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I am currently giving meds to my lovie as he has a bacterial infection. So far we doing quite well overall getting the meds into his mouth, but one time I think we may have done something wrong, and it scared me to death.......he seemed like he was wheezing afterwards and I think some came through his nose as one side seemed a little darker in color for a day or two afterwards. He was just fine after a few minutes, but I don't want that to happen again! Any tips on giving meds that might prevent that from happening again? Also, now that he's wise to what we are doing..... after we get the meds in, he will go from us and right away shake his head trying to the meds out......one time little drops of it sprayed out when he shook his head....little stinker! All of the other times though we really did a good job......he has been taking them now for three days, twice a day.

I've doled out a lot of doses of liquid meds over time and relate wholeheartedly to your situation. Aspiration and aspiration pneumonia are horrible fears of anyone in your shoes. I doubt that any of us without professional training could give you a foolproof method, but I would love to hear how often those with professional training have the same problems getting meds into sick birds.

My techniques have always been, first, calming myself before approaching the bird, just stopping for a second or two and slowing my breathing, relaxing muscles, and telling myself I CAN do it. I approach casually, talking with the bird in a friendly way. I use as little restraint as needed for the bird and always keep him upright so gravity works for us. I insert the syringe as close as possible to where the upper and lower beaks meet and squirt a small amount at a time, allowing him to swallow it before the next squirt.

The best way IMO is to serve the meds in a tiny bit of food the bird loves and fully devours pronto. I'm lucky to have a very food-motivated amazon who is on a lifetime regimen of 3 daily meds that he eats this way, praise be I've always cultivated a love of plain, fat-free yogurt by my flock for just this purpose of delivering meds. Each gets a little dab of yogurt daily so they don't even realize when I've spiked it I've had several smaller birds who love the taste of their meds and will lick them from a tiny condiment spoon. Sometimes it takes a few tries for them to realize this is a special treat just for them It's worth the effort!

Good luck to you and your lovie.

Ok.....another succesful medicating day! Yay! I'm thinking what you wrote about always keeping him upright may help, and my boyfriend always holds him back down, face up and I think sometimes he might tend to want to angle him with his head down lower as it's easier for him to see and get the meds in. I am right there now every time reminding him to please keep his head UP! and we seem to be doing ok! We all are pretty calm here and have the reassurance that we have done this before with my tiel and didn't have any problems with that one.......this one though, well, if you know how lovies are, you know they don't make anything easy! They are small, slippery little stinkers too and boy are they quick! even with his wings just clipped he can give us a run for the money! Smart too.......as soon as my boyfriend came home, we went to get Pip out of cage to give meds......well he wasn't coming out! He knows I usually always let him out so when Kevin opened the door for him, he knew something was up! Are these little guys too smart or what?