Bute... Hiding it in feed so its eaten?

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minmax

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My horse hates bute, how can I hide it in his feed without changing his feed. He cannot have sugar as he gets itchy so is on Cool Fibre, which doesn't hide the taste of the nasty bute.
Any ideas?
 
Danilon is a palatable form of Bute - more expensive though! Try using dried mint leaves (Natural Feeds?? I think) or use cheap supermarket apple juice, diluted to damp the feed.
 
My mare won't touch any powder in her feed. We've tried sugar, polos, apple juice, cordial, syrup, everything. Now I just mix a bit of water into the powder, and make a paste, then syringe it into her throat like a wormer. That way I know everything has been given, and that she eats her food too.
 
My shetland wont eat any bute, we have tried many flavours and he refused all, so we syringe it with water, fast, easy, works everytime, and no wasted bute.
 
I make up the feed, remove a mugful and mix the bute in to that, then I present that to the horse who takes a big mouthful and looks absolutely disgusted by the taste. Then I mix the remains of the mugful back into the rest of the feed and offer it to the horse but now they can't taste the bute as it's so diluted after the strong taste they had earlier.
 
minmax said:
My horse hates bute, how can I hide it in his feed without changing his feed. He cannot have sugar as he gets itchy so is on Cool Fibre, which doesn't hide the taste of the nasty bute.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Perfectly Clear do a range of flavoured water and the one I've found my horse loves is Clear Red Apple. Mix that in with the feed and he loves it and it is brilliant at disguising bute. Its only 50p for a big 2L bottle from Iceland or approx 97p from Tescos. You could also tried grated apple or dissolve a packet of strong mints in a mug of boiling water and use that to mix in with his feed. I sometimes do that if I need to give my horse bute unexpectedly as I always have mints with me (£1 for five packs from Poundland, Tesco's, etc) and if the apple flavoured water has run out. This is an excellent idea if your horse has an unexpected injury and you need to give bute quickly.
 
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Keep the sachets in the freezer and get the dose into the feed as soon as you can after taking it out (freezer bag & blocks if you have to travel) freezing seems to take away the bitterness and make it more palatable.
 
Ask if it can be swapped for Danilon or Metacam! or ask if you can have Equipalazone in a syringe- as they make it in a wormer like syringe too.

Or as above- freeze it as disguises the taste- or you could mix with a bit of water and syringe it in, but can get a bit messy!
 
Have you thought about feeding simple systems feeds? No sugar or molasses, and you have to soak it. They end up with quite a huge bucket full and one sachet (or two) of bute, mixed into that lot with a sprinkle of garlic is undetectable. Thats how I manage.
 
We used to have difficulties getting bute down my mare we used syrup butties worked for while but she soon twigged, so the only other way was to put the bute into a syringe mixed with a bit off water and syringe it into her like you do when worming
 
My big lad drives me nuts as he hates Bute etc. If he gets the slightest taste then he will not swallow and just stands there drooling gunk out of his mouth resulting in him refusing to take anything at all (carrots, hay, etc) as he is so suspicious of anything offered.
Tried Danilon and Prodynam but he wont touch these either. To date, I have disguised bute in jam sandwiches, golden syrup sandwiches, putting it inside apples, doughnuts and mixing it in treacle and mollases (which gets wiped up the walls and all over me!).
The only thing he will eat with the bute is a small bran mash mixed with a spoonlful of apple sauce - works every time. I suppose you could just give the mash without the sauce?
 
We mix bute in a pot of kiddies fromage frais, strawberry flavour being the preferred ;), then syringe it. The yogurt means its thick enough it doesn't get wasted
 
Thanks guys, lots of different advice. I have given him apple sauce in feed, he ate the first feed but then refused his tea. I ended up putting some of my other horses feed in and he finally ate it. Fussy git!
He does like marmite, so if he doesn't eat the danilon I ordered today he will have a concoction!
 
Well my lads on Danilon and won't take that in a feed so:

1 Slice of Bread

good splash of Sunflower oil on half

Pour Danilon on the oil

One slice off an apple on top

Fould into a sandwich and no problem then give rest of apple.

:D:D:D;)
 
I have the greediest horse in the world, but she won't go near a feed with any medications in. What works for me is to buy a bottle of molasses, I then pour that over the bute/danillon/antibiotics and it seems to fool her!!
 
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