Does anyone know about cinnamon and applesauce???

[KLS05]

My vet prescribed Doxycycline for my rats' sneezing and after trying for an hour to get it in them, I was only able to get each to take about half the dosage.  Of course, I didn't realize until late this evening when I tried to give it to them how difficult it would be (it's unflavored, green, and smells as horrible as I'm sure it tastes).

Is cinnamon applesauce safe for rats?  I know there's a lot of sugar but I'm sort of at a loss at the moment for what to try to mix it with?  It's the only thing around my house that I could think of and the girls seemed to eat a little bit of it. 

I'm giving up for the night but any info you can give about what I can mix my girls' nasty medicine with would be a phenomenal help!! 

[hairless_love]

I put cinnamon in my rats' oatmeal sometimes, but have never tried applesauce. I'm sure it would be fine though, as long as it is in small amounts, because of the sugar content as you said.

When I had a rat who would spit up his meds, I used baby food to help him get it down. You could try that too!

[looneycartoonie]

I have rats that are really picky about meds too and I use a little bit of soy milk. It mixes with the meds really good and they get used to the syringe too. :-)

[KLS05]

Great ideas! You guys are awesome! 

[trentsheba]

  Actually, I've read that applesauce is VERY good when they're sick anyway.  It replaces a lot of the vitamins they may not be getting, since they often don't eat as much when they're sick.  I personally, wouldn't worry too much about the sugar as long as you don't give it in large amounts.  It's not like it's going to be a steady diet.     

[KLS05]

Well, I tried the soy milk and that was a no-go but the cinnamon applesauce seems to have done a good job hiding the smell of the Doxycycline and hopefully the taste (?).  I would recommend this if you're ever in my spot!

[kferber]

I've been having to give one of my new boys Baytril. I tried mixing it with a lot of different things (not applesauce and cinnamon!) and the one thing that makes him gobble it up is yogurt.

[ScoutGotBig]

Mine like the cinnamon flavored applesauce, blueberry pancake syrup, sno-cone syrup (cherry is the one I found, and they'll fight for it), and the all time ever favorite of Hershey's syrup. 

I do give them tiny nibbles of the applesauce, blueberry syrup and sno-cone syrup - sugar and all - so they are used to the taste and I'm not forcing something weird at them for medicine.  Plus, mine now all think syringe = treat.  The blueberry syrup here is a VERY good way to hide Baytril.  The Sno-cone syrup hid the liquid Amoxi that Johanna thought was vile and disgusting after the 2nd dose.

The Hershey's is ONLY a treat with medicine, so they don't learn what it "should" taste like then refuse it if it tastes off.  But I will literally have to take the medicated rat out of the cage, lock everyone else up, then medicate or the other b(rats) are there shoving and pushing to steal the syringe.  I've got to have SOMETHING in my secret weapons stash to hide things in   Mine don't think applesauce + doxy is something worth taking.  Chocolate syrup + doxy = worlds finest treat.

Yogurt isn't the best to mix medicine with, unless your vet says ok.  It's a milk product and some drugs react differently with the milk.

[kferber]

Yogurt isn't the best to mix medicine with, unless your vet says ok.  It's a milk product and some drugs react differently with the milk.

Baytril is okay to mix with yogurt. I think Doxy is NOT okay to mix yogurt with. I checked with my vet to make sure 

[KLS05]

Well, after my experience at this particular vet yesterday, I decided to take my other girl to another vet to give her the shot I was given as well as a "second opinion".  This vet was much better than the first one.  She was great with handling her, seemed to know what she was talking about, AND gave me some new meds. 

She told me that it seemed like the girls were probably in the beginning stages of a respiratory thing that is likely contagious since they had come from a petstore.  She went ahead and gave Katie a shot of Baytril (like the one Izzie had been given by the other vet) but provided me with flavored Doxycline to be given 2x a day for 14 days in addition to oral Baytril.

I don't know much about what's good for rattie girls but this seems to be much more concurrent with what I've read online about antibiotics being given for at least two weeks and in combinations.  SOOO...big fingers crossed that this works for my girls.  If you know anything about this combo, feel free to leave thoughts.  I appreciate all of the feedback.


In addition to another response I saw on this thread, I was told by the vet today to not mix my girls' Doxy with dairy because it counteracts with cultures in the medicines (?).  Thought I'd pass that along. 

[Marybelle]

Yup, 2 weeks is standard with respiratory infections, so sounds like the new vet knows what she's doing!   

And yeah, we don't recommend yogurt as a mixer for most meds simply because the calcium in the yogurt can bind with the active ingredients in the antibiotic and render it useless.  At least that's always been my understanding of the way it works.   

I've had good luck so far with using pancake syrup for my kids.  It's very rare that one of them turns down meds mixed with syrup. 

[ScoutGotBig]

Yogurt isn't the best to mix medicine with, unless your vet says ok.  It's a milk product and some drugs react differently with the milk.

Baytril is okay to mix with yogurt. I think Doxy is NOT okay to mix yogurt with. I checked with my vet to make sure 

Baytril is generally ok with yogurt, but a lot of medications that are rat safe aren't (Doxy is a biggie), so I just don't recommend it to be safe.  How it works (ok, it's 9:30 pm, it's been a long day) is that the calcium in milk binds to the medication and it's then useless as it's too large to be absorbed properly.  I think.  It's been a while since I've taken a medical class.  If you really want the exact reasoning, I'll ask my FI next time I see him and we are both coherent (I work days, he works nights )

Plus, the other thing is a personal human thing - if I'm congested (often allergy or asthma related) and drink milk or eat a milk product, I notice that my mucus seems thicker and it's harder for me to breathe.  I don't know if that's normal (I admit to be a freak, medically and personally ), but I just feel safer to avoid milk products in rats with URI.  Esp when there are a ton of other "treats" out there to hide medicine in.

Doxy remains the 2nd hardest medication I've had to hide - then again, I've had them trying to steal the Cocker's Rimadyl (in the bottle, they didn't get any) and have had Reggie (my  rat) at one point BEGGING for liver flavored Baytril tabs.  Plus, I've never had a problem giving Metacam except to Johanna, who is a flat out booger, so she doesn't count.  So my experiences with medication may be odd   The hardest remains Tamoxifen, I've never had a girl like that except in blueberry pancake syrup or in Hershey's, and even then, I've got to really cut it, so they get a huge load of sugar to take it.  Like seriously - last girl on it took her dose in 2 cc of Hershey's.  Rat with massive tumor on a sugar high    PITA was a brat.