Karidox... How the heck do I get pony to swallow it?

[Boulty]

Fuzzball currently has a hole under his jaw down to the bone so is SUPPOSED to be on Doxycycline. It smells vile so assuming the taste isn't much better. Have tried giving it neat (followed by water flush as can be irritant apparently), diluted in water & diluted in apple juice. All of these result in the floor / my arm receiving a larger dose than the pony!

Has anyone else had to give this & if so any tips please?

Vet coming back on Thursday to x-ray & check for bone damage & going to ask if there's any options that are injectable instead (he 100% won't eat anything that goes in his feed... Shocked that he's been eating danilon tbh) but figured I'd see if the combined knowledge of HHO had any foolproof tips

 

[usaequestrian]

Hmm is there a way you could soak an apple or something in it so it absorbs the Doxycycline, but the pony is too busy eating the treat to notice the meds?

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

Last time mine needed it I got the vet to give via injection every day for 5 days. Previously I had little success with the liquid. I also had to feed it with pre and pro biotics as it’s very harsh on the gut.

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

My friend was advised by her vet to use syringes to feed it mixed into yoghurt. I suggested adding some apple puree too. It was messy to make up the syringes but the horse ate it politely.

 

[GinaGeo]

I had to mix with yoghurt and a little molasses to give it a thicker texture.

It is vile though, and will destroy your clothing and mark concrete so do flush your horses mouth afterwards. I’d use prebiotics as well.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Buy some mint essence from the supermarket its so strong you only need a few drops, my fussy 2 eat anything mixed with it it's got no added sugar either just mint.

 

[criso]

I syringed into the mouth like a wormer, Tigger is very suspicious of strange additives to his dinner so struggle with all antibiotics.

There is a paste option now that my vet practice is using , much more expensive but that is apparently very palatable.

 

[ihatework]

Yoghurt & syringe

 

[Boulty]

Thanks guys yoghurt & apple baby food concoction seems to have resulted in more of it going in the horse than the floor (although still a bit spat out but less than before). I've noticed it does fun things to concrete!

 

[MidChristmasCrisis]

I used to mash up banana and syringe down…put the mare off bananas in the end tho!

 

[Carrottom]

I was supplied with Powdox which didn't smell so vile. I mixed it with apple sauce and added to feed x2 a day.

 

[HBB]

You have my sympathies, it is absolutely vile tasting and a pain in the ass to administer. I ended up mixing it in a small amount of soaked feed and that was eaten with out too much protest. I do wish equine oral meds were made a bit more palatable, it's us as handlers that are always on the receiving end of any negative behaviour when they have to be used.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

You have my sympathies, it is absolutely vile tasting and a pain in the ass to administer. I ended up mixing it in a small amount of soaked feed and that was eaten with out too much protest. I do wish equine oral meds were made a bit more palatable, it's us as handlers that are always on the receiving end of any negative behaviour when they have to be used.

Karidox isn’t designed for horses, hence the especially vile taste! Most equine meds you can get in more palatable/more easily administered forms but as someone said above, they tend to be significantly more expensive.

 

[Boulty]

The insurance shall be paying so meds can be as expensive as they like but vet told me there wasn't an equine licenced version hence the nasty pig meds!

Criso do you know the name of the paste your vets get instead? Might see if they can either get hold of it or do me a written script as tonight's attempt didn't go as well as this morning.

I really don't think he'll eat it in feed as he freaks out about change if I start a new bag of chaff (of which he will eat precisely one particular type of one particular brand)

 

[HBB]

Karidox isn’t designed for horses, hence the especially vile taste! Most equine meds you can get in more palatable/more easily administered forms but as someone said above, they tend to be significantly more expensive.

Yes I know all that but the equine vets still insist on using it and I can honestly say I haven't found Norodine paste more palatable or any easier to administer.

@Boulty I had to start with a tiny amount and slowly increase it in feed but it wasn't practical. I don't think it's an antibiotic that should be used for horses as it can not be administered easily or safely in some cases. There is nothing worse than trying to syringe something revolting tasting into a horse's mouth once or twice a day for the duration of a course without creating a stressful situation.

 

[Auslander]

I syringe it in, and have found that standing on the mounting block makes a huge difference to how much I can get into the horse - applies to wormers as well.

 

[criso]

Sorry, I was trying to remember the name. I wasn't prescribed it, some other people were and were moaning about the cost. It was apparently the new licensed for horses option so vets had to prescribe it instead of Karidox so was supposed to be used. All I can remember is it came in a tub, not sachets or syringes.

 

[spotty_pony]

It is a nasty tasting one from what I understand - the only way I managed was to mix with apple sauce in a syringe and syringe it in like a wormer.

 

[[153312]]

icing sugar, syringe, mounting block and a leadrope round their nose if they really start being a prat.

If giving anti biotics do ask about getting probiotics too. They can prescribe ones which are better than stuff you can get OTC.

 

[Maryann]

I enlisted the help of him indoors who is taller than me. He syringed the appropriate amount in like a wormer and then kept his nose up while I fetched his feed, the theory being that spilt bits went in the food and got eaten anyway. It was all a bit brutal but it worked and the pony doesn't hate us.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

Yes I know all that but the equine vets still insist on using it and I can honestly say I haven't found Norodine paste more palatable or any easier to administer.

because the licensed ones (trimediazine/penicillin) don’t penetrate bone/joints very well, so if there’s a concern about that then karidox is the best choice. The flavoured (equine) version you should be able to just add to feed the same way as sachets. (That’s the theory anyway, I’ve not tried it so not sure if it actually works)

Norodine is the same as trimediazine sachets. To be honest you’re right, none of them are that easy to administer to a fussy horse. But there’s not really any other option unless you want to pay for a vet to come out daily to inject/administer.

 

[FabioandFreddy]

We added a black flexible tube to the end of a syringe, secured with a jubilee clip, when we had to give Karadox..and then Baytril...to Fabio. You can then get the tube in far enough then syringe in. He accepted that more - possibly as it went straight down and missed his taste buds?! I don't know - but it worked anyway! I still have it in our horse first aid kit just incase.