Despair, help PLEASE. Horse and pills

0ldmare

0ldmare

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Just feel like crying, my cushings mare is doing so well on her pergolide, but is increasingly impossible to get them down :( To say that I've tried everything I can think of is an understatement. Please has anybody any ideas, if I can't crack this she will die :(

So far I've tried:

Crushed and mixed with teaspoon syrup and drizzled over feed
Inserted into apples, then carrots (she won't touch either now)
Crushed with peppermint essence and also crushed with Xtra strong mint and then in food
Soreen malt loaf - worked for a week and now won't touch it
Crushed with malt extract and drizzled over feed
Made peppermint creams and mixed in those.

Finally I'm syringing, but today she went vertical and smashed her head on the stable overhang so won't be able to do that much more as a) I won't catch her and b) she reacts so violently

We've come so far and she is really well, but I am honestly thinking I might have to give up, wait til she goes down with laminitis and have her PTS. I love this horse and so this is the last thing I want, but am all out of ideas :(

ANY suggestions gratefully received :(
 
How small are they? Could you fit them in the middle of a sugar free polo?? DON'T let her see you prepare them.

Make a marmite sandwich?

You might that crushing them is making the taste worse for her ie more bitter for example.

Good luck xx
 
Thanks supertrooper, forgot to say I tried marmite sandwiches and jam sandwiches. Frankly om past caring about sugar, I'd put them in anything she would eat!
 
Also speak to vet about if it's save to put the tablets in fridge as with some drugs it helps to take the taste away.

The only other thing I can think of then is mollases xx
 
Well I was going to suggest syringing with instant drinking chocolate powder made into a paste, but obviously that won't work :( We found that jam sandwiches didn't work for one of ours with bute, she eventually spat it into the water bucket, thus ensuring that that one wasn't offered again!
Would it be worth trying something malted? Like ovaltine stuff?
Sorry I can't be more use, good luck with her
 
If only they realised we were trying to help them! :(

Have you tried savory things instead - might be easier to hide the taste? Garlic etc. I think sweet things don't cover the taste as easily. Or I wonder if you could use a lickit (those samll round ones that are really dark and smell of aniseed) and scoop a lump out somehow and hide in that?

Hope you find a solution x
 
Smooth peanut butter ? Put a bit in her feed, put the bowl down and walk away. No coaxing etc. Just leave her to it. If she's at the stage where she's highly suspicious and senses your worry, try the non-commital approach and see if it makes a difference.

You have my sympathy, recently had to get 100 steroid tablets a day into a horse. Took an hour to even catch the madam. :rolleyes:
 
I agree with horse rider, try not to be anxious about it (I totally know that it's easier said than done!) just leave her too it.

Also wondering if she's now thinking that anything knew will be contaminated so perhaps totally go back to basics feed wise ie just put them in with her normal feed, in stable and just leave her to it for half an hour or so xx
 
Apple sauce in the syringe? My boy was the same with bute only applesauce in the syringe or the dreaded molasses that only worked. Golden syrup and mint sandwiches worked for a while aswell
 
Oh dear. This is something I really dreaded with my mare when she developed cushings as she was a very stroppy old girl who we always joked had 'princess and the pea' syndrome. I was jaw droppingly amazed and relieved that she then ate them in a carrot quite happily and we never had a problem.

I would definitely say don't crush them - that's bound to make them taste bitter. When you made the peppermint creams did you crush them up? I would think you would be best to keep the pill whole, and hide it in the middle.

If you leave carrots (no pills) with her over night, will she eat them? If might be worth doing that for a while to get her over her carrot phobia (obviously quite a modest amount due to their sugar content) and then go back to feeding the pill in a cored out piece. I tended to push the bit I'd cut out back into the hole once I'd put the pill in so that she couldn't smell it.

Hope you come up with a solution. I lost my dear cushings girl this summer (not due to cushings) and I know what it's like trying to manage then condition. I miss her greatly :(
 
Feel for you! How about tablespoon of dark molasses dissolved in hot water and poured over a small drop of chaff and tablets - smells amazing. Good luck!
 
Peanut butter is an idea I haven't tried. Also, yes I've been crushing them, mainly because if I don't she crunches on them and then won't go near that particular food again. I thought mixing with a little syrup would mask it (I'm hard pushed to tell its there, I've tasted it :D )

She's not a greedy horse at all and so won't eat her dinner anymore even if its left in the stable with her overnight - with or without pills. God knows how I'm going to keep condition on her this winter if she won't touch 'pure' food...
 
Sorry keep thinking of things, have you tried Allen + Page fast fibre. Ours love it and perhaps if you tried it first with no tablets in and then add them (how many is she on?) if you call A+P they're sure to send you some samples and prob a money off voucher too.

Or sugar beet?
 
And another thing....... ;-))

Ask someone else to feed her, it may be that she's associating you with tablets and/or picking up on your worry xx
 
i put my pony's prascend in the hole of 2 polos he takes it no prob, agree with others dont crush them this enhances the pill taste
 
I am lucky mine takes his in a piece of apple but is very fussy with his feed.

I was going to try Hilton Herbs , they do a cushings supplement and a friend had good results using it, unlike many herbal treatments they are very palatable and would be worth trying.
 
I do sympathise - when my mare first went on pergolide, I was so strung up about her not taking it that she refused point blank to eat the carrot that had it in. My (non-horsey) OH took it from me and gave it to her a couple of minutes later as he passed her stable, she ate it with no bother. It was about 2 weeks before I could give it to her in a relaxed state!

Another suggestion is something sticky like treacle or peanut butter. If you can get some sort of slim spatula (I presume she takes evasive action at the sight of a syringe), put the pill in the sticky stuff and pop it in her cheeck pouch rather than trying to force it up into her mouth. If it's in the cheek pouch she can't spit it out and also the stickiness stops it being ejected.

Get a horsey friend to do it and keep away!
 
Can you shove it in a haynet full of some normal carrots etc? Definitely get her used to eating stuff without pills in first and alternate. I also totally agree about getting someone else to give it to her.! xx
 
Apple juice? mixed in with her food, peppermit essence? pears? Black treacle?
Bread? Might be wrth a try.
Speedi beet, fast fibre or maybe some old fashioned boiled barley my old horse used to love that. Hope you find something
 
I would try loads of molasses literally grind the tablets down into a powder and mix it up. My friends horse had to have antibiotics and wouldn't touch it as soon as she mixed it up with the molasses she ate it no problem. My friend actually tasted it before giving it to her mare to make sure she couldn't taste it! Not sure thats really advsable though! lol Good luck i'm sure you will get it into her one way or another.

Just had a thought is she good to worm? If she is and sees a syringe she might just think your worming her and she'll take it with out a problem? Got to be worth a try.
 
There ia a liquid and powder version of this drug available, though there have been a few concerns highlighted lately over their stability as a suspension.

Why not contact you're vet about them?
 
I have been here, and I feel your pain. We tried everything to disguise tablets in, both crushed and whole, and had different people offering it at different times - nothing worked, and in fact it put him off his bucket feed for quite a while, which as a skinny boy at the best of times, we really couldn't let happen. Our final solution (which works) was to have a slightly damp, tiny piece of soft bread, crush tablet and place in bread and then slip into cheek pouch and wait until the bread and crushed tablet had dissolved in his mouth and he can't spit it out. It does take a few minutes to be sure. I keep him on a headcollar and scratch him in all his favourite places while it happens. As crazy as it may sound I think he preferred the 'upfront' approach to deception - all the time it was being hidden in treats or bucket feed he viewed everything given with suspicion, which really took away his enjoyment of food - but now he knows what is going to happen and when and he just goes with it. As soon as it's gone he wanders over to his hay pile and starts munching.

Good luck, and hope you find the thing that works for you.
 
One of my horses (the cleverest one) has had to take Prednisolone pills for a year now - she started on 112 pills, in an oral syringe mixed with water. I didn't have a lot of choice as without them, she would have died.
I've taken them myself, and they taste foul, so I sympathise with her. I gave up pretending I wasn't giving her bad tasting drugs, and we came to an agreement that she would take them in the oral syringe, and I would pay her with an apple afterwards.
Now every evening we wave her syringe at her, shouting 'drugs!' and she obligingly marches over from her hay pile, chews with a look of concentration on her face until she finishes her mouthful, then opens her mouth and tilts her head towards the human.
We are then meant to squirt about a quarter of the syringe in, followed by a slice or two of apple. Again she chews, then opens her mouth for the next lot etc.
If we screw up, and force them into her mouth when she isn't ready, she huffs the next day and doesn't cooperate - we have never been stupid enough to forget the apple though. :D :D :D
S :D
PS We don't use a headcollar or restrain her while drugging her - I think it helps that she feels it is on her terms.
 
Cant really give you any advise but my girl also has cushing and IR is very sensitive the only thing that helps her is going out in her sand paddock with soaked hay, as i tryed everything to get them bloady tablets down and nothing worked so had to give in but she is doing well with no grass now.

hope you find somehing that works.
 
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