Any ideas on how I can disguise the taste of drugs in feeds, please?

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jstanbury

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Hi, our pony has just been diagnosed with Cushings and has been put on Pergolide and Metformin. She's fine with taking the Pergolide but refuses to take the Metformin. She needs 19 tablets twice a day!! We've tried crushing them and mixing them with Happy Hoof, Hi-Fi Lite and even bran but she just throws it all in her bed and tramples it in. Has anyone got any ideas please? It's so difficult to know what to use to disguise it, especially as she has laminitis at the moment so we can't use anything sweet. Thanks very much. Jx
 
If you can't use anything sweet then molasses or apple juice is a no go! Try marmite, one of mine scoffs his bute down if I put a big blob in and water it well, turns out like marmite gravy!!
 
firstly im really sorry for your poor horsey.. :( do you feed both medicines togeather or in seperate feeds?? You could maybe try using garlic granules as both smell and taste might help mask the tablets. I would also make sure he has only his feed in stable and no other food until he's eaten it i.e take haynets out.. I always find mine are hungriest in the morning aswell so maybe try that.. You said he cant have anything sweet due to his laminitis.... maybe try chop instead of hi fi is a bit more moist so may also help.. wot about crushing the tablets in water and shringing in??? good luck and let us know how you get on :) xxxxx
 
My horses are greedy for their feed so I mix up the feed in a bucket, remove about a cupful, mix the meds into that, feed it to them in their bowl and they have a big mouthful and pull cross faces. Then I tip the rest of the (unmedicated) feed into the bowl and mix well. As they have already had a mouthful that tastes really strong they don't notice the taste once it's mixed in and are quite happy that you have fed them their normal feed.

Alternatively you could try diabetic jam.
 
I would go with the syringe method, crush them up in a pessle and mortar, along with a sugar free polo, mix enough water to make a paste that you can draw up the syringe and give her that.
 
jemima_too said:
My horses are greedy for their feed so I mix up the feed in a bucket, remove about a cupful, mix the meds into that, feed it to them in their bowl and they have a big mouthful and pull cross faces. Then I tip the rest of the (unmedicated) feed into the bowl and mix well. As they have already had a mouthful that tastes really strong they don't notice the taste once it's mixed in and are quite happy that you have fed them their normal feed.

Alternatively you could try diabetic jam.
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Diabetic jam! That is really clever.
 
Sorry to hear about your pony. I do know how hard it is with drugs/medicine as my my won't have anything in her feed either, if she not well I have to resort to a syringe or injection.
What about Speedi-beet? My horse is prone to lami and I feed speedi-beet in the winter months, could you get a sample and try it, also it only takes minutes to make.
 
fast fiber is fab and fine for cushings

no sugar apple/blackberry etc squash - diluted

mint tea bags split open and sprinkled in feed (or dried mint but i think mint tea bags is cheaper option ;))

garlic powder

marmite
 
I tried everything on my mare to get her to have her meds whilst she was on box rest from an injury (bute and antibiotics). Grated carrot, grated apple, slithers of parsnips, apple juice, marmite, the list was endless. She would take one sniff and then stamp on it! Moody mare!

One day as I was contemplating what to try next whilst giving my grandson a few white chocolate buttons, anyhow after I went to fuss her she started madly sniffing my hands, so I broke a couple up in her feed with her meds and she scoffed the lot!

Know this isn't really a help for op (sorry).
 
the best stuff after years of working out has to be the most disgusting thing on the planet....................Marmite, just the thought of the smell yuck yuck yuck runs of with peg on nose:eek::(
 
Haven't read all the threads, so apologies if someone has said this already, but mixing in half a pint of beer tempts lots of fussy horses - though you'd better try a bit of beer on its own first just in case he doesn't like it. horses usually love beer, but 2 pints will make it quite drunk. Lager will do just as well.
 
Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all your replies and ideas. I'll work through your suggestions and see which one works for her, there must be something!! She doesn't like garlic though, which is strange as she ate it last summer but refuses to go near it this year. I've also got a Dartmoor with Cushings and Metabolic Syndrome and she'll just eat her tablets whole with her normal feed, which is amazing because I tasted a bit of the crushed Metformin and it's DISGUSTING!! tastes like the stuff you put on your nails to stop you biting them.
I'll report back later with which tempting recipe we chose to use and let you know how it went.:):):)
 
I really feel for you, my boy has to have 24 Metaformin and 1 parscent a day 12 in the morning with the parscent and 12 at night, I'm really grateful that I've had no problems getting them down him, I crush them and put them in a chaff feed with his supps and he eats it no problem, but I shudder to think what I'd do if he didn't, it would be a constant battle to syringe it down him! I have problems worming him with a syringe, he's a 16hh bullock and just chucks you around the stable! hope you find a solution and something your horse likes enough to ignore the meds and scoff it.
 
My horse loves Fast fibre, try that in a tiny amount?
Otherwise, I have had to resort to mixing into a paste and syringing to down (like a wormer)
 
Does she like peppermints? If so then buy a large bottle of peppermint oil. Feed her some easybeet that has been soaked in water with a few drops of peppermint oil in it.

Just had to get some bute into my 3yr old and crushed up the large peppermints to flavour her feed - she ate the lot.
 
Soak the feed well inw ater, make it like gravy, then add a bit more so its a bit more solid. Always works for ours, the adding a bit more makes them keener to take the feed at all as not all will take a 'gravy' feed.
 
lhotse said:
I would go with the syringe method, crush them up in a pessle and mortar, along with a sugar free polo, mix enough water to make a paste that you can draw up the syringe and give her that.
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maresmaid said:
My friend found mixing powders with Yogurt and putting it in a syringe worked very well with her mare.
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Yoghurt is good as liquid just runs everywhere. Just gone through traumas of danilon twice daily and molasses worked for the first three days then pretty much nothing but syringing.
 
I've been having success with NAF pink powders to get bute powder into my pony.
Not sure if it would work for a large number of tablets, but it allows me ringer half a sachet of bute in with a tiny bit of mix.
Interestingly, if I put some apple in he gets suspect and won't eat it. He's a bit hit and miss with his Prascend in an apple too.
I'm very grateful for the suggestions in here for when the current regime fails :-)
 
Mint is always good. Or honey.

My friend in a similar situation ended up syringing.

I always feed my boys a tiny handful of food with a mixture of brewers yeast, mint, linseed and seaweed. It disguises most things and by feeding it all the time the don't get suspicious!
 
Well, we decided to try the peppermint tea bags. At first she well and truly tucked in, but she soon became suspicious and decided to stop eating. We added another tea bag but she still wasn't keen. I'll get some peppermint oil to add too and hopefully that'll work. At least she didn't throw it in her bed, but we did have to leave her bowl in the stable in the hope she'd eat it in the night. At least you've all supplied me with so many ideas I can chop and change tactics and keep her guessing!! Thanks again everyone :)
 
Hi Millimoo - If he likes Polos, you could try snapping the Prascend in half and pressing it into the hole in the middle. Pippa eats it every time. It's just the Metformin I'm having the trouble with.
 
hi last yr my mare had to have 4 scoops of ventapulmin twice a day, i feed her bayleys low cal so i used to soak a dish full and then mix in the ventapulmin and make a ball, i then fed it her as a treat and she used to look forward to her ventapulmin ball.
 
Sherbert. I bought a job lot of Sherbert Dip Daps! Sherbert for Rosie, and I got the lolly! It was the only thing she'd eat her Bute mixed in with!!
 
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