Antibiotics

[Wishfilly]

Blue unfortunately has a cough. We had the vet out this evening who thought it was probably a low grade respiratory infection and has left us with some antibiotics (the powdered kind that you put in feed).

I gave the first sachet tonight as instructed, mixed in with chaff. I felt like when Blue had finished eating, there was still quite a lot of the powder left in the bucket. I put in a bit more chaff, and tried to encourage him to eat a bit more, which he did, and in the end I hand fed some of the antibiotic mixed with chaff.

However, I am wondering if there is a more efficient way of doing this- is there a trick to getting him to eat the antibiotic without lots of faff? The rest of the sachets will be given at breakfast so ideally I'd like him to eat it reasonably quickly.

He is a bit suspicious of anything new in his feed- I've had to introduce supplements verryyyy slowly!

 

[milliepops]

has anyone on the yard got some tasty feed that you could pinch a handful of? I've got varying degrees of fusspots - some will eat anything, some require a bit of grated apple or carrot to make it seem tasty enough, some will only contemplate ABs with a bit of Saracen Re-leve (tbf most of mine would do anything for some of that).

You can mix into a paste and syringe in, though don't add too much water or it goes very runny and then you just end up wearing it IME. if he has eaten it with chaff I'd just try and make the feed seem a bit more appealing and see if that helps him eat up next time.

 

[Wishfilly]

has anyone on the yard got some tasty feed that you could pinch a handful of? I've got varying degrees of fusspots - some will eat anything, some require a bit of grated apple or carrot to make it seem tasty enough, some will only contemplate ABs with a bit of Saracen Re-leve (tbf most of mine would do anything for some of that).

You can mix into a paste and syringe in, though don't add too much water or it goes very runny and then you just end up wearing it IME. if he has eaten it with chaff I'd just try and make the feed seem a bit more appealing and see if that helps him eat up next time.

I will see if I can steal a bit of exciting feed from someone- I do have a few apples so might try putting one of those in to make it more exciting too!

I think syringing is probably a no-go, it took me two tries to worm him (which I know is something I need to work on), so I think that would be an absolute last resort!

 

[doodle]

Sorry to be obvious but have you dampened the chaff?

 

[Wishfilly]

Sorry to be obvious but have you dampened the chaff?

I haven't actually- so you're not being obvious!

 

[doodle]

Try dampening as that makes the powder “stick” to the chaff. Plain water will work or some apple juice if he is picky.

 

[Wishfilly]

Try dampening as that makes the powder “stick” to the chaff. Plain water will work or some apple juice if he is picky.

I'll try it with plain water in the morning, and hopefully something extra in the feed to tempt him! If that doesn't work, I'll give apple juice a try! Thank you!

 

[doodle]

Robin is having horrible karidox atm. It’s a liquid but vile. He is wolfing it down made with warm sooth and gain and apple juice. The sooth and gain working a little too well so I expect he will be on a diet soon!

 

[Wishfilly]

Robin is having horrible karidox atm. It’s a liquid but vile. He is wolfing it down made with warm sooth and gain and apple juice. The sooth and gain working a little too well so I expect he will be on a diet soon!

I hope he feels better soon- hopefully mixing in some apple juice will help if Blue continues to be picky!

ETA: The like is for him eating it, not for the fact he has to be on it!

 

[HashRouge]

I was about to say the same as Kamikaze - the antibiotics will stick to the damp chaff and it will be much easier to feed. My old girl has just finished a five day course and she had it in Veteran Vitality, which is great as it needs soaking anyway, so the ABs mixed in really well. She's a fussy old thing but she ate it pretty well!

 

[catkin]

I had two refuseniks with a virus last year so know your pain!! (even had to get the vets to send some extra packets as one wretch threw the buckets over the door without touching the food so some doses got wasted)

We then used molasses as it was more important to get the anti-bs down 'em than to worry about a small amount of sugar. Try watering it down with a little warm water.

 

[Shay]

My normally totally non fussy "butter a brick and he will eat it" cob will not touch his feed - or anything else - with ABs in. We've tried mixing with pretty much anything and everything but the only sure fire way to get ABs down him is to mix into a paste and syringe it in. Which tbh is probably quicker and less stressful than trying to get them to eat molasses, sweet feed, mashed bananna, hollwed out apples - even jelly doughnuts!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Mine won't eat it in a feed so I make a paste with water and mint essence and syringe it they love it.

 

[Wishfilly]

Thank you for the suggestions, everyone. He's eaten most of the antibiotics in his breakfast the past two days, with a bit of bribery and damping it down so it sticks to the chaff more. Hopefully this will continue!

He is really not keen on anything being syringed into his mouth, so we'll keep persevering with it in feeds for now! Syringing is something I probably need to work on with him, but probably not whilst he is ill.

The good news is he seems perkier this morning and his cough seemed improved although he is still quite snotty.