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They typically need to be given ~150mg, once a day, and it'll last for two weeks. The drug is very water insoluble, becomes almost like a paste, not suitable for tube feeding. And yes, this is for for real lifesaving medical research.

The best we can come up with right now is putting them to sleep, mixing the powder into Nutella, and putting it under their tongue. The idea being they'll wake up and swallow the mixture.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'd give this a veterinary tag, but it doesn't exist, and I don't have enough points. $\endgroup$
    – ezrock
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 0:12
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    $\begingroup$ So what's it soluble with? Could you dissolve it in oils, like coconut oil? I suppose it tastes too bad to just mix it with mashed bananas? $\endgroup$
    – Roberto
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 0:57
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    $\begingroup$ Can you mix it with food? Especially something what your macaques like? $\endgroup$
    – Chris ♦
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 15:52
  • $\begingroup$ Could you not suspend it in some liquid? $\endgroup$
    – canadianer
    Commented Jan 10, 2015 at 2:35

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If it is not water-soluble (lipophobic or hydrophilic), the only other alternative would be that it is fat-soluble (lipophilic or hydrophobic). Consider adding the powder to fatty solids or liquids which can be absorbed from the GI tract into the vascular system, if that is where you'd like the drug to go to be distributed throughout the body. Ideally, you would need to look up the target concentration of the drug within the blood in order to be effective, its volume of distribution, its bioavailability, its half-life, mechanism of metabolism, and calculate from there how much you would really need in order to last the full 2 weeks.

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    $\begingroup$ Thing's aren't always water or oil soluble, I've tried to dissolve indigo dye in several organic solvents with no luck. Of course any drug as insoluble as indigo would have terrible pharmacological properties. $\endgroup$
    – user137
    Commented Jan 10, 2015 at 1:48

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