Metformin issues!

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squishypony

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Hi - my first post but I’m a long time lurker! I have a 14.3hh, 16 yo welsh D cross. My beautiful boy came in not quite right 2 weeks ago, confirmed by the vet the next day to be acute lami that I’d caught really early (yay for obsessive checking!). Since then he’s had a blood test for cushings and EMS, which were both negative. We were then advised by the vet to glucose test for EMS to be certain, and that has come back as 60 when it should be 5-10 (not sure on units sorry - this is all new to me!). He’s now been put on metformin and has to stay in for another 6 weeks.

I’m really struggling to get him to eat the metformin at all. It’s a powdered form, supposedly Apple but we’ve tried some this evening and it really is horrible and bitter ☹️. He has refused to eat all feed with it in, the only way I managed to get him to have it was using diabetic jam in a wholewheat bread sandwich - but then I’m not sure whether he should really be having bread! He’s got tonight’s dose in chop with sugar free apple dilute but he turned his nose up ☹️ Hoping he will eat through the night! Has anyone got any ideas of what else I could try? I’m really reluctant to syringe it as I have seen a lot of people have issues with it burning the mouth...
 
I had the same problem with my normally food obsessed welshie. I was given the normal pills (not the apple flavoured powder) which he refused to eat crushed up in his feed. I was keen to try the apple powder as it would be less of a faff (Although my vet hadn’t heard of it when I mentioned it) but interesting that your boy doesn’t like it. In the end, I dissolved the pillls in a little water and disguised it with a sprinkle of turmeric which he loves.
 
Mine eats the apple powder quite hapilly as long as it’s well stirred.

But in your shoes I’d mix it with a bit of water and syringe it straight in ?

We’ve had great results - it would be worth the effort ?
 
I used some dried mint and Copra mixed in with pink mash - do keep trying cos it really does work :) Best of luck and keep up the vigilance.
 
My boy took the Apple flavour metformin powder fine,just make sure you have a decent amount of chaff so it’s more diluted down...my boys levels were 200 and was absolutely fine having the Hi Fi Molasses Free and ate the metformin quite happily.
 
I had a similar issue with getting my horse to eat painkillers last year. The only thing I found that worked in the end was one of the mash feeds (e.g. Fast Fibre) that have to be soaked. She had laminitis so I had to be careful what I fed her, but a small amount of that seemed to work. You would need to find out as to whether it would be suitable for your boy.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies - I’ve managed to get him to start eating it using a different chaff with a mint flavour and using more of it to dilute it. Fingers crossed he keeps eating it and we get him sorted out ??
 
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