Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any tips on getting the mouth open for medicine, i have to give 3 different medicines and i feel the stress im causing is counter productive. took me 10 minutes today, and i feel really bad.

It’s an awful thing to have to do. I can’t imagine doing it to something that small, in fact, I couldn’t do it at all. We tried once and wound up covered in the med the lizard coughed all over us after 20 minutes of trying to pry his mouth open. It was so horrible we cried afterward. We paid the vet to do it every day after that, it was $7.00 a day. I discovered though that with a lot of time on my part and creative thinking it is possible to get them to eat the medicine on their own by hiding it in food. My monitors have all loved the taste of gerber chicken sticks for babies. Also there is a food supplement my vet recommended for my monitors called Missing Link. They don’t actually make a supplement for monitors but apparently the avian mix is good for monitors. It is a coarse powder. I have turned to thick paste by adding water and coating pills, it tasted good enough for my lizards to eat it on their own. Hiding bits of meds in flesh can also work. Depends on the time you wish to invest to figure out what will work for you.

Good luck, -H-