How to give tablets

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respectedpony driver

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Hi,how does everyone else give Metformin tablets to their ponies,I have tried polo's,carrots,and she doesnt like them,they also dont grind down into powder.She has to have 20 a day at the moment,so it is a problem.Thanks.
 
You really need to grind them down to a powder and mix in with the feed, they are, as you have found, extremely hard but it is possible using a pestle and mortar, a rolling pin and bashing them inside a bag or I think people use a coffee grinder, which if she is on them long term would probably be a good investment.
 
far easier to dissolve them than grind them. They take a while to dissolve, (I used to put the evening ones in water when I fed the morning ones) and then either syringe them in or mix with something that the horse likes.
 
I've never fed metformin, but have always given tablets orally as whole tablets. I have had to give gabapentin to my old horse in vast quantities and just popped them whole in his mouth and held his mouth up and rubbed his throat.
 
My boy was on metformin similar dosage to yours for 8 months .I dissolved them in warm water .I used to do the evening ones in the morning and the next mornings ones the previous eve .They go down fine
 
Fat_Pony said:
I've never fed metformin, but have always given tablets orally as whole tablets. I have had to give gabapentin to my old horse in vast quantities and just popped them whole in his mouth and held his mouth up and rubbed his throat.
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Mine was on 28 phenobarbitone in the mornings and 38 in the evenings. Bless her, I just mixed them into her feed and she ate them up without complaint. She was a fussychops too.
 
respectedpony said:
Hi,how does everyone else give Metformin tablets to their ponies,I have tried polo's,carrots,and she doesnt like them,they also dont grind down into powder.She has to have 20 a day at the moment,so it is a problem.Thanks.
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20 is quite a lot so I can see your difficulty. Because they are so small I would be tempted to grab her tongue and just place them at the back of her mouth (easier said than done but gets the job done without all that mixing and sneakiness)! Or dissolve in hot water in a bowl, allow to cool, give a stir, stick syringe into bowl and suck up and straight down the throat by holding tongue method again.

It is so strange how there are so many people that can't hold their horses tongue and stick it out of the side of their mouth to give medication. Maybe my horse is very obliging! :)
 
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Metformin tablets aren't that small, are you sure you aren't thinking of something else? I have to give 15 in each dose & I couldn't put that many in the back of his mouth in one go - I know because I've tried in the past! I find dissolving them & then soaking the liquid up in as few high fibre nuts as possible to be the best approach, I was never confident he got the full dose syringing & anyway even my eternal optimist of a cob soon wised up to the fact that twice a day he was going to be syringed with something he hated & it started turning into an argument.
 
No,def Metformin pills,I must be lucky as she is taking a full dose in a syringe with no trouble at all,I just soak the eve dose in the morning and visa versa.I t must help that she is only 11.2.
 
Respectedponydriver Iwasn't questioning what you're giving, my apologies if that's how it came across! Another poster had said that they were small tablets & that's what I thought was odd.
 
Hi Nari,no didnt even think about it,def the best way for me and Bess is soaking them then syringing them into her mouth and she swallows it really well,Thanks everyone for all you help.x
 
My little pony is on 90 tablets a day & I put some mint in he's feed & he eats them all with no trouble. Good luck x
 
My little Shetland has 11 twice a day. I add magnesium also once a day. First time she ate them OK in feed but never again so grind them up and syringe in. I thought she was being fussy until I tried a little metformin - Yuk its very, very bitter so I can't blame her!
 
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