Oral medication application

[Mushy]

Good morning, I took my veiled to his vet about a week ago and got a fecal check up w a general health checkup alongside the culture and sensitivity test, and all looked good until the cult&sens test. My little guy tested positive for salmonella, unfortunately. According to the vet, she's assuming he was birthed with it, which came to me as a shock since I didn't know reptiles could be born w salmonella, but I was offered some medication that I would need to go pick up later this morning that needs to given to him orally, and as a novice cham owner myself I am not too sure what's the "proper" way I should go about medicating him, like how do I get him to gape his mouth long enough to get the fluid in his mouth? Should I try injecting the meds into a feeder and giving it to him before it dies? Should I try prying his mouth open gently with my fingers or with some type of item? Any tips or anything really would help a lot, thanks

 

[janjan20]

Hi there! Why is the vet treating for salmonella? To my knowledge salmonella can be considered normal flora in reptiles and not pathogenic to them. My chameleons have it as well. IMO I would ask the vet why the treatment. You don’t want to give antibiotics if it’s not necessary. It will likely wipe out other important enteric flora. If he has diarrhea and it’s the only thing growing then I could see that. Also, since they did culture it ask what quantity it was compared to the other enteric flora.

Edit: Did they also check for parasites? Like worms, coccidia, etc...

 

[CasqueAbove]

Firs, every thing @janjan20 . But if you, and I say if. You need it this is by Petr ecas on how to force hydrate. It will show you. Be cautious if you are new, be careful of their wind pipe which is up close in the mouth. Make sue you don't get anything in it.
I am not very experienced with salmonella, but I agree with @janjan I thought it was more or less a natural part of reptiles. That is why we are always told to wash our hands after handling reptiles.

 

[Beman]

Another good resource on giving meds http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2014/05/how-to-give-different-medicines.html

 

[janjan20]

Firs, every thing @janjan20 . But if you, and I say if. You need it this is by Petr ecas on how to force hydrate. It will show you. Be cautious if you are new, be careful of their wind pipe which is up close in the mouth. Make sue you don't get anything in it.
I am not very experienced with salmonella, but I agree with @janjan I thought it was more or less a natural part of reptiles. That is why we are always told to wash our hands after handling reptiles.

Another good resource on giving meds http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2014/05/how-to-give-different-medicines.html

Forgot to add lol! Thanks for the backup!