Cushings pony and prascend despair

C

CazD

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 May 2007
Messages
988
Visit site
My rescue companion pony is approx. 28. she arrived about 5 years ago completely unhandleable and would attach with feet or teeth if you got too close. She's now catchable (mostly!) and handleable but will not take food by hand. She's been on prascend for about 6 months and its gradually getting more and more difficult to get her to take the tablets. She currently wont eat anything other than grass or hay. If I stable her with a bucket feed overnight she wont touch it. Occasionally she will eat the tablet if I wrap it in a piece of bread and drop it at her feet but often she will just sniff it and walk off. I'm lucky if I get her to take the tablet 2-3 times in a week. syringe feeding is a no-no as she becomes dangerous if you so much as try. Has anyone got any tips? I'm getting more and more desperate.
 
Drizzle the tablet with molasses and dried mint sprinkled on top, then put it in some bread? Or hide it in a carrot or apple (if it's not too much sugar for her). What about bashing it up into a powder, then add it to molasses and mint, perhaps with apple juice? We're lucky, our oldie just eats hers from her feed bucket, with it mixed in with her hard feed.
 
How about cutting up an apple and pushing the tablet into a piece, if that makes sense? I'm lucky, mine will eat hers if I put it in a bucket in a handful of chaff, although sometimes I have to follow her and show her there is food left in the bucket, as sometimes she wanders off without finishing!
 
CazD said:
My rescue companion pony is approx. 28. she arrived about 5 years ago completely unhandleable and would attach with feet or teeth if you got too close. She's now catchable (mostly!) and handleable but will not take food by hand. She's been on prascend for about 6 months and its gradually getting more and more difficult to get her to take the tablets. She currently wont eat anything other than grass or hay. If I stable her with a bucket feed overnight she wont touch it. Occasionally she will eat the tablet if I wrap it in a piece of bread and drop it at her feet but often she will just sniff it and walk off. I'm lucky if I get her to take the tablet 2-3 times in a week. syringe feeding is a no-no as she becomes dangerous if you so much as try. Has anyone got any tips? I'm getting more and more desperate.
Click to expand...
The website no one ever seems to see in my signature>>>http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/veterinary.html

My donkey get's special diet but to get her to eat her prascend I put the 1/2 pill in a handful horse feed and she eats it every time
 
Last edited:
She's never liked apple so wont touch it. wont do carrot or pear either. Some days she will take the bread but other days she sniffs it and walks off. Wont do sugar beet or fast fibre or dampened chaff either. She is the most suspicious pony I've ever come across and is wary of anything I feed her. I've managed to roll the tablet in some grass on a couple of occasions but now she's taken to shaking things and the tablet just flies out. I cant believe I'm being outwitted by a pony!!
She seems quite healthy at the moment and is moulting like crazy. I feel like all I can do is try to get her to take her tablets as often as possible and then, when the inevitable happens and she gets laminitis, pts. I just wish I could get her to take the tablets more often.
 
HGA-12 said:
The website no one ever seems to see in my signature>>>http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/veterinary.html

My donkey get's special diet but to get her to eat her prascend I put the 1/2 pill in a handful horse feed and she eats it every time
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I've had a look and most wont work with her but I'm going to try the banana one tomorrow. I'll also try crushing the pill and sprinkling it on some picked grass. If only she was a dog or cat and I could hold her down and shove it down her throat!!
 
Get her hooked on Polos - half a Prascend tablet just fits in the hole and they are strong enough to mask the smell/taste.
 
have you tried coarse mix? probably not what you want to feed a laminitic cushings I know. I have tamed several feral ponies with this. Just very small quantities but they seem to like that when they won't touch apples, sugar beet or anything else. If you can get her to eat coarse mix you can mix the prascend tablet in with a handful and get it down that way.
 
CazD said:
Thanks for the link. I've had a look and most wont work with her but I'm going to try the banana one tomorrow. I'll also try crushing the pill and sprinkling it on some picked grass. If only she was a dog or cat and I could hold her down and shove it down her throat!!
Click to expand...

You might jest but that is exactly what I do with one of mine. He can sniff the tablet a mile out and won't touch any form of food with it in. He now won't touch apples/carrots/polos incase we try any trick him.

It is actually very effective the 'ram it down the throat by hand' method!!!
 
I gave up with mine. You are giving them to improve their quality of life, if it makes them miserable what is the point. My old mare hated them and decided she would only eat grass which as it was winter and there was no grass and lost weight even after I had stopped them. I decided if I could get her out of the winter I would let her have the summer eating all she wanted and found some old pasture and turned her out with a friend. She lasted till the 2nd week in September before getting sore feet and she went the next day.
 
You can get one of those worming devices, that is like a bit with a hole, so you put it in their mouth and then push the plunger in the side and the medicine is placed on the back of the tongue. Could try mixing apple sauce with the medicine.
 
honetpot said:
I gave up with mine. You are giving them to improve their quality of life, if it makes them miserable what is the point. My old mare hated them and decided she would only eat grass which as it was winter and there was no grass and lost weight even after I had stopped them. I decided if I could get her out of the winter I would let her have the summer eating all she wanted and found some old pasture and turned her out with a friend. She lasted till the 2nd week in September before getting sore feet and she went the next day.
Click to expand...

thank you for that Honeypot. I almost feel this is the only way forward with my pony. I can only get her to eat grass and occasionally hay. I managed to fool her into taking the tablet twice last week but once I've conned her once, she gets wise to me and now she hasn't taken one since Thursday. She was semi feral when we got her and even now she reacts to any sort of pressure by throwing a paddy. Although she's only little she is very strong and is dangerous when she goes off on one. Managed carefully she is fine and is the perfect companion so very good at her job. she's on a permanent loan to me and I know if I send her back they will pts as when she first was diagnosed with cushings her owners offered me the option of pts.
 
CazD said:
I know if I send her back they will pts as when she first was diagnosed with cushings her owners offered me the option of pts.
Click to expand...
I agree this is sometimes the best option, particularly if you cannot find a way to get her to take the pills without stress. Don't let people make you feel guilty if you choose this.
Just a note if you are trying methods involving crushing; the health warning for Prascend reads:
Human Warnings: Not for use in humans. Keep this and all medications out of the reach of children. PRASCEND should not be administered by persons who have had adverse reactions to ergotamine or other ergot derivatives. Pregnant or lactating women should wear gloves when administering this product. It has been reported that pergolide tablets may cause eye irritation, an irritating smell, or headache when PRASCEND Tablets are split or crushed. PRASCEND Tablets should not be crushed due to the potential for increased human exposure and care should be taken to minimize exposure when splitting tablets. Consult a physician in case of accidental ingestion by humans.
 
http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Boe.../Prascend_1_mg_tablets_for_horses/-53061.html

Tablets shouldn't be crushed...the advice is to dissolve them and administer but in your case I can see that would be difficult.
What is she like without her medication? I wonder if at her time in life, if her symptoms arent too debilitating, whether she would be better off without or even try giving her a break in the hope she loses her suspicion and then try again.
 
Try putting the tablet in the middle of a glace cherry. My horse was super fussy about the tablets but the cherry masked the taste x
 
I agree with honetpot, I think I'd just leave the pony as she is and monitor her, if she deteriorates quickly or develops infections or laminitis or becomes miserable, then that's the time to call it a day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top