How to get a Bluey to open his mouth

[Suzle87]

Ventresss has an RI and I need to give him his medicine but it seems to be impossible.
How do you guys get your bts to open their mouths??

[Happyherper]

i have had trouble with that before. My best reccomendation is to hold a favored food item such as a mouse over them, and just out of reach. they will open their mouths and try to get it.

[Janella]

I use the very end of the oral syringe and gently push by their mouth till they open. I always follow a med dose with a tasty treat. My guys never had an issue for meds.

[kingofnobbys]

Dip the end of the syringe in honey , once a skink knows the smell and taste of it , they will find it irresistible.

[Suzle87]

Dip the end of the syringe in honey , once a skink knows the smell and taste of it , they will find it irresistible.

That’s a great idea! Il go get some honey this afternoon as he really is being so stubborn about not opening his mouth for me. Thanks very much for the idea!

[Suzle87]

I use the very end of the oral syringe and gently push by their mouth till they open. I always follow a med dose with a tasty treat. My guys never had an issue for meds.

Thanks Janella, sounds like yours are a lot more compliant than mine haha! I did try like this but he just won’t play along at all. Thanks for your input though.

[Suzle87]

i have had trouble with that before. My best reccomendation is to hold a favored food item such as a mouse over them, and just out of reach. they will open their mouths and try to get it.

Reassuring to know it’s not just me who struggles with this, thanks for your suggestion, il give it a try.

[kingofnobbys]

If that fails there are ways of getting meds into a stubborn lizard's mouth

I've had success using this

to get nasty tasting antbiotics and nice tasting CalciVet into skinks , the trick is to get the plastic tube past the lips and teeth at the back corner of the mouth , not necessary to force the mouth open , as a 24G catheter tube will simply slip in with a little "jiggling/wriggling of the tip , but is a two person job
> one person restrains the lizard
> the other person slips the catheter tube into mouth and pushes the syringe plunger.

Been my experience giving nasty tasting oral meds that skinks very quickly wise up and the skink will know what's coming and will do it's darnest to make it hard to get the stuff into it's mouth .... like a child who doesn't want to eat or drink something that tastes nasty and the skink will toss a tantrum after the dose is administered so my advise is have something it likes as a treat handy to give to it afterwards with lots of snuggles.

I've also used this kind of setup

to get HerpaBoost , VetaFarm Reptile Critta Care and viscous liquid meds into the mouths of lizards, got to get the mouth open enough to get the nozzle into the mouth , the plastic playing card trick can help here, again a two person job unless the lizard is prepared to lick the paste off it's nose and lips , works well.

Plastic playing card trick :
fold the card lengthwise in half, cut a hole large enough to get the end of the syringe or small food item into the mouth in the middle of the fold, slip folded card between lips and teeth at skink's pointy end , slip the food item or feeding tube or syringe feeding nozzle between the folded card and through the hole into the mouth , the folded card will provide enough leverage to force the mouth open enough to do the job.

and for really difficult situations this works and the indestructible and wont hurt the lizard's teeth, gums , jaws or mouth


Here is how to use a crop feed a lizard https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/vi ... 5&t=232687

[kingofnobbys]

It may also be very effective to administer the skink's med for RI using a nebulizer setup , see this for how : https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/vi ... 5&t=232783

[Angel_BTS]

My reptile vet uses the tip of a pen lid to open my Blueys mouths when he’s checking the general health of their mouths ect. In saying this, a syringe or using your Blueys favourite food might be the best way to go about getting his mouth open

[Suzle87]

If that fails there are ways of getting meds into a stubborn lizard's mouth

I've had success using this

to get nasty tasting antbiotics and nice tasting CalciVet into skinks , the trick is to get the plastic tube past the lips and teeth at the back corner of the mouth , not necessary to force the mouth open , as a 24G catheter tube will simply slip in with a little "jiggling/wriggling of the tip , but is a two person job
> one person restrains the lizard
> the other person slips the catheter tube into mouth and pushes the syringe plunger.

Been my experience giving nasty tasting oral meds that skinks very quickly wise up and the skink will know what's coming and will do it's darnest to make it hard to get the stuff into it's mouth .... like a child who doesn't want to eat or drink something that tastes nasty and the skink will toss a tantrum after the dose is administered so my advise is have something it likes as a treat handy to give to it afterwards with lots of snuggles.

I've also used this kind of setup

to get HerpaBoost , VetaFarm Reptile Critta Care and viscous liquid meds into the mouths of lizards, got to get the mouth open enough to get the nozzle into the mouth , the plastic playing card trick can help here, again a two person job unless the lizard is prepared to lick the paste off it's nose and lips , works well.

Plastic playing card trick :
fold the card lengthwise in half, cut a hole large enough to get the end of the syringe or small food item into the mouth in the middle of the fold, slip folded card between lips and teeth at skink's pointy end , slip the food item or feeding tube or syringe feeding nozzle between the folded card and through the hole into the mouth , the folded card will provide enough leverage to force the mouth open enough to do the job.

and for really difficult situations this works and the indestructible and wont hurt the lizard's teeth, gums , jaws or mouth


Here is how to use a crop feed a lizard https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/vi ... 5&t=232687

Wow Thankyou for such an in-depth response, all very interesting. The first tube feeder looks like it would work well, did you just get this online? Also the card trick sounds a very good idea aswell.

[kingofnobbys]

I used these for the first time with my first rescue, a juvenile water skink who I rescued (a cat attack , I intervened by stepping between the cat who was in hot pursuit of the terrified little skink as he dashed across my front lawn and scooped him up....).

The vet gave me the first one to help me give Lucky his oral antibiotics Clavulox OM and CalciVet , needless to say , he chewed it pretty well hated the taste of the Clavulox) and I had to get a few more from the vet to keep me going. He weighted in at 6 g when the vet first saw him .

You can buy the catheters online , it was a TERUMO SURFLO CANNULA IV CATHETER 22G catheter (needle removed) and the vet charged me $2 per tube. Just show the picture the vet or one of his vet nurses and they'll be happy to provide a few to you.

[kingofnobbys]

If that fails there are ways of getting meds into a stubborn lizard's mouth

I've had success using this

to get nasty tasting antbiotics and nice tasting CalciVet into skinks , the trick is to get the plastic tube past the lips and teeth at the back corner of the mouth , not necessary to force the mouth open , as a 22G catheter tube will simply slip in with a little "jiggling/wriggling of the tip , but is a two person job
> one person restrains the lizard
> the other person slips the catheter tube into mouth and pushes the syringe plunger.

Been my experience giving nasty tasting oral meds that skinks very quickly wise up and the skink will know what's coming and will do it's darnest to make it hard to get the stuff into it's mouth .... like a child who doesn't want to eat or drink something that tastes nasty and the skink will toss a tantrum after the dose is administered so my advise is have something it likes as a treat handy to give to it afterwards with lots of snuggles.

I've also used this kind of setup

to get HerpaBoost , VetaFarm Reptile Critta Care and viscous liquid meds into the mouths of lizards, got to get the mouth open enough to get the nozzle into the mouth , the plastic playing card trick can help here, again a two person job unless the lizard is prepared to lick the paste off it's nose and lips , works well.

Plastic playing card trick :
fold the card lengthwise in half, cut a hole large enough to get the end of the syringe or small food item into the mouth in the middle of the fold, slip folded card between lips and teeth at skink's pointy end , slip the food item or feeding tube or syringe feeding nozzle between the folded card and through the hole into the mouth , the folded card will provide enough leverage to force the mouth open enough to do the job.

and for really difficult situations this works and the indestructible and wont hurt the lizard's teeth, gums , jaws or mouth


Here is how to use a crop feed a lizard https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/vi ... 5&t=232687

Wow Thankyou for such an in-depth response, all very interesting. The first tube feeder looks like it would work well, did you just get this online? Also the card trick sounds a very good idea aswell.

[Suzle87]

I used these for the first time with my first rescue, a juvenile water skink who I rescued (a cat attack , I intervened by stepping between the cat who was in hot pursuit of the terrified little skink as he dashed across my front lawn and scooped him up....).

The vet gave me the first one to help me give Lucky his oral antibiotics Clavulox OM and CalciVet , needless to say , he chewed it pretty well hated the taste of the Clavulox) and I had to get a few more from the vet to keep me going. He weighted in at 6 g when the vet first saw him .

You can buy the catheters online , it was a TERUMO SURFLO CANNULA IV CATHETER 22G catheter (needle removed) and the vet charged me $2 per tube. Just show the picture the vet or one of his vet nurses and they'll be happy to provide a few to you.

Thanks so much for all your help.
He is now getting his medicine in him without quite such a battle, still got a little click sound when he breathes but seems a lot more lively in himself (up before me 2 days on the trot!)
I've only been given medicine up to Friday, so going to get a second appointment for Friday hopefully (will be ringing later today) Then I think i will start the F10 nebulising as suggested. I have a Reptifogger so I presume this would be okay to use for that.
will keep updating on his progress anyway, but so far so good and thanks again for everyone's help.