Bute help please

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smurf

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So I have a horse that is quite sensitive.

He now needs to have bute in his feed but won't eat it. And now he's suspecting I'm trying to poison him he won't even touch it. He'll need bute for the rest of his days:mad:

Syringe down his throat is not an option ...The other day the dentist was here and he saw another horse have his teeth done and it then took 5 mins to catch him in his stable. Once I worm him he's funny to catch in stable for next week.
I have tried treacle, carrots, apples etc

any suggestions? :confused:
 
Danilon, I have one that will not touch bute fortunately he is fine with danilon as he was on it for months over the winter.
 
Apple squash - it smells very strongly of (fake) apple and tastes very appley too.

Or do you think he'd put up with an EasyWormer provided you mixed the bute with something tasty?
 
mix with thick black molasses into a paste ball & mould it round a straight bar rubber bit....the molasses hides the taste, & they usually accept the bit as a treat, & quietly mouth/chew it.
 
smurf said:
So I have a horse that is quite sensitive.

He now needs to have bute in his feed but won't eat it. And now he's suspecting I'm trying to poison him he won't even touch it. He'll need bute for the rest of his days:mad:

Syringe down his throat is not an option ...The other day the dentist was here and he saw another horse have his teeth done and it then took 5 mins to catch him in his stable. Once I worm him he's funny to catch in stable for next week.
I have tried treacle, carrots, apples etc

any suggestions? :confused:
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We have a fussy one too - he's gone off apples for life after discovering we'd hidden a tablet inside one. Never got bute (however well disguised) down him, however, Danilon + a very generous amount of molasses worked when he needed it! Could be worth a try if you haven't already x
 
smurf said:
Sorry but what is IM?
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Intra-muscular injection.

Unfortunately useless in this scenario as bute (and all the other NSAIDs) can only be used intravenously (IV) and vets are understandably reticent to allow owners to do this. The risk of complications is enormous and it wouldn't be ideal to give IV injections daily in the medium to long term.
 
I have a horse like this.

the only thing that worked was to boil a kettle, and put a dollop of molasses in a bucket, add hot water and stir to make it more liquid. then add the bute and pour onto feed.

I never give molasses at any other time but they love it like this!
 
"Honey Piece" works for me. Slice of white bread slastered in honey and bute/danilon folded inside. Maybe only work on greedy guts of horses who will eat anything right enough :D
 
My old mare wouldn't have bute/danilon etc, we tried everything! Including an entire carton of apple juice per feed(!), molasses, sugar beet, jam sandwiches, marmite sandwiches, hiding it in fruit/carrots. EVERYTHING. She just used to leave everything and look at us suspiciously if we tried to give her treats etc afterwards.

If all the above fails, I suggest you catch hold of him, get someone else to hold him out of the stable and then syringe it mixed with boiling water (obv wait for it to cool down!). Perhaps try just syringing tatsy things to start with so he gets used to being syringed. We ended up fixing a bit of tube onto the end of the syringe so you could get it right to the back of the mouth so they can't spit it back at you. We just couldn't get my mare to have it any other way :(
 
Thanks for alll suggestions, but anything involving needles or syringes would work only once with this horse and he needs it every day for rest of his days.

This morning I got one sachet into him but it took about half a tub of molasses. I tried the molasses tea the other day and that did not work.

Will try the sandwich but he's not a fatty/greed pony which is a bit of a problem
 
Mine always used to be good to worm, let an old YO do it whilst I was away one time, never again, next 2 or 3 times I got the wormer out he shot to the back of the stable and wouldn't let me near him, goodness only knows what she'd done.
I use Equimins air power booster. It's totally random but I gave it to my horse to help with his breathing but he seemed to love it. One time had the brainwave of coating the wormer tube in it, sorted, not had a problem since.
Danilon may be better than bute, purely even if you have a similar reaction to horse not touching it, it presumably is easier to disguise than straight bute. Marmite has worked well for me in the past, as has treacle tho I see you've tried treacle.
 
Had friend with similar problem and she got bute tablets from the vet which she put in handful of mix and it never noticed! Think they were 200mg tabs (possibly dog tabs) so 5=1 sachet. She did only have an 11.2 pony which had 2 tabs rather than half sachet so may depend on size of horse...
 
Definitely Danilon rather than bute - you'll stand a much better chance of getting it in him as it's already sugar coated. Start with a tiny little bit in a fair amount of feed and then slowly build it up over a number of days. Often it's all about getting the proportions and the consistency right. Mine can tell bute a mile off but I've now got him so he'll eat Danilon in a couple of handfuls of readymash extra.

Don't leave the Danilon too long in wet feed/molasses though or the sugar coating will wear off and you'll be back to square one.
 
We had this problem with my grey boy after surgery and he wouldn't touch anything. I tried everything and in the end I found a good dollop of Colemans Classic Mint Sauce in a feed covered just about anything up! I assume its the combination of the savoury vinegar and the mint that did it. Other than that, a Marmite sandwich often works. I find that sweet stuff isn't great at covering a bitter taste but covering it with something savoury seems to work.
 
Our vet suggests to open the sachet the night before and leave it on a porcelain saucer....the smell will disappear and will be palatable the next day. Haven't had to try it myself but he swears by it.
 
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