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Tramadol - disguising the taste

N

nessar

Warren Veteran
I would really appreciate anyone's experience of how to disguise the taste of tramadol capsules as the first dose didn't go down well. Barney needs to have 45mg twice a day but a bowl of critical care didn't disguise it enough. Ideally I need a solution that I can use long term that is reasonably gentle on the tummy and doesn't involve force-feeding.

Any other experiences of the using the drug in rabbits would also be welcome, I am really concerned about using such a strong and addictive painkiller on him (although is it physically addictive in rabbits?). I am also worried about a potential negative effect on gut motility as this is also a problem for him. He is on it due to some old spinal injuries that were discovered last week through X-rays, including something similar to a slipped disk.
 
What about some watered down sugar free apple juice?

I am surprised to hear they give Tramadol to bunnies. Poor thing.
 
What a shame critical care didn't disguise it well enough. It may be worth trying recovery food or whichever other food you haven't tried, just in case the urge to eat the food overwhelms the slight nasty taste?

I would say if you try different things and they still don't work, keep periodically trying the recovery food as even my little idiot Tapla understood after a few days that it was easier for her to take it in the food than any other method.

Nena never hesitated to have any tramadol mixed with recovery food or critical care, so I'm not too much help there. Nena did perfectly fine on it after her surgeries for a period of about 5-6 days each time - 3 in total. In rabbits it does not have the same sort of sedative and dizzy affects as in humans - my vet explained that typically it's processed in two ways... in humans it causes dizziness, nausea etc and provides decent painkilling affects; but in rabbits it doesn't cause the same sort of level of side effects but gives very effective painkilling. I'm not sure how it may affect gut mobility but I never noticed any affect on Nena at all... her appetite was normal and her poops were normal; and neither did I notice any sleepiness or dopeyness at all. You honestly wouldn't have noticed she was on it, apart from the fact that you knew that she wouldn't be in pain. I'm not sure about how addictive it may be in rabbits, but knowing both that the side effects are minimal in rabbits compared to humans and that I was never told to wean off it or anything I would assume that there's no massive, crippling, instant addiction there.
 
MummyBunnyEm said:
What about some watered down sugar free apple juice?

I am surprised to hear they give Tramadol to bunnies. Poor thing.
Click to expand...

I will get some apple and carrot juice to try it with tomorrow, but I don't think the taste will be strong enough as I've needed a fair bit to disguise baytril before.

Currently he also takes baytril, metacam, metaclopramide, Zantac and bisolvon all in the critical care with no problem, so I imagine the Tramadol must taste disgusting, although obviously I haven't tried it myself.
 
yaretzi said:
What a shame critical care didn't disguise it well enough. It may be worth trying recovery food or whichever other food you haven't tried, just in case the urge to eat the food overwhelms the slight nasty taste?

I would say if you try different things and they still don't work, keep periodically trying the recovery food as even my little idiot Tapla understood after a few days that it was easier for her to take it in the food than any other method.

Nena never hesitated to have any tramadol mixed with recovery food or critical care, so I'm not too much help there. Nena did perfectly fine on it after her surgeries for a period of about 5-6 days each time - 3 in total. In rabbits it does not have the same sort of sedative and dizzy affects as in humans - my vet explained that typically it's processed in two ways... in humans it causes dizziness, nausea etc and provides decent painkilling affects; but in rabbits it doesn't cause the same sort of level of side effects but gives very effective painkilling. I'm not sure how it may affect gut mobility but I never noticed any affect on Nena at all... her appetite was normal and her poops were normal; and neither did I notice any sleepiness or dopeyness at all. You honestly wouldn't have noticed she was on it, apart from the fact that you knew that she wouldn't be in pain. I'm not sure about how addictive it may be in rabbits, but knowing both that the side effects are minimal in rabbits compared to humans and that I was never told to wean off it or anything I would assume that there's no massive, crippling, instant addiction there.
Click to expand...

Thank you, that's really comforting. I've been worried about it because it is not my vet that has prescribed it, the specialist that my vet sent the X-rays to did (John Chitty), and because he's not Barney's vet I can't ring him up and discuss my worries. I do one late shift a week at work and I won't be home to give it to him at the normal time of 7, it'll be more like 9.30-10 and I'm not sure on how important the timing is with tramadol? My plan is to give it 7am and 7pm most days.
Did you ever try disguising it in anything else?
 
My bunny Sparkle had Tramadol for spine problems and ate it mixed in watered down science selective pellets, along with steroids.. he loved it. Unfortunately, the vet took him off Tramadol and he went downhill rapidly and had to be put to sleep .... if it helps the bunny then I see no problem him being on it, if you can get him to take it!
 
nessar said:
Thank you, that's really comforting. I've been worried about it because it is not my vet that has prescribed it, the specialist that my vet sent the X-rays to did (John Chitty), and because he's not Barney's vet I can't ring him up and discuss my worries. I do one late shift a week at work and I won't be home to give it to him at the normal time of 7, it'll be more like 9.30-10 and I'm not sure on how important the timing is with tramadol? My plan is to give it 7am and 7pm most days.
Did you ever try disguising it in anything else?
Click to expand...

I didn't try anything else conciously, but I did switch from recovery food to excel critical care half way through and the critical care is stronger in smell/taste - just in case it's recovery food you have rather than critical care. When Nena was skinny quite a while ago I did mush up some pellets and they too smelled a lot more strongly especially when in warm water, so perhaps that might tempt him? With or without the baby food to make it extra tasty! At times I did add in apple juice from fresh apples to make it tastier for her too, and that did actually smell quite yummy so it might be worth a bit of an experiement. Apple and carrot together was nice according to Nena!

Because of my work schedule at the time the first round of tramadol wasn't able to be given at 12 hour intervals and it never affected her that I could tell. I have at times given the morning dose at 7-8am and the evening dose at 12-1 with no visible discomfort from Nena, although she was also on metacam. As far as I can remember, I remember discussing with this my vet and she said dosing at slightly odd intervals was fine on the odd occasion as like metacam it doesn't last 24 hours but lasts over 12 hours.

Hope he takes it nice and easy for you soon :love:
 
Just a little update - he still won't take it in the critical care but I have had some success with baby food. I'm currently using Ella's kitchen fruit ones as they don't have added stuff like some other brands. He liked carrot at first but then refused to touch it, refused to even try prune but will eat apple, although won't lick the bowl clean with apple. But we seem to have hit a winner with the strawberry and apple one! The sugar content won't be great for his gut problems, but he's only getting 2 teaspoons a day.

He has also stopped weeing on himself which I think is a direct result of the tramadol, so that's great. I'm not noticing any other real signs of him being on it though, other than the fact that he's being more naughty in general, which is probably a good thing :)
 
Could you try the mushed up pellets with either a dab of mushy banana, or with a dab of the Ellas? I make hay cookies for my bun using a mix of majority hay, bit of ground up pellets and a little puree fruit, mashed banana, or Ellas' and she goes mad for it.
 
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It was always trial and error trying to get Flopsy to take his tramadol, he loathed it. For 6 weeks he would have it in his critical care and then he suddenly went off critical care, it wasn't until his last few weeks that he started taking critical care again. We would do a mix of Ella's kitchen banana purée and critical care and then mix 1/2 of the capsule in.

It's not easy, I can really sympathise there.

Good luck!
 
I'm not on here very often at the moment, but spotted the title so thought I would post.

My Daisy is on Tramadol for spondylosis in her spine. A couple of months ago the deterioration seemed to be accelerating, so my vet put her on Tramadol twice a day, in addition to her twice daily metacam, to make sure any pain/discomfort was covered. Daisy is doing noticeably better since being on Tramadol, it seems to be good stuff and is doing its job well for her. I haven't noticed any side effects with Daisy, she's been on it for almost two months now.

I give Daisy her Tramadol dissolved in Ribena via syringe, immediately followed by tasty herbs to take the nasty taste away. I'm lucky as Daisy is quite an easy bunny to medicate, so it's not too much of an ordeal getting it into her. Daisy's Tramadol is in tablet form, which I crush and then dissolve in the Ribena. I've no idea whether the capsule variety tastes any different/better/worse.

Daisy also has monthly Cartrophen injections. It helps to keep the cartilage healthy and is good for animals with arthritis-type conditions. I don't know whether it would be any help for Barney's condition, but might be worth investigating.
 
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