Cushings meds

[Esmae]

Horse is on 1 tablet of Prascend a day. I am almost at my wits end of how to get him to take it. We have tried, apples, carrots, polos, other treats, feeds of various concoctions both sweet and savoury. Concoctions include, mixes of grass nuts, sugar beet, treacle in it or a little salt. It all works for a while but once he's decided to refuse it he won't consider it again. He can be a funny cove and can be a bit of a tyke to catch so syringing stuff is a non starter. We'd only ever do that once and then we'd never catch him again. Any thoughts or alternative recipes would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[be positive]

The one I had here refused it in various forms and I was losing hope of ever getting him to take it until I started soaking it in a little water then mixing it in the feed, it seems to be taken more readily than if they have it whole or crushed, I suspect it tastes dreadful and any tiny crunchy bits make them spit it out, he ate it fine once I had it totally dissolved and mixed in a fairly tasty feed, I also cut back to half for a while just to make sure it was as little of the nasty stuff as possible.

 

[Tiddlypom]

^^^ As BP. Break the tablet into two and dissolve it (technically 'suspend' it, it doesn't actually dissolve) in a small quantity of cool or tepid water. It takes about 10 mins to fully break up, give it a good stir and then add it to the feed. It shouldn't be left standing for ages, it needs to be added fresh.

I've also previous ground tablets into a powder between two dessert spoons, and then added the powder to the feed. That goes against the product instructions, but they are more to do with protecting you against accidental contact with the prascend, rather than affecting its potency.

I've found that adding Bailey Fibre Nuggets (much recommended on here) to a feed has tempted even my drama diva Cushing's mare into eating again after upping her prascend dose.

 

[supsup]

Have you tried soreen malted loaf? It's very sticky and sweet, and easy to make a small ball around the pill. This worked for about 5 days for my mare, before she turned her nose up. But might be worth a try as it's easy and cheap. I also managed to get her to eat it in a small ball made of goo scraped off a molassed lick with high fibre nuts stuck to the outside. Lasted about a week.
I'm afraid my mare ended up getting suspicious of anything fed from a hand and even started refusing her bucket feed, so I ended up syringing her after all.

 

[Esmae]

Thanks for your suggestions. I am currently crushing the tablet to a fine powder and mixing into a small damp feed. I have damped the feed with plain warm water, warm dissolved treacle water, warm slightly salted water. He's gone off of all of that. Haven't dissolved the tablet yet prior to feeding. Will try that later on. He will take nothing from your hand that contains anything he considers poison. Syringing will only ever work once. I'll never catch him again if I go down that route. He's very bright over these things but not bright enough to realise that he needs to take it for his life and just eat the darned thing.

 

[Coblover63]

Our boy won't eat mainstream treats with whole tablets but he will scoff it by dissolving it first and adding to Veteran Vitality.

If I'm in a rush he will actually eat it whole if we soak a few Dengie High Fibre nuts ("sweeties" in our family!) and offer him a golf-ball sized mush with the pill poked in.

 

[JillA]

I used to get hers into the old 36 yr old arab mare (arab = extremely clever!!) dissolved in apple puree using a lamb colostrum syringe. She actually began to quite enjoy it, and unlike in small feeds, at least I knew she had had the correct dose.

 

[ihatework]

I used to get hers into the old 36 yr old arab mare (arab = extremely clever!!) dissolved in apple puree using a lamb colostrum syringe. She actually began to quite enjoy it, and unlike in small feeds, at least I knew she had had the correct dose.

That's almost exactly how I managed it! I used a gastroguard syringe and the baby food purée pouches (easier to fill the syringe). The sooner Boehringer bring out a different formulation the better.

 

[Esmae]

I used to get hers into the old 36 yr old arab mare (arab = extremely clever!!) dissolved in apple puree using a lamb colostrum syringe. She actually began to quite enjoy it, and unlike in small feeds, at least I knew she had had the correct dose.

Mine is a 22 year old arab gelding. Too clever by half!! Tried the dissolving trick tonight with mushy grass nuts and a few oats. He licked the dish clean. Hoping this lasts!!! I spoke with the manufacturers and they assure me they are working on the taste/smell issue but apparently it's complicated due to the chemical profile of the drug needed. Sweetie flavour prascend can't come soon enough for me.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

We just drop ours into a normal feed of soaked Wiesencobs, with added salt etc. it always disappears

 

[NOISYGIRL]

I bore a hole in a piece of carrot using a fishermans meat/bread punch it works a treat and use the piece that's extracted to put back in to bung the hole.

Some people buy empty capsules from ebay to put the tablet in so the horse can't smell it

Otherwise you can just hold it inside his cheek and it will dissolve there

 

[HufflyPuffly]

I'm currently tricking mine, who has previously turned her nose up at it being hidden in carrots, apples or pears, by giving it to her like a treat with grass nuts :lol:. She will eat it dissolved in her feed like you've found, but as she doesn't get any hard feed in summer I was struggling to get her to eat it in any other way.

The treats by hand method is currently holding up well 3 months in , she's too greedy for her own good :lol:.

 

[meleeka]

I bore a hole in a piece of carrot using a fishermans meat/bread punch it works a treat and use the piece that's extracted to put back in to bung the hole.

A clean hoof pick also works well.