Getting tablets that cant be chewed or crushed down a horse

[robthecob]

Does anyone have any ideas for getting pills down my mare. They can't be crushed / fed with feed and at the moment she keeps chewing them up and spitting them out

 

[Rebels]

Grab the tongue and put pills down into the cheeks between the cheek and teeth. We had to get 60 steroid pills a day in a horse like this! I do still have all of my fingers thankfully.

 

[JEZA]

When I have to feed Metformin which wont crush easily, I soak it in a little hot water, and add it to feed. Could you do this then syringe it down?

 

[robthecob]

Rebels does this stop them from spitting it out. At the moment I have been sticking my hand in my mares mouth and placing them in the back of the throat but she just works them forwards and spits them out. They have to be dissolved in the stomach so they need to go whole and I can't syringe them

 

[Oberon]

I screw holes in pieces of carrot/apple and pop the pills in the holes, then cover the hole back over with the residue from the hole.

I have heard of people putting pills in a jam/marmite sandwich too.

 

[Rebels]

Yep, they don't seem to be able to get their tongues in the way to move them out. Also second the pill holes in carrots, though if you get ambitious and try 2 per carrot they lose some. If you put them in the cheek and keep stroking their throat so they swallow that helps. What tablets are they?

 

[Nari]

Another one who dissolves the tablets, I then use a few high fibre nuts to soak up the solution.

 

[Chicolatino]

I need to feed 8 metformin twice a day and my boy is a nightmare with tablets. On my vets advice an crush them in a coffee bean grinder soak wit water and syringe down the throat. gets most of it in.

 

[Nari]

Chicolatino they dissolve fine without having to grind them, particularly if you use warm water. I find that using a small amount of high fibre cubes & bran to soak up the liquid, plus maybe a sprinkle of mint or similar, saves having to syringe it down & the whole dose is in him rather than on me.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Op said they HAVE to dissolve in the stomach!
We had similar- they were not even supposed to be touched by hands! We bored a hole in carrots and put them I side, filling the hole back with the carrot extracted! I suppose they could get chewed but it worked for us and the pills worked well so they must have mostly gone down whole.

 

[putasocinit]

Never heard of it in my life have to dissolve in the stomach, they will be breaking down going through the oesophagus long before they reach the stomach.