Help giving my elderly chihuahua his oral syringe medication
What about it?
Hello! First time poster because I haven’t found any good tips yet to help. Picture of the handsome man for visibility.
My 12 year old Chihuahua just got diagnosed with kennel cough and was given two oral syringe medications, Doxycycline and a Hydrocod-Homa Syrup(cough syrup). I was able to mix the cough syrup in with a little wet food and he ate that up no problem.
Now here is my issue, the Doxycycline, I’m assuming it tastes horrible by his reaction so the cough syrup plan won’t work. Some backstory though, this little guys has had a rough life. Chronic seizures since 4 months old and last year he had a cluster of seizures that were so bad he injured his neck and was temporarily paralyzed for about 2 weeks.
I attempted to restrain him and just shoot it to the back of his mouth, but he fights me really hard. He also doesn’t have any teeth, so holding his mouth open is very difficult because there is no leverage and he can just slip out. Biggest thing though is he flails his head around so I can’t get access to his mouth. I don’t want him to re-injure his neck and/or re-paralyze himself just to get him to take his medicine, but he also needs this medication so he doesn’t develop pneumonia.
Any advice on how I can make this process as least traumatic as possible for the both of us would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
A desperate dog mom