Question to those that give pergolide to fussy horse!

0ldmare

0ldmare

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How do you manage every day?

My old mare is the worlds most suspicious horse. She's also not greedy. She now wont eat apples in case there is a pill in it. We've been doing OK on a pill buried in a carrot until today, but today its was a firm NOOOO! (I do give her several bits of carrots without pills too, so its not as though every one tastes foul)

Given that these pills have to be given every single day I'm wondering how everyone else manages?

Thanks :)
 
My old boy has to have 3 pergolide and 3 metpirone every day... we grind them up in a coffee grinder, mix with natural yoghurt and syringe it in! It is the only way we can get them in other than forcing them down his throat.

We asked the vet if the tablets would still be effective after doing this to them and he wasn't sure BUT we have been doing this now for a few months and all seems well
 
We have got around it for the time being by mixing in sloppy sugar beet. Mine is also highly suspicous so it was a massive nightmare when she had to have bute, antibiotics AND peroglide!
 
I have had a terrible time getting my shettie to eat them, apples,carrots, sandwiches are all ignored, he went off buckets for a while. In the end I also smashed them up and added some water and suringed them in like a wormer, untill he started to rear up and really protest to the indignity of it.
I found the only way to get him to eat them was if he was hungry and crushed up into some plain course mix, if he had grass to nibble on or adlib hay he would ignore. So he lives on a bare patch of paddock and only has enough hay to keep him going for 20ish hours, so when I arrive to feed him he is hungry enough to eat it. In winter he can have more hay due to him being more hungry, he has always been a fussy eater which is rare for a shetland but pergolide has made things a real pain.
 
I just used to slip the tablet into the side of the pony's mouth when he had a mouthful of his tea, and stick it on his tongue. He wouldn't take anything with the tablet already in it. I nearly lost my finger a couple of times though, so if you try it, be careful, lol. ;)
 
I found nothing worked long term with my pony - I had to keep coming up with fresh ideas. These all worked for a time:

- Mixing it with sugarbeet (tablet would dissolve)
- Mini diabetic jam and brown bread sandwich (small 'finger' of bread folded over)
- Crushing it, mixing it with a spoonful of molasses, then letting her lick the molasses out of a plastic bowl.

Sometimes we had to resort to just sliding it into her mouth, like Flame_ describes. Unfortunately she really hated this and would rear so it was always a last resort! The tablets made a huge difference to her quality of life though, and she was sound on them for years.

Good luck.
 
Hmm there is obviously a knack to getting it in the right place on their tongues, I tried that and she just spat it out and gave me a disappointed 'how could you!' look. :o

I've even wondered about chiselling out a bit of extra strong mint but if she went off those I would never catch her as they are the only form of bribery that works with her

I guess the syringing option is probably going to be the only way as she really shouldn't have molasses and doesnt like sugar beet or marmite (told you she was a picky old beasty :( )
 
Hi, I went through everything imaginable in an attempt to get pergolide down my old lad - he ended up refusing to take any food from my hands at all, and even rejected bucket feeds no matter how hard I tried to disguise the tablet. Now I just pop it in his mouth and distract him with scratches - sometimes he spits it back out but I just put it back in again - once it's gone a bit soft he can't get it out anyway. It seemed to be the most stress free way - good luck.
 
My friends horse also started to refuse apples after having his pills in them, he was very fussy, and nothing worked to trick him for long! Some things that did help were hiding them in other tasy treats, raisins, raw jelly, chunks of melon ,strawberries and the odd bit of carrot cake.Hope some of these help.
 
Forgot to say what as also helped me with the fussy shettie was after I have crushed the tablet up and mixed in his bucket I put a pinch of dried spearmint sprinkled over the top.
 
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