getting a horse to eat their meds...

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Fox07

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my horse has had to be put on a lot of oral medication twice a day, unfortunately she wont touch it, I have tried sandwiches, garlic and molasses mixed in with feeds etc as I say she is on a lot of medication so coring an apple and sneaking it in that way wouldnt work, I could syringe it but it would mean quite a lot of syringing and I dont want to make her bad to worm. any ideas? I am doing my own head in!!!
 
I feel your pain :).

What feed does she normally get? Is it quite strong-tasting? What exactly have you tried to mix her meds with?

My boy is notorious for sniffing out bute and refusing to eat it (despite being a piglet in every other respect when it comes to food) . . . but I found that if I added raspberry yoghurt (pro-biotic, so it supports his gut while he's on the bute) he would eat the bute . . . then, quite by chance when I ran out of yoghurt I found that his Alfa A Molasses Free was enough to disguise the taste of the bute . . . or perhaps he had become used to the taste.

So . . . what does your horse regularly eat and what strong-tasting things have you already tried to disguise the taste?

P
 
I had this problem with Metformin, at one point I was smashing the tablets, mixing them with Coligone liquid & then smearing on the back of his tongue by hand. Luckily he doesn't bite, but I could hardly ask anyone to do that when I was away!

I found that dissolving the tablets in water (check with vet that this is ok to do) which I soaked up with high fibre nuts & then adding a good glug of apple juice & a sprinkle of cinnamon worked for us, had to be juice not squash though.
 
Ive had all of this myself with my very piggy but very fussy new forest. I tried absolutely EVERYTHING! The only thing I found to work was mushed up banana, mixed with molasses and pony mix. The lengths we go to hey!
 
If molasses doesn't work or a scooped out apple, I fear syringing may be the way forward. I had to with mine although he didn't mind licking it off my hand when mixed with polos.
 
ive tried mixing it with hi fi lite and some coarse mix with garlic and molasses shes on 6 scoops of sputolysin, 2 scoops of ventupulmin and 50ml karidox twice a day so a lot to try and hide :/
 
If you do have to resort to syringing perhaps try mixing it with something to mask the taste so your horse resents it less (I used to use a small spoon of honey dissolved in hot water for mine, did this for several weeks and he's still fine to worm). Only thing I can get my boy to eat large quantities of bute with is copious amounts of custard powder and I know I friend who disguises hers in tinned custard. Other things I've heard of are dried mint (might try this one with my boy next time I need to give him anything as he even tries to drink water that I've used to wash him in a minty shampoo with!), blood salts (can't remember the brand) and blackcurrant juice. Also known people have success using sugarbeet (few people on my yard also swear by fastfibre although my boy isn't fooled by that if I don't add the custard as well!)
 
Mine is on Karidox too, I was told to syringe it in. She is a good girl but she spits a lot out and won't eat if anything in her feed. What I find helps is putting 15ml honey in the bottom of the syringe and then pour the karidox on top. This makes it stick to their tongue and they let you put the syringe in as it tastes of honey. X
 
I'm having this problem with poppy and her bute :( she's terrible to syringe....worming is a nightmare!! Thinking I might try the yogurt idea though?
 
yeah tried yoghurt too she just looked at me like I was stupid lol,large syringe in gob it is :/
 
wow some of the ideas are way beyond what i would ever have thought of, i have always just grated apples and carrots although sometimes you end up with a whole feed bucket of them grated just to get one bute in!
 
i've had the same problem with my boy, he's on liquid antibiotics! So finally we managed to get him to eat it with chopped up apples & carrots, molasses, mix, and some of the herbi mollichaff. good luck :)
 
Just wondering if you usually try to get all 3 doses into her with the same feed? If you have not tried this, how about separating them into 3 tasty morsels of something she likes. The respiratory drugs are probably more palatable than the abx, so if you could get her to eat those at least the 3rd dose would be less volume. Keeping them in the freezer and feeding immediately you take them out works well too.
 
elderlycoupleindevon said:
Just wondering if you usually try to get all 3 doses into her with the same feed? If you have not tried this, how about separating them into 3 tasty morsels of something she likes. The respiratory drugs are probably more palatable than the abx, so if you could get her to eat those at least the 3rd dose would be less volume. Keeping them in the freezer and feeding immediately you take them out works well too.
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check with vet re freezing we are told at the vets i work at to advise no freezing of medication or wormers as it is thought to reduce the efficiency of some active ingredients
 
Try mixing with some powdered mint or some peppermint cordial. Most horses love the minty taste. For syringing I bought a worming bit works brilliantly with no fighting!
 
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