hide the taste of baytril / hamsters most favourite treats recommendations?

[Yeti]

Hello,

I have a hamster who's been prescribed baytril for an infection. I've been trying to convince her to eat the medication voluntarily by mixing it with baby food, pureed pumpkin, pina colada mix ( the vet recommened that) and broccoli. She absolutely will not cooperate. Baytril does seem to be particularly bitter so I'm not sure what would mask the taste.

I'm going out of town and my pet sitter will finish the last 2 days of treatment. I'm not sure if my pet sitter will be able to force-feed the medication so I'm really hoping to find something I can mix it with that she'll eat on her own.

Let me know any suggestions!

 

[Socks Mum]

Maz uses honey in the feeding syringe and then Baytril behind that so it all goes down (hopefully). I think meaty cat food might also work, but so far I haven't had to administer meds. Good luck, I hope Yeti feels better soon.

 

[Maz]

What works for me, every time, was a tip given by an experienced hamster breeder. Country Hunter beef dog food. That's in the Uk so not sure if you can get it. It's in small pouches for small dogs and has a consistency a bit like soft corned beef in jelly. Just a pea sized amount on a little dish (or baby food jar lid). Not only have my hamsters eaten the lot and licked the plate clean, they start pushing the plate round and clamouring for more!

It's a slightly expensive way to do it as the pouch only lasts 2 or 3 days in the fridge and then has to be discarded, so you need a few pouches. The beefy taste disguises the baytril. So if you can't get that, if you try something similar with a strong meaty taste it should work, but it needs to be mushy enough to make a small pea sized amount. I used to put half the pea sized amount on the dish, drop the baytril on top of that, then the other half of the pea sized amount on top (to make sure the meds are within the meat and not on the bottom of the plate and left there. You could just drop it on top of the pea sized amount and mix it in a bit (I used a cocktail stick for that).

I haven't actually tried the runny honey myself - it's something others have found works, but only if the hamster will actually take it direct from a syringe (which mine wouldn't - they didn't like the syringe at all!). For that you draw the meds up first, then a tiny amount of runny honey. Link below for the beef dog food.

Country Hunter beef dog food

If you can't get it, you could just try corned beef While this wouldn't be a healthy thing to give regularly, it's fine for a week or so while giving meds.

I also saw someone found dropping the meds onto a small piece of prawn cracker, which they said worked, and the hamster ate the piece of prawn cracker, but I haven't tried that myself. I do prefer giving it in food as it's less stress for the hamster (and they can just spit it out if syringe fed). It is nasty tasting!

 

[Yeti]

Thanks for the suggestions. I can't get that dog food but I did try some other wet dog foods instead. Nothing worked. She actually wouldn't eat anything except for vegetables & her seed mix. But if I tried putting baytril on the vegetables she wouldnt eat those ones.

I ended up boarding her at the vet for a couple days and they finished administering her course of antibiotics, then my petsitter picked her up & brought her home. Her symptoms seem to have gone away and she's back to being very active so all good. Very thankful the vet clinic was able to keep her for a couple days.