A more humane way to give metronidazole?

[treeclimber]

First metronidazole pill went down VERY easily.

The vet tech warned me that the pill was very bitter, so I decided to try Greenies Pill Pockets. They were huge, so I just took a tiny piece and molded it around the pill - it’s like dough, so it can be reshaped at will. They made it so the pill never came into direct contact with his tongue, so he didn’t it and it didn’t stick to his tongue. (Now that I’ve tried them I think I’ll use them for any pill he gets, not just metronidazole.)

He had no interest in eating it, but when I popped it in his mouth he swallowed it easily - no slobbering, no struggling, no shrieking like he’s being stepped on, no ending up with liquid metronidazole all over both of us. Just swallow, nose lick, and “are we done? can I have my dinner now?”

He is MUCH happier with this new way of getting his med!

 

[treeclimber]

Please do look into the s. boulardii. It is much better than metro. It will fix the damage metro is doing to his biome as well as reduce the bad boys that metro will let flourish. And there's other benefits to s. boulardii besides scavenging pathogenic strains that make it useful as an ongoing supplement for IBD cats.

I’ve had a chance to look into S. Boulardii now - WOW! There are a lot of good published studies supporting that one!

Evidence on mannan-oligosaccharides doesn’t look quite as consistent, but there are some encouraging studies and it doesn’t seem likely to do any harm.

I’ve ordered the Jarrow, thank you for suggesting this!!

 

[treeclimber]

There has been a huge, night-and-day difference change over the weekend.

At first his appetite seemed to go down on the metronidazole, but now it’s the best it’s been in a year, he accepted 3/3 of the new foods I offered this weekend (until now his “accept” rate has been less than 5%), and every morning I wake up to an empty food bowl.

He has a few more days of metronidazole left to go. The probiotics are here and ready to repopulate his gut with good microbes as soon as he’s finished the metronidazole (and hopefully prevent the need to do this again in the future).

It’s really nice to see him enjoying food again!!