proved very difficult, mainly because the worm was wiggling all over the place and the needle was too large and kept going all the way through.
I then tried a pellet (soaked in water first to soften), which was also a failure.
I then tried to manually give it to her. After 4 tries, we were both stressed out and frustrated, and she was still unmedicated!!!!
I spoke to the Vet again tonight and he said to keep persisting. I am refusing to try the manual method again, as we both hate it, so I have to get it into her food somehow!
I am thinking of either chopping the worm in half, then injecting it, or possibly using a different food. I have frozen fish that I give her occasionally as a treat, but I read that fish isn't a good staple, so giving it to her for 3 weeks may not be a good idea.
Has anyone had any similar experiences and come up with any ingenious methods or ideas that work well???
Thanks again
Paul
Hi guys,
Firstly, thank you all (especially Rayson!!!) for your advice and guidance.
After a trip to the vet on Tuesday night, it turns out that the little girl has a bacterial infection of the gills , which requires a daily oral dose of Baytril for the next 3 weeks.
The vet was very helpful, and showed me how to medicate her, which pretty much involves a tight grip and a bit of coaxing to get a modified syringe into her mouth. The modified syringe consists of a standard 1ml syringe with a plastic sheath off a catherter attached. The end, is therefore, a long and flexible tube.
I was a little concerned as it took the vet a few tries to do himself, as my little one is very stubborn.
He said the other option was to inject it into her food, which I figured would be the easiest.
So, I left the vet with a vile of Baytril ( he gave me heaps so I could experiment) and a bag of goodies, including needles, syringes and catherter sheaths.
Last night it was my turn and I started experimenting. I first tried to inject a worm, which proved very difficult, mainly because the worm was wiggling all over the place and the needle was too large and kept going all the way through.
I then tried a pellet (soaked in water first to soften), which was also a failure.
I then tried to manually give it to her. After 4 tries, we were both stressed out and frustrated, and she was still unmedicated!!!!
I spoke to the Vet again tonight and he said to keep persisting. I am refusing to try the manual method again, as we both hate it, so I have to get it into her food somehow!
I am thinking of either chopping the worm in half, then injecting it, or possibly using a different food. I have frozen fish that I give her occasionally as a treat, but I read that fish isn't a good staple, so giving it to her for 3 weeks may not be a good idea.
Has anyone had any similar experiences and come up with any ingenious methods or ideas that work well???
Thanks again
Paul
