Difficult to medicate

Hi. I have a large (almost 15 lbs) Flemish mix who is supposed to be receiving treatment for snuffles. He is incredibly resistant to having things near/in his mouth and I can't put him in the usual hold (his butt in the crook of my arm) because he is too big and strong. Recently he has started turning his head at the last minute and biting the syringe. Today he bit through it and it exploded (mostly in my face!). Help?! Suggestions appreciated!

Have you tried to bunny burrito him? (wrap him in a towel) sit cross legged on the ground, put the bunny burrito in your lap, and focus yourself on dealing with the head. Try and bring the syring more to the very corner of the mouth and towards the back, while holding his head and keeping him from misbehaving with your other hand.

When I burrito him he ends up pretending he's a turtle and tries to retract his head. I try very hard to keep the syringe in the cheek pocket but he likes to grab it and bite. I will try having him in my lap and see if that helps.

I tend to do a different burrito then most other people. Please ensure you are careful.
Bring your bunny to the edge of the towel so the edge will end up where there neck is, grab a corner and bring it over the bunny but angle it somewhat towards the other side (back of bunny)of a towel, and REALLY tuck it in, same for the other side. You should be doing this tight enough that they cannot get out of the burrito or tuck their head in, the edge should be just below their chin and behind their ears.

If you can do this on a chair or table, and use your body to kind of hold him down with your faces pointed the same direction, while using your non dominant hand to control the head and prevent him from trying to move forward, use your other hand to handle the syringe.

Does he like canned pumpkin? If you're not sure, give him some to check. It's handy for emergency syringe-feeding and for treating tummies ill from too much fur, anyway. If he likes it, mix his meds into a small amount of pumpkin and put it on a plate/bowl for him. I do this for my bun Loki, who gets 3 meds in the morning and 4 in the evening. He loves pumpkin and he's hard to syringe meds into unless he's very under the weather.

If he doesn't like pumpkin, you can also try no-sugar-added applesauce, mashed banana, carrot baby food, etc.

I have a heck of a time trying to medicate Mickey, he's a terror, he HATES anything touching his mouth or chin. Fourteen pounds of feet, teeth and violent head flicks. (And he's such a nice guy when you're not touching his mouth or chin). I think if I need to medicate him again, we're going for shots or Convenia, it lasts about 8 days in rabbits.

I'll try that burrito method first tho, thanks for that!

sas :bunnynurse:

I've tried pumpkin puree, squash and sweet potato baby food, sugar free applesauce... sigh.

Heres a quick how to "Rotten Bunny" Burrito.
I have used this method for nasty cats for years.
This will all be done with your rabbit on a table, and you behind them.
Get a thin towel, you will want there to be a few extra inches infront and behind your bunny of the towel.
Place bunny in the center of the towel faceing away from you. Lager edges of towel will be infront/behind bunny.


Bring the front of the towel over your bunnys paws, and under their chin, up to their neck, fairly firmly.


Grab the front corner of the towel and tuck it in. Being sure to be careful, but keeping tension on the towel around the neck


do the same with the other side. The entire towel should be somewhat snug around the bunny and you should only be able to slip a finger between the towel and your bunnys neck. You want this to be tight but you do not want to harm them. At this point you will now be leaning over onto your rabbit, kind of squish them between your chest and thet able, they should not be able to back out because now youre in the way, and youre in control.


Their legs will be totally enclosed, they should NOT be able to slip their front paws through the neck hole.


Using the palm of your hand, place that on the top of their skull and grip their head, use your middle and ring finger and place those on their jaw bone, NOT the fleshy part in the middle but directly on the bone. You should have a fairly firm grip on their head but at the same time do not be too rough. Use your index and thumb to lift their lips. They should not be able to move their head while you are doing this. Quickly stick the syringe in there.


This is all happening while you are ontop of your bunny (NOT SQUISHING THEM)

Give it a try.

Had to make sure her bunny was okay after all that, phew!


She let out quite the thump when she hopped down to the floor.

^ Your bunny is completly adorable! Just thought I'd throw that out there and state the obvious! :biggrin:

As to buritoing, I burito mine about the same way as you explained and it works well. Then again I've only had holland lops and mini rexes which are alot smaller than a flemish. lol

Thanks you for the demo! I will definitely try that tomorrow.

The burrito definitely helped! Still had to fight to keep him from biting the syringe but it went MUCH smoother. Thank you!