Disguising antibiotics

AthenesOwl

AthenesOwl

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 January 2024
Messages
237
Visit site
My horse had a tooth out on Friday, and is now on a course of doxycycline powder, to be added to his feed, plus Danilon, both twice daily. His feed is currently well soaked grass nuts with added vegetable oil while his mouth recovers, and to help him gain weight. He’s not currently allowed his previous, and much enjoyed, alfalfa chaff and senior balancer.

He had already gone off the grass nuts/veg oil combo, and had been having banana flavoured mash added, but after two days of having antibiotics added, he’s now refusing to eat this.

Any top tips for getting antibiotic powder into a not normally fussy horse twice a day? He’s not meant to have anything too crunchy until his gum has healed up.

Tips for helping him gain weight also gratefully received. I’d like my horse to stop looking like a toast rack; he’s lost a lot of weight between his dental problems and winter.
 
i think there are lots of posts about this if you search. In the past i have used a large syringe and done something like icing sugar, drug + baby food mix (one of the pouches you can get), icing sugar and syringed that in. I added the icing sugar to make it extra sweet and palatable. It did work! The baby food tip came from a friend who works at an equine practice.
 
When Old Dobbin had a broken tush removed, he was allowed his normal food as long as I flushed the area with warm water to remove any debris afterwards. Probably more difficult if you are dealing with a molar.... Would a jam sandwich work?
 
As others have said, syringe it in. Or make into a sandwich with something tasty like honey or molasses.

I found mixing with apple juice and syringing in followed by a tasty treat did the job.
 
What about a tasty mash or soaking his balancer?
One of mine gets his balancer soaked every day as he is a complete hoover that I clearly starve so can be prone to choke. He loves his sloppy feed.
I've previously used one of the TopSpec mashes and everyone was very keen on them. Also good for adding condition.
 
I had trouble with doxy when it was liquid, no issues with the powder fortunately but I've used grated carrot, apple juice, mint essence and soaked baileys fibre nuggets in the past with varying degreees of success.
 
I found I had to mix it into the mash first then add that to other feed. If I just mixed it in (even with mash) my boy wouldn't touch it but happily ate it if it was mixed separately
 
I had to resort to a large syringe too. I found golden syrup thinned down with a bit of water worked for mine. Messy job and I was very glad when it was over. I'm going to give the baby food pouches a go next time, sounds less sticky.

Hope you find something that works.
 
A jam sandwich sounds like a good idea! Maybe I’ll try it first without the doxy, just in case he doesn’t like sandwiches. He normally eats pretty much anything though. The only “normal” thing he’s turned his nose up at so far was a banana.

He loves carrot, so maybe grated carrot would work well. I’m keen to avoid syringes if possible, because once the packing is out of his gap, I’m going to be flushing his mouth with a large syringe for a while, so I don’t want him to associate it with anything really unpleasant.
 
When my mare was on syringed medication she actually got much better at it and by the end of it I could do it loose in the field! She is a very good girl though 😇
 
The only thing I found with my previous lad was speedibeet and custard. Carton or pot, not the powder stuff, of course 🙄

He wasn't normally picky, but absolutely refused to eat antibiotics otherwise.

I've had success hiding things in a warm bran mash in the past too.
 
Custard is another excellent idea. I’m trying to think of easy things, partly because he’s on full livery and my lovely but long suffering yard owner is already doing all sorts of changes to his diet and putting up with a lot of mess. He drips his sloppy grass nuts mash down the back of the stable door and it’s now filthy. He likes to take a mouthful and then look out at what’s happening while eating it.
 
one of my yearlings had to have some antibiotics after being gelded. I soaked his younstock balancer in warm water and mixed it in. He had it twice a day and loved every mouthful. I use baileys stud balancer for all of mine when they need meds adding. Works everytime.

ETA . plus it soaks lovely and turns into a lovely mash consistency
 
I melted down extra strong mints in water and mixed the antibiotics into that and fed with chaff. You could syringe it instead since you can’t give chaff though.

Minty antibiotics was the only way my very fussy TB would take them.

I’m yet to con any of my horses with a sandwhich, it just ends up an eaten sticky mess.
 
One of the other liveries who works in a vet practice suggested apple juice.

I didn’t make it to the yard today (blooming work) but I’ve not heard of any problems today. Yesterday, we decided to trick him with some molasses, so hopefully that will be doing the trick for the moment.
 
Apple juice, molasses, icing sugar, baby food, grated apple, carrot and swede and anything mint flavoured is the way that I go when I have to give Baggs anything with antibiotics in - for a part native, he's the fussiest sod going and therefore means I have to get creative... sandwiches never worked in my experience as he would simply spit out the bit that had the meds in - even going as far as to simply eat the crusts when I spread the meds entirely over the sandwich! I know you said that you want to avoid syringes as you have to flush once the packing comes out, so hopefully what I've said will help and easy enough to be added to his current diet x
 
I've always used baby food and syringed in. Mine was on ABs for quite a while and nothing else worked.

Layers of baby food, AB mixed with baby food then baby food in the syringe. With a bit of added molasses if needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top