How to get a horse to accept a syringe

Llee94

Llee94

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I have already researched this and all the answers just say don't use one and although I try to avoid using syringes this time it is unavoidable as my mare has just been diagnosed with ulcers after a poor performance out eventing. They are quite bad at a grade 3-4 and both me and the vet couldn't understand how she hid the pain so well as her poor performance on Monday was the only indicator that something was wrong. I feel so bad as these have obviously been effecting her for a while and she has still continued to work her little socks off for me and hide her pain.
I have been given 28 days worth of Peptizole syringes to give her which I have been told can't be mixed with her food and that she must be starved 30 mins before and after having it. She had her first dose this morning and it took both me and my mum 10 minutes of stress for all involved and a blindfold made out of my coat to get it anywhere near her mouth and even then I am not sure where most of it went. Because of the severity of her ulcers I am very keen she gets all of her medication to make her better and also because it is over £40 per tube so I don't want to waste it!
Are there any techniques I can use to make this a less traumatic experience for her? I have been told to use an empty syringe and fill it with something that tastes nice and use that a few times but what should I use to fill it?
All help will be greatly appreciated.
Also if anyone has some ideas about how I can stop them coming back once treatment has finished I would really like to hear it.
 
I have a horse who hates being wormed, so I bought an Easy Wormer - it's a hollow plastic bit that you squirt the wormer into
Works a treat - might be worth a try
 
turkana said:
I have a horse who hates being wormed, so I bought an Easy Wormer - it's a hollow plastic bit that you squirt the wormer into
Works a treat - might be worth a try
Click to expand...

Probably the best option as you don't really have time to spend getting her used to something nice, usually this takes days if not longer to get them really accepting it, the only other suggestion if she is not fussy would be to mix it up with something tasty and see if she will take it herself out of a bowl, as long as her stomach is pretty much empty when the drugs get there taking it in with a token amount should not reduce the effectiveness.

http://www.hyperdrug.co.uk/Easy-Wormer/productinfo/EASYWORMER/
 
This ^. I taught my horse to love being wormed using an old syringe with the hole enlarged and apple puree with honey in it.

It does take some time though, plus you need to do it again after real worming for a bit. If you are going to be syringing every day it might be worth trying a different technique (such as the easy wormer, though I've never tried it) for now and then spending some time afterwards getting her good for any future medication. I suspect a daily syringe (assuming it doesn't taste nice) would undo all you hard work, especially if you can't feed straight afterwards so you can't syringe something yummy immediately after.
 
It's a bit late for the training side as you have to get the stuff in now.

Do your horses like peppermints? If so you could try a little peppermint oil on the syringe.

When I worm my horses they get a few mints before being wormed, then a few after. I don't have a problem with the syringe.

I've tried the worming bit but the horse in question was not fooled in the slightest.
We would have to put on a strong well fitting headcollar, then wrap the rope around a post, with his nose on the post, and then worm him. Because he couldn't raise his head he got wormed.
 
I have an easy wormer bit too - really like it. One of my nods his head really fast if he sees a syringe (doesn't sound like much but makes life very difficult!), but with the worming bit he is easy. The caveat is that whatever you put in needs to be a similar consistency as wormer i.e. paste - I tried it when he needed antibiotics and it was an epic fail.
 
I recently wormed a horse that I'd been told was normally wormed with the horse inside a stable to prevent it kicking, one person bracing against the door with the leadrope taught and the other wrestling the syringe into its mouth...

I took the horse into a field on a leadrope and brought over the syringe. I lunged the horse a few times around me (like 3 circles either way) just to establish that we were 'working' and he had to focus on me. By all accounts the horse went insane when it saw a syringe so I didn't know what it would do and made sure to stay by the shoulder. Went close to him and let him see the syringe. He moved away a little but I kept hold and followed him until he stopped. Repeated this a few times and gave him polo mints every time he allowed me to bring the syringe close to his face. Eventually, it was possible to put it in the corner of his mouth. No violence and he did not kick or anything. I then held his head as if to put a bridle on and put the syringe in and quickly gave him the wormer.

Now obviously wormer is DISGUSTING. Of course they hate it! None that I've wormed will even eat immediately after because of how revolting it is. So if I was going to be doing this regularly, I'd get him used to a nice tasty treat (like applesauce) inside the syringe. But to get things started, you can just take things slow and even the supposedly bad ones will let you. It's just a case of patience.

In your position, I'd take the above approach the first time and then switch to applesauce (a small amount) and do it multiple times every day. If the thing in your syringe tastes disgusting, it doesn't matter how nicely and patiently you do it, the horse will get worse at taking it over the many days you have to keep the treatment going as she'll learn that it's horrible to comply. So the key there is to make the outcome unpredictable and, on balance, good. If 4/5 times the stuff in the syringe is tasty, she'll forgive the 1 time it's not.
 
I had a huge brute of a thing that was normally gentle, but reared and plunged like a mustang at the sight of a white tube.

... I blindfolded him and fed him carrots by sliding them in the side, just like a wormer. 2 or 3 carrots, then - wormer - then another carrot. He barely noticed!
 
Faracat said:
The horse in the video isn't that bad. Hell, you can stand next to her holding the wormer and she's relaxed.
Click to expand...

This! The horse barely reacts, I would love to see him try that with my 11h mule, he's off as soon as he sees it in your hand. Took two of us to do it last time via blindfold, and pinning him, and he's tiny! I will think about the syringe with apple sauce though, that sounds like a plan - I need to get him used to it, and I fear that a bit with wormer in will only make him avoid a bit!
 
I recently had an issue getting anitbiotics in to my mare. In the end I made up my own delivery device! I bought a length of orange rubber tubing (from B&Q/plumbers merchants), cut a length to about 60 cm. I then attached one end to her bit (finishing in the middle) using some rubber bands and had the long end trailing out through the bit ring to the side. I could then put her bridle on, attach the syringe to the other end of the tube and deliver the antibiotics that way and even allowing for head waving and wandering around the stable I could stay close enough to her to keep pushing the plunger on the syringe and getting it in to her. You do need to either put extra medication in the syringe to allow for what is left in the tube or have something to flush through with at the end. I was worried that I may make her bridle shy but it did not happen. Anyway I needed to get the medication in to her and figured even if I did cause an issue I would rather do that and fix it afterwards.
 
pennyturner said:
I had a huge brute of a thing that was normally gentle, but reared and plunged like a mustang at the sight of a white tube.

... I blindfolded him and fed him carrots by sliding them in the side, just like a wormer. 2 or 3 carrots, then - wormer - then another carrot. He barely noticed!
Click to expand...

Now that's a cunning plan!

All mine could be wormed loose in the field with the peppermint plan.muntil one of my grazers bought the wormer, a different shaped tube, the common sort with a wide body and small nozzle. She wormed everyone for me. The next time the 3yr old would have non of it, he reared, bit, lashed out with front feet. We believe that she must have bruised his mouth and being the cantankerous little *** he was not prepared to cooperate again.

I use a wormer brand that has a tube about as thick as your middle finger, an ergonomic handle and the active ingredient is in a gel about a third of the volume of any other brand. It's also aniseed flavoured. Less wormer to give or spit out. The gel melts almost instantly
 
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