Giving oral meds to a robo - help - could I have hurt him?

[Julietta]

Hi,

been reading advice on here for quite some time, but finally have a question I can't answer by lurking

My little Robo had a skin biopsy done today for his hair loss (as we're unsure if he has mites or ringworm) and needs to take an oral painkiller for a week now. It's a liquid, to be administered with a syringe twice a day. The good news is that it seems to be sweet.

The incisions are on his neck. I can usually hold him securely without scruffing him, and that's what I'm doing now to administer his medicine, but this still means touching him where he's sore, there's not really a way around it, I'm afraid. I'm hoping it won't open the wounds, especially because he will try to run away until I get a good grip on him.

So, what happened is, I just gave him his medicine for the first time, and it was a struggle. I was reluctant to hold him too tightly because I didn't want to hurt him, meaning he ended up escaping briefly, which can not happen again because this just makes the ordeal more stressful and potentially dangerous for him, so I'll have to hold him better. But I'm scared of hurting his wounds or opening them up.
And I'm worried about the additional stress I caused him by letting him escape (he was so surprised, he let me retrieve him right away) and from being picked up and "manhandled" (as gently as possible, but still... ) twice a day, on top of everything else he has going on. What if this affects his immune system and makes him feel worse than he already does?

And it gets worse, while it's relatively easy to give a syringe to a cat or dog, I find it really difficult to get the syringe in for a robo, especially because he's trying to squirm and get away and isn't as easy to grab a hold of
So what ended up happening is that I tried to get it in via the side, behind the incisors, as instructed, but the liquid kind of ended up on his tongue from where he swallowed it, thankfully. But then he squirmed a little and the tip of the syringe slid in his mouth for a second. The tip is about 5-7 mm long and he had that in his mouth for a moment. It's entirely my fault, I should've been quicker with removing the syringe after he swallowed what seemed to be most of it, but I was trying to see if he got everything and then this happened. And now I'm so worried and scared that maybe I hurt his throat or his jaw or something? Could this have injured him?

Sorry this post is a bit of a mess, I'm just really worried. I was actually shaking after giving him the syringe because it seemed so scary to me

[cypher]

Sorry to hear you're having such a stressful time with your little robo.
I should think he'll be fine after the episode with the syringe, it doesn't sound likely to me that you would have done him any damage.
It can be difficult to give meds orally with a syringe, especially with such a tiny ham, most will take it fine mixed in with some tasty food, ham safe baby food is usually best, I recently used baby cauliflower cheese to give mine his metacam, about a 1/4 teaspoon of the food to make sure it all gets taken, veg based baby foods can work too or just porridge can work as well.
I would try giving the next dose with something like that & see if he'll eat it, hopefully he will & it'll be a lot less stressful for both of you.

[Julietta]

Thank you for your reply Cypher! I'm glad to hear you think that! I was so worried.. it's because they're so tiny, it's really scary. I've only ever given syringes to bigger animals, where something like this either couldn't have happened or if it did, it wouldn't have seemed too worrying.

Honestly, he's been so good, he's taking everything like a champ and isn't even complaining (normally he does ) so I feel really bad that I made things more difficult for him than they needed to be.

It's actually metacam he's having as well! Thanks for the tip, I thought about mixing it with food, but was concerned he would not eat it, or not all of it, but of course if it's a tiny amount, he's more likely to - why didn't I think of that? Will get him some suitable baby food tomorrow morning for his next dose and see how that goes. He'll probably like the sweet options, so will give those a try.

Thanks again, really appreciate it!

[cypher]

Good luck, hope your little guy is feeling much better soon.

[Julietta]

Thank you, I hope so too! I hope they hurry up with the results so he can get some treatment

Update: Didn't have that much luck this morning, he ate only a tiny bit of the baby food before he refused to have any more, so I ended up giving his meds orally after all (minus the amount he would have ingested with the food. I'm really paranoid about getting the dose exactly right but more paranoid about giving too much). He does take them quite willingly once you get a good hold on him, but that's the difficult part.
I think he likes the taste of the baby food, but he usually prefers to eat on his own time, so if I left it in all day or over night he would probably eat it eventually, but since he needs a dose twice a day, that's a problem. I do have a pot of cauliflower cheese, perhaps he'll be more interested in that than this morning's rice pudding. Might try it without meds in first though to see if he eats it.
I suspect it might be possible to give him the evening dose mixed with food, but the morning dose is tricky, since he probably just won't feel like eating it at that time.

The scary part is, he's loosing more fur daily, he now has a bald patch on his forehead in addition to the bald patch where the biopsy was taken and the fur he's loosing elsewhere on his body.
They said up to two weeks for the biopsy results, I'm very afraid he'll be bald by then or worse he's only on painkillers until then.

The good news is, the biopsy wounds seem to be healing nicely, he's had some water and I assume he's had some food. I say assume because the treat I left him has disappeared. He doesn't seem to have taken that much from his bowl (I think he took a lab block though), but I know he had his cheeks full when he came home and had some food while he was at the vet's/while travelling - including another treat.

[cypher]

It can be a bit hit & miss at first when you try them with baby food but hopefully you'll find something he can't resist, I haven't had a robo, only Russian & Chinese but I've found they don't tend to be keen on the meat ones & I don't give them sweet ones so I've had most success with either just plain mixed veg ones or the cauliflower cheese.
I have no idea if it will help not knowing exactly what's wrong but I have had really good results using evening primrose oil & flax for fur loss, ideally they only need half a drop of epo a day but that means mixing it with something & dividing it up (I use oats) but as you're already having to mix meds with food you could try putting a drop on a bowl every other day, I'm sure that wouldn't hurt, & give a pinch of extra flax (linseed) seeds.
Might be worth a try anyway.
A pinch of wheatgerm could possibly help too.
Glad to hear the wound is healing at least, that's a good sign, it can be hard to tell if they're eating well when they only eat a tiny bit anyway but fingers crossed he is.

[Julietta]

Thanks Cypher Will go out and get some flax seeds and epo and see how that goes. Can't hurt in any case. Will probably have to wait until tomorrow to pick up some wheatgerm, as our Holland and Barrett closes early, I think.
Will also try getting a few more flavours of baby food to try if there's one he's particularly keen on. I gave a little of the rice pudding one to his brother as a little treat so he wouldn't feel left out, sans meds of course, and he happily and noisily wolfed it down, so I've left a fresh portion (sans meds) for my little poorly one as well, see if he warms up to it. At least if he eats that, I know for sure he's had something.

We're suspecting mites or ringworm, but are awaiting confirmation from the biopsy. He was treated for mites a while ago, and seemed to respond to the treatment and was well. But when I returned from 2 weeks away on Saturday (during which he was being cared for by my lovely neighbour, who simply wouldn't have spotted this, bless her), I found him looking a little patchy, flaky as well as crusty around the neck. I phoned my vet who saw him on Monday. We then decided to do a biopsy, rather than treat him for both. This was done yesterday, by which he had come up with a bald patch on his neck. And today another, on his head, in addition to being a bit patchy in general.
Biopsy seemed like the better option at the time, but as he's getting patchier by the day, I'm somewhat regretting it, due to the wait. He's going back for a follow up on Monday, but she told me it could be up to two weeks until they get results, which has me very concerned. If it's ringworm, who knows what shape he will be in by then??

I think he's eating something at least and thankfully he's a very noisy drinker, so I know he's had some water. He was still at a decent weight at 32 g on Monday, though he's lost a couple of grams, so fingers crossed he'll eat a little more now he's on painkillers. I might slip him an extra couple of mealworms too. I really hate the wait!

[cypher]

It must be really hard to wait that long & be worrying about your boy all that time but I think I would have made the same choice tbh, I'm really not a fan of treating for mites just in case as often happens. If he does seem to be getting too much worse before the results come in maybe you could ring the vet & see if they suggest anything.
Fingers crossed for him.

Lucky brother getting spoilt with some rice pudding

[Julietta]

I agree, it's definitely the better choice, just while you're in the middle of it, it doesn't always feel that way... I'm sure once it's all over I'll be happy about that choice again

Happy to report that he's doing fairly well, he's drinking and eating, and his wounds continue to heal very well, the scabs look like they're about ready to come off already. Fur loss looks like it hasn't gotten too much worse, fingers crossed flax and epo are helping a bit there.
He's also pretty active at night, he's going up the walls. I mean that literally. Since he doesn't have a wheel, I found him using his sand bath as a back support to sort of, um, run in place on the wall of his cage horizontally... yes, seriously. I moved the sand bath after that, it didn't seem like an appropriate activity for a sick ham.

But he's really very unhappy about the syringe, so I've tried mixing meds with food again, which he does eat eventually, just not quite on time. That's just how he is, even with his most favourite foods, he just likes to eat when HE wants, the silly little ham. He can't always be swayed to eat something right away, just because he really likes it... yes, he's a little odd, but that's part of his charm Convinced him to have a little off my finger at least, but not all, so I'm concerned he's not getting his dose in a timely manner, although it's definitely less stressful for him.

Thanks again for all your help and moral support, I really appreciate it Fingers crossed things continue to go fairly well and that we'll have results soon!

[cypher]

What a little trooper he is
It sounds as though he's doing really well all things considered, I wouldn't worry too much about him not getting all of the meds in one go, if he's eating the food in his own time then he should be getting what he needs overall.
Keep up the good work little one & you too Julietta!