Flavored Pet Medications

I ran across this press release about flavored pet medications this morning and wondered if anyone else has tried giving their gerbils flavored medications? If so, how did your gerbils like it?

Back in February, Lindsay started on Baytril, which gerbils usually hate taking because it tastes so bitter. My vet suggested giving Lindsay the Baytril with a little bit of sugar-free organic apple juice. Lindsay loved taking the Baytril this way. She eagerly licked at the needleless syringe every time I offered it to her.

As you may already know, Lindsay's illness progressed, and later she was on the much stronger antibiotic chloramphenicol. The pharmacy mixed this up with an apple flavor so that Lindsay would like it... But she never could stand taking the chloramphenicol, even with the apple flavor, so giving her her meds several times a day was not pleasant. This article suggests that gerbils prefer the bubblegum and grape flavors, so I wish I'd tried those instead of the apple!

I mentioned that Lindsay loved taking her Baytril with apple juice, but Pippi's too smart for that trick. When she was taking Baytril, she knew it was medicine, and she didn't like it one bit. Not even with the apple juice. Of course, I still made her take her medicine. She just didn't like it very much. ;)

I think it's still pretty rare to add flavoring to gerbil medications, but if any of you have experiences (positive or negative) with giving your gerbils or other rodents flavored pet medications or medications mixed with fruit juice, please add a comment to this post so that we can all hear about it!