Tricking the £$%^&*'s into taking antibiotics

So, we had a scare with Cringer with what we thought was a Zymbal's Gland Tumor.
Panic, chaos, despirate attempt to find cagemates.... aaaand it seems it was an abscess.
Took him to see Suzanne this morning, and while she also suspected ZGT, when she aspirated the mass to get something for labwork she got pus... lots of pus.
Apparently, as it was also leaking out his ear at the extraction time, she suspects in mid ear infection that abscessed (but ZGT could still be a reality).

Now onto the main reason for this post; he will NOT take his antibiotics (or Metacam).
I have successfully tempted him with peanut butter, failed with plain applesauce I made when I got home, got him to eat almost all of it using scrambled egg.
I had tried getting him to take the metacam and synulox with some applesauce, but he would NOT go near the metacam, so I had to throw that out and try with scrambled egg.
I managed to force a bit of ibuprofen, and then he had the audacity to lick the syringe after as if he would have taken it voluntarily.

He has no observable pain, and no swelling has returned since the lancing.
I'm worried the battles for medication will cause more stress on his system than the antibiotic would resolve.

This guy is suspicious and wriggly, not a fan of sweet foods and is just causing a lot of issues in general.
I'm thinking I might have to get some different meat scraps for each instance and make them into a paste with the synulox tablets, otherwise he will lose interest/get suspicious.
Any body have any success with their guys and different foods?

Okay, update:
Mushing the antibiotic tablets into a paste with a meaty cat treat seems to do the trick, he was looking for seconds after.
I've also started moving his cagemate out of the cage instead of the patient, so that he feels safer and doesn't panic whenever we have to grab him.
He has had no swelling since the initial drainage, so I have seen no need to put him through the stress and pain of us squeezing his wound.
All in all, he is happy, and we have learned how to deal with picky eaters... yaaay   

Good to hear you've found something that works :)ive had a few picky ones too,but not feeding them until theyve taken their meds and trying 53637370 things works MOST of the time.Although if its a rat thats really weak obviously i cant wait untill they are really hungry but it certainly benefits everyone else  

Haha, yeah, we know it's a lot of protein, doing this twice a day.
But for a week it should be okay, we can spend the rest of his life trying different thinks like certain baby food and such. But at the mo he's just too finicky to want the same thing twice a day every day unless it's MEAT. Like any Irish male
So far things may work once, or twice if we're lucky. But he adores these treats, and his face looks perfectly normal now, so I just wanna keep it up with the antibiotics.

Oh yeah,if you find something that works dont mess with that!the amounts are small and its only for a course,the benefits outweigh the disadvantages definatly

I too have had this difficulty, then I discovered tubiDog/Cat/Ferret meat pastes on zooplus. They love em! Even malt pastes work for me now and if stuck, pâté of some description. It seems Baytril does better as a savoury dish! My rats like their sweet treats unmedicated!

Haha, thanks, I'll have to look them up. Was thinking of getting a bit of malt paste anyway or nutrical as I've heard great things.
But this week isn't a good time for us to be spending money, Cringer just had to need treatment on the Friday before all our bills were due

Ive got spare nutrical if you'd like some got a couple if tubs to put some weight on my older skinny girls but by the time i actually got around to ordering it,they were looking a lot plumper ive definatly got a half tube you guys can have if you want it,no point it going off

Ah thanks so much, but we'd have to give you something for it; even just bake some biscuits or something.
It would be nice to know if the gits even like the stuff before committing to a full tube. We can sort this in a day or so when things have calmed down here

Cool theres really no need but i wont protest all that much   

The only thing I have ever found that I can get my rats to lap up (pretty much without fail... one or two odd ones!) is using canned cream. It's not ideal for them but in small doses and if it gets the meds in...