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I've hand-fed babies and routinely given meds to my birds but I am having a heck of time getting Button to swallow her meds. She has gotten in the habit of pushing the spyringe out of her mouth. When I feel I am at the right spot to inject the meds she pushed it out of her mouth or inhales it!
Any tricks or suggestions?

Bubba is getting to be a little brat with his meds too... he does the same things you are talking about. One thing that helps is that while he is toweled, and after he has received the meds (after I have to pry his little beak open), I hold him, still toweled, and pet his head and tell him what a good boy he is... after doing that for 5 min or so, I let him out of the towel, and alas, he has swollowed instead of inhailing it into his little sinuses. Then he gets a treat. I think the inhailing happens because they don't want to swallow or are scared... holding him and talking to him clams him down.

Hope this can help.

I remember when we had to give Boss meds and had to pry her beak open too sometimes! The worst it got with Boss is if the meds ended up on the outside of her beak instead of the inside! Then you just wasted meds and got her all messy, and had to do it all over! Overall though, most of the times she did pretty good and we got those meds in the beak, no problem. Took two people though, one to hold her (that was me) and kevin was the expert meds giver! he did a pretty good job! They will try every trick though to escape getting those meds! stinkers!

I've found that simply holding the bird in your hand with their neck between your first and 2nd fingers (if right handed, hold with left hand) and then using the syringe, aim at the birds right side of throat on TOP of their tongue and inject. Mostly I use insulin syringes, as they are very small, and with the tiny amount of meds I've had to give, they don't scare them as bad. I know what you mean about pushing the syringe out with their tongue.. you just have to keep it on top, and get it far enough down their throat where they have to swallow. Sometimes too, it helps to blow in their face, which will make them swallow.

HTH

Sam

Ok, thanks for the suggestions folks. I never had a problem before handfeeding or with my budgies. It is just with Button.
BTW the vet finally called me a few days ago and Button has aspergillosis. She is on itraconazole.
I, too, waste alot of meds missing her mouth and having it dribble out.

I agree--the little insulin syringes work best.

And I know this is difficult advice, but I found with Yadira that the faster I worked, the less time she had to get upset. Not that I grabbed her, but I moved steady and didn't hesitate. I hadn't ever medicated a bird before, but I've medicated numerous hamsters (I bred them as a child) and cats, and I've found that if you hesitate or move slow, the animal has more time to think about what you're going to do. I hope that makes sense.

-Maija

I know Asper can be dangerous! I hope that Button pulls through with the meds!

Usually with larger birds, they suggest putting the meds on a piece of bread, in some pure fruit juice (cherry, for instance), or mixing it in with some of their favorite food and feeding it that way.. you just have to ensure that they eat all the meds.

Noel takes meds easily... I just hold her beak, pop the syringe in, and voila. Sometimes she'll take them without me having to hold her in any way.

Charlie thinks anything from a syringe or my hand must be good. I've never had to give him meds but I'm sure it'd be easy as pie! (he's already tried Bene-Bac gel from a tube... and he loves it! )

The bourke is just a matter of catching her and putting the syringe in... she's better at taking formula than receiving meds... I can't really mix the two in the same syringe as the syringes are so small...

Casey hates getting meds... she loves scritches, but if she thinks she's getting meds she wants nothin to do with 'em!


I use .03cc/ml syringes....

I hold her steady and inject a little at a time. If I do it fast, it is too much for her to swallow. I give her milk thistle and benebac on a peice of millet because it is not a specific amount so long as she gets some of it in her mouth.
I pray this medicine does the trick.
This poor bird has been to so many vets with no answers. I have a file an inch thick on her medical records all relating to "behavioral". I found this to be a crock of &*%^. I could see that it would be behavorally if she was negelcted or abused but she has been loved (consistantly) since day one. That seems to be the standard line for vets when they don't have the time or knowledge just like when I went to the doctor for chronic headaches. They tell you it is "stress". Give me a break.I got *&ssed and demanded xrays. Sure enough I had a fracture on my spine.
I bet Button got the aspergillosis years ago while at a boarder....

BB, I'm very sorry to hear Button has been diagnosed with asper. That is what killed Ginger. Just finished reading a pretty good page on it, and that is here at http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1829&articleid=2384. Best practices sort of indicates she would need to stay on that med for at least 30 days, perhaps longer, depending on the strain of asper she has. Did you by chance have her diagnosed using DNA-PCR?

I hope she pulls through with the meds and can get rid of that nasty little bug. I wish I could have caught Ginger's infection before I did, but I suspect she had it when I got her, and the stress of egg laying triggered her last outbreak.

Sam[/code]

Was Ginger a tiel too? how did you find out she had aspergillosis?Was it in her lungs or on her skin? Apparently she has it on her skin. the vet actually did not test for it but she has seen it enough before that she felt the test even if positive turns up negative so we are giving it a go.
I actually hope this is the case because at least it is treatable.
And she willl have had it for years. I guess she will be on the meds for over 40 days.....

I had the vet do a DNA-PCR test for it, and the results came back positive, or at least with a high enough score that it indicated that was the problem. Ginger was a 'tiel, and her problem was in her air sacs and more or less the whole respiratory system. I strongly suspect she had it when I got her, and the next morning after I purchased her, she was wheezing, coughing, and had mucous running out her nares. Vet did not at that time think it was asper, but more of a combination of stress from the move and some type of allergy. She cleared up shortly after starting meds then, but had several more severe flare-ups during the year I had her. The last episode is when we had her tested, and then, with the stresses of egg laying, she passed away. Aspergillosis can be very troublesome to some birds, and almost always is very difficult to cure. In fact, my vet said cure is not really possible, but control can reduce the effects of it. Ginger had no other problems that we were aware of, but in her case, the aspergillosis was fatal.

Sorry to hear about Ginger's passing...poor little girl
Button's nares and breathing are fine but her skin is a mess.
I pray this medicine does the trick. The poor thing has been suffering for so long....

Have you tried any type of topical treatment for the areas of her skin affected? When Chibi was in the stage of breaking flight feathers, he would routinely pick at them only making things worse, and at one point he had chewed himself completely raw on one wing tip. Vet prescribed the ointment Mupirocin 2% and that seemed to work pretty well for the affected areas. Once I applied the ointment, Chibi seemed to stop chewing on it, I assume because of it stopping the itching and also I suspect it does not taste good. At any rate, within about a week, all the redness and rawness had gone away and the area started to heal. I've never heard of aspergillosis affecting the skin, as it's usually a respiratory type bug. Just another tidbit you might run by the vet and see what he thinks about a topical treatment. I sure hope Button gets cleared up.

Sam

The vet did suggest a topical treatment as well. She is suppose to call this week to see how Button is doing but I am concerned because her poop now is green and mucus-like. I do not know if that is a side effect of the meds

I talked to the vet last night in regards to the green mucus poop (thank God) she said that so long as everything else is normal this is a good sign that the fungus is coming out of her sytem. I keep her cage super clean so nobody is walking in the yucky poop.