Heart murmur. 0.02ml benazepril. Hard to take such small amount.

[Hannah_xx]

Hello!
Was just after some advice for giving tiny amounts of medication.
As most of you know little Olive has always had a heart murmur. At her check up yesterday it appears her murmur has progressed. It’s now quite significant. But thankfully I haven’t seen any worrying signs that indicate that it’s become problematic.
My vet and I decided it was best to start her on Benazepril, A medicine that will slow her blood pressure thus reducing the amount of work her heart has to do. Which hopefully will prolong her life, and help her heart stay healthy for longer.
Being such a small pig, weighing in at around 815 at roughly 3.5 years old. She only needs a teeny amount of the medication. 0.02ml once a day. Unfortunately it smells bad, therefore it’s not a case of just asking her to take the syringe while in the cage. Because this is going to be ongoing, for the rest of her life (if she goes well with it). I’d like to find an easy way of giving to her without having to get her out everyday. She hates being handled. If it was just a short course of medication of course I’d just get her out and administer it. But like I say, it’s ongoing.
Also being such a tiny amount I’m already finding it hard to make sure it actually comes out the syringe! It’s literally I dot of a drop! Often it doesn’t come out. But I can’t be sure when the syringe is in her mouth, it’s impossible to tell if she’s taken it or not.
I tried putting it on a piece of broccoli yesterday.. she smelt of and said NO!
Today I put it on a piece of cucumber, which worked!…BUT, again being such a small drop I fear that it wiped off straight away on the fleece while she was eating the skin first!
Anyone have any advice or ideas?
Thank you!

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

Hi, is it a watery solution or oily? If it is watery, I would try to dilute it.
If you take 0.1 ml of the medicine, add 0.9 ml water, you get a 1:10 dilution. Mix it really good and use 0.2 ml of this dilution. This contains the same amount of medicine as 0.02 ml of the original.
But this doesn't work with oily solutions.

As for the bad taste, I'm afraid you have to stick to the syringe. I wouldn't give meds any other way if it is essential that the piggy get's the right dosage.

When I had to give a drop of CBD oil to Hailey I used her favourite pellets that I usually only gave as a treat. Some days it worked, sometimes it didn't. But this was just supplementary.

 

[Hannah_xx]

Hi, is it a watery solution or oily? If it is watery, I would try to dilute it.
If you take 0.1 ml of the medicine, add 0.9 ml water, you get a 1:10 dilution. Mix it really good and use 0.2 ml of this dilution. This contains the same amount of medicine as 0.02 ml of the original.
But this doesn't work with oily solutions.

As for the bad taste, I'm afraid you have to stick to the syringe. I wouldn't give meds any other way if it is essential that the piggy get's the right dosage.

When I had to give a drop of CBD oil to Hailey I used her favourite pellets that I usually only gave as a treat. Some days it worked, sometimes it didn't. But this was just supplementary.

Thank you so much for your advice! I’ll have a look in the morning whether it’s oily or watery, that would be so helpful if I could mix it with water so that I know I’m getting the full dose into her. I did try putting it with a little bit of critical care, which she usually enjoys. But she wouldn’t accept it.

 

[Eriathwen]

Please make sure you check with your vet before diluting the medication, some cant/shouldn't be diluted to work effectively. If youre struggling, it might be an idea to ask your vet for 0.5ml syringes, I use these for ivermectin usually but they also make giving small doses much easier. What I do with bad tasting things is to get one syringe with the medication and one with something tasty in, luckily for me the one who doesnt like her paracetamol really likes her metacam so I use that, but a small amount of cucumber flavoured water or something will work, I call them over and give them the syringe of something tasty then put the syringe of medication they don't like in the mouth last minute and they don't seem to realise or mind. It worked great when I injured my back a couple of years back and couldn't stand up or pick the piggies up.

 

[Hannah_xx]

Thank you for your advice!
I definitely will check with my vet if I decided I wanted to dilute for easier administration.
The past 2 nights I’ve successfully put it into cucumber and apple that she’s fully eaten