How to get a horse to eat feed with medication in?

[xmoodyxmarex]

Hello

My horse has been injured for a few days(just in time for Xmas!!

) and is on quite a bit of medication in his feed for it. He now knows the feed doesn't taste all that great and won't touch it. He still has his appitite in all other ways so I know that isn't the problem.

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on things i could put in the feed to make it better for him?! Tried lots of garlic with no luck. Put carrots etc in, but he manages to pick the carrots out and leave the feed, no matter how much I mix them in!

He's going to be on them for a good few more days at least, and I have no idea how we will manage it!!

All ideas will be appreciated!!

 

[spike123]

try adding black treacle or alternatively put the medication into a bit of bread along with the treacle and give it to your horse that way.Horses all seem to love it.Another alternative is danilon rather than bute as that is taste free.

 

[MrsMozart]

Ours won't have powders unless the feed is damped, or even made quite sloppy. Occasionally won't eat last few mouthfulls unless hand fed.

What about a bit of molasses or syrup stirred in? Anything that they like the taste of (I'm all for bribary and corruption

).

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Grate the carrot/apple so it can't be picked out as easily!!!

 

[xmoodyxmarex]

Thankyou for your responses!!

Spike:He's on danilon to try and make it more palitable (sp?) for him, but also on trimed, and i think that's what he doesn't like.

He normally loves bread, so i think ill try that idea thankyou!!

MM- He has Speedibeet in his feed and we have that quite sloppy so the power stays in and doesn't all blow away when we mix it up! He normally loves all food, which is why I'm so stuck now he doesn't, it's really thrown me!! Syrup might be worth a try though, maybe if he has something new he will forget about the medication(wishful thinking!!)

 

[xmoodyxmarex]

CS- Wow why didn't i think of that?! That will stop him from taking all the good parts!!

 

[saddlesore]

I always add apple juice to medicated feed, yet to have a horse say no! I find that the cheaper apple juices are more sugary and seems to disguise the taste better

 

[YorksG]

If he really won't eat it after all those tips, you could try what we had to do with the old Appy to get bute in (every day for over 4 years) mix the medication with a teaspoon full of instant drinking chocolate, make a runny paste with hot water and the syringe it in with an irrigation syringe or an old working paste syringe.

 

[xmoodyxmarex]

Thankyou all for the suggestions!! I'll work my way through the list until i find something that works! At some point I think he'll have to give in! lol

 

[tikino]

i have a horse that wont eat food that has medication in it. i have tried every trick in the book in the end up i just gace up and she now gets any medication in a paste form. like antibiotics and bute in pastes.

 

[pottamus]

Deffinately black treacle butties!

 

[wizgirl]

I put loads of mint in mine - it is the only thing that works for me. You can buy it from your local feed merchant or saddlery. We usually have a scoop by scoop thing going and each scoop brings a sniff and he decides when I have disguised it enough. What a diva!!!

 

[mik]

Mine like marmalade.

 

[Birker2020]

Try grating the carrot and apples, bit fiddly I know but does work. Or mix apple juice, or peppermint cordial or even peppermint food flavouring (the type in the very small bottle your Mum used to use for cakes and sweets). Otherwise you could try molasses, black treacle or even golden syrup. If he is on bute you could ask you vet to swap your sachets for Danillon as this seems to be a lot more appetising. Thing is if you don't like sprouts and you found them on your plate for Xmas dinner and your Mum tried to tempt you to eat them by covering them with chocolate sauce you would know somethings was up and it was a big con to try to get you to eat them. Then you would think, gosh, if she's going to all this effort they must taste pretty disgusting, don't think I will risk it. So therefore the trick with horses is to add just enough of something flavoured more strongly than the medicine, but not too overpowering so it puts them off completely and don't give them too much feed when you mix the medicine in either. I know you say this isnt the case in your horses case but as a rule of thumb if you are off colour you don't have a massive appetite, neither will your horse, so try maybe splitting the feed (not the drugs) so one small feed has some drug in but the other doesn't. Chances are if you do it well he would never find out!!!

 

[Birker2020]

Forgot to say a cheaper idea than the peppermint cordial/apple juice would be to put a whole packet of polos in a mug and pour boiling water over them and leave them to stew a while. Then mix the 'juice' in your feed, cheap but works very well if your stuck for molasses/grated apple etc.

 

[Madasmaz]

Try some pepermint tea...tetley or if you are pushing the boat out Twinnings...if it gets really difficult, what I tend to do is cust and apple in half, make a pit in the core, fill it with the drug and pop the core back on top...an she still loves apples.

 

[Vicki1986]

a little warm sloppy bran did the trick when mine was on anti-bios.

or jam sandwiches.

 

[Cop-Pop]

For TBx I mix in plenty of garlic, crushed polos and chopped carrots and parsnip (parsnip as good coz the taste is quite strong).

Ponio is much easier so I just mix peppermint tea in with it.

Our old pony would only eat medication if I mix it with jam then fed it from a wooden spoon - he would just lick it off

 

[kellyeaton]

mint ribeania honey or molasses should work!

 

[JessPickle]

we have one incredibly fussy horse that is on a lots of drugs at the moment. Currently they fill a syringe with the drug and natural yoghurt. Works a treat

 

[Goya]

Mix the medication in Chocolate sauce then mix in the feed. This worked brilliantly with my mare.

 

[xmoodyxmarex]

Thankyou all so much for your responses, sorry I'm late replying to you all!

We tried Molasses today and worked a treat!! So thankyou to all your suggestions, and if/when he gets wise to this trick and decides he doesn't like it again, I shall be trying another of your great ideas!!

 

[diggerbez]

oatso simple! obviously you have to let it cool down first!

 

[ladyt25]

Well, we haqd this problem with our pony trying to give him antibiotics. We were given a tip of giving him them in golden syrup sandwiches as he wouldn't eat it in feed. Well, it wokred a bit (and he's a very greedy pony) however, unfortunately there was too much powder really and he decided we were obviously trying to poison him so we had to give up!

Should have just asked the vet to let us jab him in his bum instead - much easier!

 

[chestnut cob]

I would dissolve it and syringe it in. Mine had an op last year and refused to eat the bute the vet gave me (and he is normally the greediest pony you could ever meet) so I dissolved it in water and syringed down his throat. He hated me for it but it worked!

Also found that covering his feed in mint worked - someone at the yard had a load of dried mint as some sort of feed supplement (Simple Systems possibly??) and she gave me that to try. Worked a treat and because it's so strong it covered up the taste. Mine wouldn't eat anything like apple sauce, jam sarnies or any of that as it was out of the ordinary so I think he thought I was trying to poison him!