Help! Chin won't eat Metacam

[Phil]

I just noticed last night that one of my daughters chins was not using one of his back legs. O took him to the only very i could get an appointment with (I've just moved house) but no 'exotic pet' specialist was available.
The vet was lovely and sympathetic, but admitted that other than not being able to see any external problem she couldnt identity the cause. She prescribed Metacam, and said she would refer to the local zoo /vet college after the weekend if no improvement was seen. So far so good. But it's a 4 day weekend in the uk (easter) and the chin (Chena - named after Chena hot springs in Alaska) will not go near the Metacam. He hates when we put a sringe near his mouth, and won't eat food with the Matcam on it.
Please help!

 

[tunes]

Is he eating and drinking? Is he peeing and pooping? Does he act like he's in pain or is he just not using the leg? Did she do x-rays? Seeing an "external problem" isn't going to tell her if the bone is broken. If he's not using his leg at all, it needs x-rayed.

If it was me, I would confine him to a small carrier/cage where he can not move around a lot and start calling around for a vet who will x-ray that leg.

 

[Phil]

Thanks Tunes,
Dound advice, I'll transfer him to the carrier cage in the morning. He's eating ok, I'm not sure about drinking as he shares a water bottle with his brother and it seems to be going down ok. I'll know better when he's in isolation. I did phone around the vets in the area, but none are open for non emergency work until Tuesday (for emergency read £150+ for the consultancy) and none of the vets I spoke to were offering this for an unregistered exotic anyway. The vet did say she could take an xray, but said she did not feel this was worthwhile because of lack of experience with small pets.
Oh, the pooping working just fine and he seems happy and lively, just a bit more reserved than usual (and more hoppy).
He's clearly in pain, but it's not getting him down as far as I can tell.
I don't think I have any practical option other than to give the metacom and wait until tuesday (hoping that it's a sprain)

 

[Phil]

Update,
I took some of the monkey nuts that Chena loves as a treat, then roasted them in tinfoil over the fire for an hour. After the roasted nuts had cooled I used mashed them down with the metacam to make nut-metacam sausages which Chena would eat from my hand (so I knew they'd gone down).
As a trial I took the vets suggestion and combined this with Ribena (the original full sugar variety) and these were immediately eastern by Chena's brother (Smudge).
I tried separating the two brothers, but Chena became distressed so I put him back in the main cage where he seems settled and peaceful.

 

[Phil]

Update:
I've found that by roasting his favourite monkey nuts I can then mush them down into a paste into which I can add the metacam then shape them into medicated peanut treats which go down really well.
I also took the suggestion of the vet and added a drop Ribena (the original full sugar version) which seem to just disappear.