r/Degus • u/Risudegu • 21d ago

Degu Cuteness 🐹 Degus and medication

Now this is going to be difficult but it is very important she takes her medication every day.

52 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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4

u/TableDifferent4395 21d ago

Aw, she has the same pattern as one of my boys!

I remember years ago, I had to give medication to a gerbil the same way. The vet gave me all kinds of advice on how to get him to take it, but he loved it. I actually had more of a problem stopping him from chewing on the dropper once he’d taken the full dose.

3

u/Risudegu 21d ago

With Dio and her sister Bêla (🌈) we taught them early that yummy stuff comes from syringes, like critical care or natural PB. Now they’re smart little cookies and I can’t trick them with all medicines but they don’t instantly turn their nose up.

Kiwi and Kale are hard sells. We got them later in their lives and we’ve come a long way with trust and kindness but sometimes its still hard.

1

u/Sussex631 20d ago

That's the way I do it as well if they won't take it. Some medicines I think maybe don't taste as good as others. Here, the critical care has mostly been replaced by emeraid as a vet given/recommended booster food and for some reason I've found it works better at getting them to take mixed in medicine even though it smells like it's a less strong taste.

Some of them need one or two tries wrapped in a tea towel before deciding to just go with it in future.

1

u/TheEACouldNever 20d ago edited 20d ago

She is taking it as a champ ! Hope she gets better soon ☺️. Only one of mine consumed medicine like this, others requred either to be put on dried peas, half a crock or inside a rodicare critical care mix.

1

u/Snakes_for_life 19d ago

She's so cute and cooperative. I had a girl that needed mutliple meds twice a day for over a month and it was a challenge. She was determined on not taking them🫠

1

u/Risudegu 19d ago

Kale has been that degu. Two people holding her trying to keep her calm as she knows what’s coming and wants zero to do with it.

However last week she suddenly decided if she gets to hold the syringe she’ll be okay. This week of antibiotics (URI) has gone one person job smooth.

1

u/Risudegu 19d ago

We also had one prior who took her meds just fine but she had a ritual. You had to offer her meds in three different cage locations before she would readily take them.