Getting horse to eat bute - Help please!

[muddygreymare]

My mare was put on a course of bute (Equipalazone brand bute, not danilon) and will not eat it. It's a fine powder but she keeps leaving half her dinner/breakfast since she's been put on it, usually she wolfs the lot in about 5 seconds! She has been on Danilon before and eats that fine but clearly doesn't like this.

Would you ring the vet and ask if she could have danilon or does anyone have any ideas on how to get her to eat the bute? Currently fed in her dinner which is alfalfa light and pony nuts, wetted and mixed in. Thanks

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Ask your vet for an irrigation syringe and mix it with something tasty and water to a paste, then syringe it in.

 

[Honey08]

My mare won't touch it in any form or mixed with anything, so I mix a bit of water, make a paste, and syringe it like a wormer.

 

[Annagain]

I've tried all the tricks and different things work with different horses.

1)Try a marmite and bute sandwich (give a plain one first to check if she likes it, but I haven't met a horse yet who doesn't.
2) Mix it with a small amount of sugar beet and hand feed it. That way one or two mouthfulls and it's gone rather than having it spread throughout a big feed.
3) If she likes banana mash it up in a banana
4)If all else fails, get a big syringe (your local chemist should be able to help with that) mix it with water or apple juice (it doesn't dissolve but the liquid makes it squooshable!) and give it like you would a wormer. You sometimes end up with a bit of powder left in the syringe so you might need to refill it, shake it around and squoosh a second time. Half fill the syringe with liquid, before adding the bute or it will clog up the nozzle. Then top up with as much liquid as you can and give it a good shake to mix it.

 

[Tammytoo]

Lots of horses won't eat bute. Take the unused sachets back and get your vet to swap the bute for Danilon. Easier than messsing about with syringes!

For some reason vets seem to give bute as the first choice, but Danilon is much more palatable and gentler on the stomach.

 

[chapper]

Mix it with molasses and water then add too feed, works with my fussy eater

 

[hnmisty]

When trying to get my pony to eat some meds she didn't like, I used to grate her carrots into her feed, rather than chop them up.

Small apple, core it, put the bottom part of the core back in (as a plug), tip bute into middle, and plug it up. Did that one with my other pony when he wouldn't eat his meds! Not as guaranteed to get it all down them, as they might drop bits as they eat it.

 

[*hic*]

Make the feed up without bute, take a double handful and put it in her bowl, mix the bute in. She will probably take a big mouthful and look utterly disgusted, then take the bowl away and mix the rest of the feed in and give it to her, she won't notice the taste of the rest of the bute after the big heavily loaded mouthful.

 

[JustKickOn]

Bute is cheaper, hence why it is normally the first option.

Mix the bute with a small bit if the feed, and mix in some molasses or other tasty things, that way you can check all has been eaten.

 

[indie999]

Mix it with molasses and water then add too feed, works with my fussy eater

I agree something sweet ie honey or strawberry jam(it sticks to this as well and mash it in with ie soaked low heat pony nuts. Bute is bitter and they do get use to it after a while.I think I even chopped an apple into the soaked pony nuts as well.

 

[Hippona]

My mare won't touch it in any form or mixed with anything, so I mix a bit of water, make a paste, and syringe it like a wormer.

This, Job done

 

[BobbyMondeo]

try it with some molasses, or try making a paste and syringing it into her mouth, if neither work get some danilon...far easier

 

[muddygreymare]

Thanks for all the ideas. She's good with worming so if the food related ideas fail a syringe would probably work. I will try and find a way that works haha

 

[BentleyBelly]

If you can't swap it for danilon you could try adding apple juice to the feed. It works really well for my pony but I don't like feeding him sugar so always buy danilon instead now.

 

[Splish & Masons mum]

I've only ever done this with danilon but I guess it would work for bute as well:

Take some dried mint powder,
some icing sugar (but only if your horse is ok with sugar),
add the bute powder, add a tiny bit of water,
mix it all up and form into bite size treats. leave them in the fridge for a couple of hours, they will set hard and you can hand feed them like treats.
takes a bit of forward planning, and can be a bit of a faff, but our fussy boy who could smell a danilon at 100 paces never refused one!
good luck!

 

[GlamourPuss86]

We used to use jam sandwiches

 

[zigzag]

Put the bute in the freezer for 20 mins before feeding it, it kills the taste

 

[TeamChaser]

One of mine will not touch it - and have tried everything! Mixing the Bute with various things before adding to feed, adding apple juice, honey, mollasses to feed, grated carrot, apple etc, etc, etc. So annoying. He's not great at being wormed either. In fact, wormed the other day and he then stood and refused to eat anything at all for about an hour after! Such a drama queen

I think Bute is a better anti inflammatory which is why it's usually first choice but I always just ask for Danilon now - easier than messing about

Why can't they just make it mint flavoured?? Have always wondered that

 

[jlh]

My old share horse wouldn't take his bute. We tried anything we could. I read up and tried every suggestion including hollowing out apples, using yoghurt, syringe with water and apple juice, all to no avail. The only thing i found to work was a tomato ketchup sandwich. He ate it everytime without fail.

 

[Casey76]

Don't put bute in the freezer!

Freezing any drug can alter the chemical composition and render the drug ineffective.

 

[Summer pudding]

Chocolate spread sandwiches, strawberry yoghurt in a syringe! I think Danilon works out at approx £1 per day so much more expensive than bute, but it is kinder to the stomach and palatable. Bute is very bitter, I've tried it (in the interests of my horse of course!)...horrible.

 

[vallin]

Same problem with my mare, easiest thing is some heavily molassed chaff and then watter.

 

[MiCsarah]

My pony had to have bute for a long time when first diagnosed with bone spavins. For a year he had to have 1 a day, tried many a trick. One that worked really well was a sandwich with golden syrup and mint until one day I didn't put enough golden syrup in and that came back out again. I then used to soak a small handful of nuts and mix the bute in with a tablespoon of molasses and that used to go down a treat

 

[chestnut cob]

Take it back and ask for either Danilon or Metacam. No point messing about. Plus Danilon is much kinder to them.

 

[mcnaughty]

I find garlic masks everything

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Large syringe apple sauce bit of water did it like this for weeks

 

[Ancient Hacker]

Applesauce, sunflower seeds and molasses with the Equipalazone mixed in very thoroughly. I used that with my old horse who hated bute, but he couldn't get enought when I mixed it like this. I used a jar of applesauce babyfood for each dose. Syringing it in didn't work with him, he just sort of drooled it out again, somehow!

 

[Tnavas]

Does she like peppermints?

If so then buy some peppermint oil, and either heavily flavour her feed with it or mix the bute in a syringe with it and some warm water and syringe dirrectly into her mouth.

I always give mine mints before worming them as it then hides the taste of the wormer. Then they get one as a reward after.

 

[mudmonkey17]

Agree with the molasses. My boy on one bute a day. He stopped eating danilon and now on equipalazone. Used to mix with molasses in feed. Now I jut mix it into his pure feeds and he eats it no fuss

 

[MrsMozartleto]

Unless vet insistent in the Bute, swap to Danilon.

We have one that won't take Bute no matter what. As she's a bit special anyway it's much easier to go with the flow and give her the drug she'll take without issue.