How do i get my horse to eat his antibiotics???

goneshowjumping

goneshowjumping

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My TB is on antibiotics for a infection on his back leg (see older post). well his first sachet last night he eventually ate in his feed, but this morning wouldnt touch it!
i will syringe it in him this evening but once ive done that once i know ill have job to get a syringe near him!

how do other people manage this? i dont really want to ring the vet again to get oral ones, as more cost involved!!!!!
any ideas would be great!
oh he has sugar beet, chaff and build up cubes for his feed, so its a nice wet feed, but he knows its there!
 
We had the same problem, have you tried putting a splash of apple juice in the feed, makes it sweeter. Or add water to it to make it even wetter, seemed to do the trick for us.
 
My TB was the same, I used to have to inject instead.
Last time though I changed her feed - I put the youngsters mix in and some Suregrow and gave less Alfa A than usual and she ate it. Probably because it tasted different anyway if that makes sense.
Before anybody shouts "You'll give her colic changing feed like this"
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the amounts were not large and she was fine.
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yes i had thought of apple juice or peppermint cordial or even molasses on his feed so ill try that this evening.
wishkabibble, i had thought of giving him a different feed just to tempt him, so i might have to go beg and borrow some from the other liveries!
 
What about adding something like black treacle to the feed? or a treacle sandwich?( as long as these agree with your horse and don't cause him more harm than good that is!)-

TBH though if you want to be 100% sure your horse is getting his antibiotics, personally I would ask for the paste version- although more expensive, it is cheaper than having another vets bill because the infection has got worse because he won't touch the antibiotics.
 
Give him the feed when he is hungry. My mare often does not finish her breakfast because she wants to go in the field, but at night when she is hungry she eats it all. Especially if there is no hay in the box. The sachets of anti-bios are huge, so I don't blame them for not liking it.

I agree with the black treacle, it ought to really overpower the taste of the anti-bios.
 
tracey01 this is the problem, the sachets are HUGE!
i will try whats been suggested, and hopefully get them in him, with 2 a day and 6 day supply, this is gonna be fun!
thanks all for the suggestions, hopefully something will work!
 
I used to use jam sandwiches or cut a carrot in half, hollow it out and pack it with jam and the antibiotics and then put the 2 halves back together so it looked like a normal carrot.
 
We gave my pony (very suspicious when it comes to meds!) abs in golden syrup sandwiches. It worked well to start with but as there was so much powder in the sachets he soon decided that actually the sandwiches weren't as good as he initially thought!

Plus, it was very very messy! Lol

I much prefer the vaccinations myself!
 
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Mix the antibiotics with plain yogurt making a paste and syringe into mouth just like when you worm.We did this with My old boy for months, works really well.

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Thats exactly what I would do (and did). Its the only way with my fussy suspicious one
 
Marmite tea in his feed. Mix up a couple of teaspoons of marmite with hot water. Pour in feed and mix well. Works every time for our fussy Bean bag,even with strong smelling herbal stuff!
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I dont know how large your sachets are but we used to put them in carrots, if you take the core out but leave it so theres still an end in then put the powder in the middle then put a little bit of the core back in to hold it in then give it to then with their head in the air and walah!

You could do it to a few carrots, we like this method better as at least you know the full amount is going in whereas putting in a bucket you never know how much has gone in and how much is on the floor!
 
Haven't read all the posts so this may have been suggested but how about adding something to the syringe? I syringe a pasted solution (mix water with medication) as mine accepts it like that but my friend mixed treacle with the medication and water and syringes it in the mouth.
 
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