How to administer meds to an untamed budgie? Liver issue

[chromatixa]

My budgie got diagnosed with a fatty liver today. I've had her for around 9 years, got her when I was a wee little kid and I love her dearly.
She's been prescribed 3 different liquid medications: hepato support, metronidazole, and enrofloxacin. I only have to give her 0.02 ml of each, but for 14 days.
My little girl is untamed and is extremely fearful of hands. How do I give her the medication when I can barely grab her? I can only mix in the hepato support with food, which I've squirted onto some millet spray, but even then she's avoiding it. But the other two meds have to be administered directly.

I usually can let her out of the cage to fly around, and when she gets tired I'm able to grab her, but it's so much stress, especially when two of the meds have to be administered twice a day. I really don't want to be putting her through that. Is there any way to avoid this and give her the medication another way?
She usually likes to lick water droplets off any vegetables I give her, but I've heard the medicines taste pretty bad for them, so I'm guessing she'd just spit it out if it was on some broccoli or something.

Edit: has anyone had success stories with those meds? It's the first time I've gone to that particular vet

 

[Kassiani]

The only thing I can speak to is delivering meds to untamed budgies. My budgies are not ones that I can just offer a syringe and they'll take medication either. Earlier this year, they were on an antibiotic (orbifloxacin), and they also had elevated liver enzymes. I started out toweling them and using the syringe to administer the meds. I felt terrible doing it, and the orbifloxacin was so thick it was difficult to get the dose out of the syringe accurately without drawing up much more than the dose itself. So, as ill-advised as this may be, I would measure the drop onto a tip of millet (one for each bird), and offer the millet tips to them. They would eat the medicine covered millet without a problem.

But, I don't know if that is a technique that your vet would approve. After a lengthy discussion of various ways to give the meds with my vet, this is what we settled on.

 

[taxidermynerd]

Just towel them and get it over with. You can rebuild that trust later.

@Hankmacaw

 

[Karen]

She's been prescribed 3 different liquid medications: hepato support, metronidazole, and enrofloxacin. I only have to give her 0.02 ml of each, but for 14 days.
My little girl is untamed and is extremely fearful of hands. How do I give her the medication when I can barely grab her? I can only mix in the hepato support with food, which I've squirted onto some millet spray, but even then she's avoiding it. But the other two meds have to be administered directly.

You will have to deliver them all directly. You can rebuild trust after she's feeling better. Don't feel like you are doing something bad when you're actually saving her life. If you're unable to towel her directly in the cage, let her out in a small closet or safe bathroom area.

 

[Hankmacaw]

@taxidermynerd Said perfecly. If it were their child, would they not give prescribed medication because the child threw a fit?

 

[tka]

Can you give her a tiny bit of bread or biscuit which has the medication soaked in?

 

[Kassiani]

That was another trick my vet thought might work, do soak a small piece of bread with the dose of medicine. The problem for my boys is that they don't like bread. It would have to be a small piece of something they would eat completely.

 

[tka]

My girl is obsessed with Caitec's Oven Fresh Bites parrot cookies. Obsessed. I have to hide the bag or she tries to get into it or begs incessantly.

They're large and she gets a quarter of one per day - you'd have to break them into even smaller bits for a budgie. They soak up liquid medication well and Leia at least sees them as a high value treat that she'll do her best not to drop.

 

[chromatixa]

You will have to deliver them all directly. You can rebuild trust after she's feeling better. Don't feel like you are doing something bad when you're actually saving her life. If you're unable to towel her directly in the cage, let her out in a small closet or safe bathroom area.

Thanks for the video! Because of covid the vet didn't allow anyone inside so I wasn't able to see what they were doing with her, and couldn't ask them to show me how to give the meds.