Getting my horse to eat his feed with antibiotics in? Help!

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missshell

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My horse has to have antibiotics in his feed for the next 6 days. Hes a piggy and normally eats all his feed. Day 1 of the meds and he won't touch it. (injecting antibiotics is not possible we've tried)

I have tried lots of garlic, thought about apple juice but he doesnt really like apples. He now knows something isnt right about it but I really need him to eat it. I swear i'll be grey by the end of the week!
 
Just had to give mine antibiotics twice a day for 10 days! No way would he have eaten it in feed - is it the powder?

If so, put it in a mug, dilute with enough water to make a thin paste and use a large syringe like you were worming.

Have your feed bucket underneath to catch any which drips out and make sure your feed has lots of tasty bits on top to encourage him to dig in!

Good luck!
 
If he has a sweet tooth, try mixing the powder in warm syrup and turning that into his feed. Before you potentially waste a dosage, put a little syrup - without the antibiotic - on your hand (such fun!) and see if he fancies the taste. Ours love it.
 
I used gold label mint.
Give her a small feed with mint. Wait til she's eaten that.

Then give another small feed with mint & antib's in. Then add a tiny bit more feed with more mint if there's any left. It'll be gone by the morning.
 
My horse was on antibiotics and bute which both had to be mixed into her feeds. She is the world's fussiest eater so we tried quite a few methods.

She ate it all with no fuss when I added a yummy chaff (happy hoof or mollichaff) to her normal feed.

My vet reccomended making custard then adding the medication to it, sucking at all up in a suringe and then suringe into horses mouth. Apparently it works everytime! (Didn't try with my mare as she hates her mouth being touched).
 
A well tried method at our livery yard is toffee yoghurt. most horses lap it up, others have it syringed like wormer, it's a better consistancy for that than water.
 
I had v fussy mare who could sniff out antibiotics a mile away and she had o get LOTS of them over the years I had her! I used to soak high fibre pony nuts until it looks like sludge(!) then mix in antibiotic and every time she liked the bucket clean
 
My mare was recently on antibiotics. I 'melted' the tablets with a bit of apple juice, mixed in a generous helping of molasses and then syringed the whole mess into her mouth. She loved it! In fact, she would try to chew on the syringe if I wasn't fast enough with it. :)
 
For Meg, I HAVE to make it into a paste with a litle water and 'worm' her. She hates it and sees me coming a mile off. I find myself preparing the performance for hours beforhand just to make friends, then zap, and then I really am the worst enemy! Poor mare. I always tell her not to hurt herself, then I wouldn't have to do it! LOL
 
In the interests of scientific discovery, I tasted Noradine a couple of years back and it is very bitter and horrible. My veteran who lives for his stomach wouldn't touch a feed with Noradine in even if it was drenched in apple juice, syrup, jam, mint, anything. I tried hollowing out an apple but as soon as he caught a whiff of Noradine he wouldn't come near it. After all that, he wouldn't eat his feeds at all! So I tried the dissolving in something wet and let me tell you it ain't easy! You have to cut enough off the end of the syringe for the thick liquid to pass through and because it's a liquid rather than a paste I ended up with more dripping down my arm than in his mouth. Catching it in the feed bowl no good, see above! In the end I wasted 3 or 4 sachets and was singularly unimpressed. So I had to get the ready-filled Noradine tubes (paste like wormer, not runny) and he had no choice about that. The down side of this is that Noradine sachets come in about £5 each but Noradine paste tubes are £18 each!!!! Next time he needs antibx, I'm going to give in to temptation and shove them up his backside as an enema lol x
 
Baileyhoss said:
A well tried method at our livery yard is toffee yoghurt. most horses lap it up, others have it syringed like wormer, it's a better consistancy for that than water.
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Can second this. Also

Jam doughnuts, custard doughnuts, little pots of any childrens' desserts (banana custard, etc), milk shake syrup, apple puree baby food
 
Thank you, all of your replies have been so helpful! It seems his stomach has gotten the better of him and over the last few hours he has eaten most of the feed! :) I am leaving the final bit over night but im hopeful he will finish it once he runs out of hay! Fingers crossed!
If so i will gove him half in the morning when hes hungry, then give him the rest later on and it'll be a slow process but i hope we get there!
 
what i did with my very finicky veteran was to put the antibiotic into a tub pour some naf energ in with it mix it very well then put water into in and mix it in to his dinner. this worked very well (strangely!) i'm sure it would work just as well with something like molasses as long and it is mixed in very well
 
Golden syrup is the answer. Add it to the powder, mix it til its all in a paste and then add a little warm water to make it liquid and drizzle it over the feed. Mine would eat anything with golden syrup. Sadly can't use if for old mare these days due to her laminitis risk, but it always worked before.
 
tablespoon of peppermint gaviscon - i laughed when i vet suggested it but worked a treat! she loved it! also helped with worming too :D
 
OP have you tried just adding a handfull of mix (not their usual feed)?

We have some very fussy horses, tried to 'worm' them and couldnt get near. Chucked some 16+ in one day and he lapped it up!!
 
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