What is the easiest , safest way to administer oral, liqiud medication to a lizard ?

Question

I do not want to injure the Uromastxy mouth by prying the mouth open . He will not take the medication if it is put on his food .

Answer 1

Hold your lizard head pointed toward the sky, holding the head between your thumb and fingers from behind the head at the point where the jaw hinges meet the skull. Gently squeeze until the mouth slightly opens. You are not hurting your lizard it is a reflexive action (as long as you don't squeeze too hard, you don't have to apply that much pressure)

When the mouth opens slightly, use a dropper or a syringe without a needle to inject the meds into it's mouth. Your lizard may spit some out but he will get most of it. They don't have a gag reflex like humans do and it is very hard for them to reject something already in their throat.

I have bearded dragons, North American collared lizards, a few different types of iguanids and a few other types of lizards. If I am not mistaken Uromastyx is not a very large lizard so this should not be difficult. It is hard to do on a bearded dragon at full growth but they are 20-26" H-T at full grown size. I still can do it with them so you should have no problem. I can do this even with my Green Iguana and he is about 3.5 feet from nose to cloaca so his head is quite large but as I said, it's a reflexive action and doesn't require much pressure. You aren't hurting them.

Just apply very gentle constant pressure. The jaw will open out of reflex. The lizard will probably close it's eyes when the jaw starts to open. This is normal too.

Answer 2

Does he have a favorite food that he eats? If it's something you can mash up (or buy in a baby food) try mixing a small amount of his medication into it. Depending on his size, you could try injecting the meds into a piece of hard fruit of vegetable, but don't go withthis if the piece would be too large for him.

You could try giving the mashed up or baby food mixture to him with a turkey baster/baby medication dropper (use plastic in case he bites down) or rolling the mixture inside a piece of lettuce.

Hope these ideas help!

Answer 3

Try using an eye dropper to administer it. Put it in the crease where its mouth meets its head and exert a LITTLE pressure and see if it's mouth opens...then squirt it in.

Answer 4

i find it easy to use a plastic spoon and it slips right into their mouth thats how i get my iguanas to drink when their in breeding season