Administering Oral Meds

[dwright27]

Good afternoon everyone,
I'm a new BTS owner (as of 2 weeks ago), and after a trip to the vet and a fecal test, it turns out he's got pin worms and ciliates. I was given two medications to give to him orally. Much easier said than done! So far I've only tried mixing it in with his food, and made sure it's food he likes.. But he won't have anything to do with it. SO, I'm hoping there will be some lovely people here who have experience with medicating their skinks, and will give me some pointers. I'd like to waste as little medication as possible -- that stuff isn't cheap!

Also, does anyone have experience with using diatomaceous earth with their reptiles? It's used in livestock, and I also give it to my dog in her food daily to prevent parasites. But I don't know if it's safe to give to a reptile. Would anyone know?

Thanks everyone!

[Bluish]

How big is your skink?
Is the medication a powder or liquid?
My skinks like to take big bites of food and just swallow them.
I would go to a pharmacy and buy the smallest empty cspsules and fill them with the meds if they are a powder. Then encase it in a bite size piece of food. Liquids would be more difficult. They can be orally syringed but it's really a 2 person job and stressful on both skink and inexperienced keeper.

[justyna.ewa]

Pro tip: shove it in a raspberry and pop it into his mouth. When he opens his mouth to accept the fruit, just delicately shove it into his mouth - not down his throat, just deep enough for him to take it in as one bite. Works for my calcium + D3 powder.

[Bluish]

Calcium may taste good to the skink. Many of the meds are horrible and any hint of them is immediately rejected. Been there/done that.

[justyna.ewa]

How big are the pills? You can also try what I do for cats/dogs: shove it into a little ball of soft dog/cat food and he probably should not be able to smell/taste it.

[dwright27]

Hi guys,
He's on the liquid parasite meds.. metronidazole and Panacur.
I can totally see how it's a two-person job. I was able to administer the meds this time by myself, though it took some time and patience, but next time he might be more stubborn about it.. I like the raspberry idea, I might try that. But just mixing it into his regular food was a no-go. At least I don't need to worry about it again for another few days.. but man.. 5 weeks of this! And it took me 2 hours to thoroughly clean out his tank.. since I can't lift it. Luckily he seems to like playing around in the paper I've got in there for bedding. I just hope he's warm enough! Fingers and toes all crossed for these darn worms to be GONE at the end of the 5 weeks.

Edit: I did it by gently pushing the end of the syringe into the side of his mouth. I'm pretty sure he hates my stinkin' guts now.

[Fatal_S]

They get over it if you do it quickly. It helps with 2 people, but you can do it alone. How big is the skink?

Anyways, what you did was right. Press the syringe into the side of the mouth and squirt it in. To hold an adult skink, it should rest on your arm, tail tucked against your side, head on your hand. Thumb on one side of mouth, forefinger on the other. Press up on one side, down on the other to help open the mouth a bit, then use other hand to squirt the meds in. Do it as quick as you can to minimize stress. A bit of practice and you'll be doing it like it's nothing at all.

[dwright27]

I did it exactly as you described, minus having my hands that close to his mouth, lol! Apparently he has never bitten anyone (on purpose), but he got me by mistake once and it hurt quite a bit. Sooo I'm just a little more cautious around his mouth. He took it like a champ though. =)

Just noticing in your signature, all the herps you have. Just curious, what's with the decimals? 0.1 kingsnake? lol a tenth of a snake?

[Richard.C]

0.1 means one female

If it was 1.0 it would mean 1 male

If it was 4.8.17 it would mean 4 males 8 females and 17 of undetermined sex

[dwright27]

Ah, alright! I get it now.

[Spindown]

First times for giving oral and injectable meds for my reptiles was pretty stressful (more on me LOL) but you get the hang of it pretty quickly.