urgent - horse won't eat antibiotics

impresario08

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I urgently need to get the antibiotics in my horse and he flat out refuses to eat them...I feel I have tried everything to disguise them as well as trying to syringe them in (he refuses to swallow and I get arm ache holding his head up then he spits them out!)

I have also tried jam, bread, marmite, Guinness, honey, apple juice, yoghurt...etc etc...
 

Red-1

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I would have the vet back out to teach you to inject. It really is not as hard as you would think, and then you can inject daily and know your horse is getting the medication.
 
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thank you! sadly I am very squeamish!

Then man up! If the horse needs the drugs that badly then you need to man up and do what is necessary. It's really not that hard injecting into muscle and there are many places on the body that you can safely stab.

Is anyone on your yard OK with stabbing horses? If so get them a couple of bottles of wine and be very nice to them!
 

PonyIAmNotFood

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When he refuses to swallow when you syringe, while his head is up high have you tried sticking your thumb in his mouth and tickling his tongue to get him to relax his jaw? I had one who is murder for holding stuff in his mouth and spitting, this makes him swallow every time.
 
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conniegirl

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mixing it with vast amounts of strawberry fromage frais got it down mine.
I've also had success with apple sauce and apple baby food. trick is to mix it in to large amounts of the sauce/babyfood so that it is quite dilute.
 

little_critter

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I injected mine a couple of months ago. Through summer she is not interested in hard feed at all, let alone feed with antibiotics in it.
 

Damnation

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What EKW says, my horse can smell antibiotics at 10 paces!

Yes the needle is big to inject them with but if it's just penicillin its a muscular injection, there should be no blood etc.

Usually there is someone about that is happy to inject, I'm usually the one nominated to do it.

All you need to do is stab the needle (confidently and firmly, their skin is thick!) into their bum muscle (I don't like injecting their neck), attack the syringe, quick pull back to ensure you haven't hit a vein and then inject, once it has all gone in give the muscle a good rub. Swap bum cheeks each injection.

Just ensure the penicillin is warm, if it is cold it's very thick and takes ages to go in!
 

Cecile

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I would have the vet back out to teach you to inject. It really is not as hard as you would think, and then you can inject daily and know your horse is getting the medication.

Second this as it truly is easier than you think ^^^

I sat for about 10 mins injecting an orange to practice years ago prior to going solo, once you have mastered an orange its easy :)
 

w1bbler

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2nd the get someone else to do the jab if you can't cope, they don't need to be horsey, it's not difficult & no blood
 

Annagain

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We tried everything. Most worked once but not twice! In the end a tiny amount of cool mix smothered in molasses worked most reliably.
 

wingedhorse

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Get old worming syringe or dosing syringe from agricultural or tack shop.

If get it far back enough past tongue and it is a thick paste, have no choice but to swallow.

I mix with smooth apple sauce or baby food apple puree
 

DappleDown

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thank you...may go find an orange!

See if he likes the smell/taste of an orange first just in case he rejects that too.

Another one to try is mix the antibiotic into a ginger biscuit or two that has been broken up into fine crumbs (just offer him a small piece of biscuit first and see what he thinks of that). The ginger smell helps to mask the smell of the meds.

You can even put the Ginger/A.Biotic mix into the centre of an apple, just remove the core and replace with the med mixture.

Do please let us know which works for you.
 

Apercrumbie

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I used to think I was squeamish until my horse wouldn't eat antibiotics. Half an hour later, I realised that perhaps I shouldn't have given up on being a vet when I was younger...it's amazing what you will do when you have no other option. In the case of my boy, it was have antibiotics or die from quite a nasty wound. No brainer. Each antibiotic dose was a large quantity of powder - impossible to disguise without quantities of food that he would never have got through. Good luck with the orange, but I really do think you just need to do what is necessary here.
 
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See if he likes the smell/taste of an orange first just in case he rejects that too.

I think she means to practice stabbing a needle into 😂😂😂

Injecting the neck is easy. You have a large triangle of safe space. The chest isn't too bad either. The easiest place is the backside but you will be surprised how hard you have to whack the needle in to get it through! I'm used to doing fit, muscled racehorses. I put the needle between my index and middle finger, a couple of meaty pats on the bum and after 2 or 3 whack he needle in with the next pat. Horse doesn't notice the needles gone in because it's gone in quick. The slower you do things the worse they are and the more painful they are. I work on a ml a second when injecting into muscle.
 
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