Ways to get horse to take antibiotics, Help!!

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prettypony95

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Hi everyone :)

can someone please suggest ways that I can get my boy to take his antibiotics, he has just come home from an equine hospital after having pneumonia and has to be on antibiotics for the next 25 days and he is not liking it very much :mad:

it is in liquid form, at the hospital the vets started off by giving it to him through the syringe into his mouth but he was not happy with that, so then they tried it with some molasses and was happy enough with that for a few days and now he has realized what's in it and will not eat it with feed either, have tried his normal feed, just chaff, even a bran mash, but he will not touch it!! so today we ended up trying with the syringe but he ended up spitting half of it over me :mad::mad:

any suggestions would be very much appreciated :) :)
 
Get in some feed that is more interesting than chaff, speedibeet is a good base to mix nasty medicine in with, grate in some apples and it should taste better, if he has had pneumonia he probably wont hurt to have a proper feed to build him up a bit as well as disguise the meds.
 
Mix with some thing sweet--I personally use Golden syrup. Hollow out an apple (making sure you keep the bottom on) and pour inside. Mine falls for it every time!!!
 
Hollow out an small apple, mix the antibiotic with something like treacle, molasses or golden syrup inside the apple, then feed.

This is what usually works with my (very) tricky mare, who seems to know all the other tricks in the book!! :)
 
I would add a mix of flavours...chopped apple & strawberry jam or raspberry/honey etc whatever you have to hand. The I soak pony nuts and shake it all up in a plastic bag into a trug. I agree if you can add quite a good trug full of whatever feed he is happy with that will dlute it a bit. I had this with bute and now he just eats in a handful of pony nuts soaked, I dont bother with the jam etc. But I am lucky he is so greedy.

Antibiotics can be quite bitter tasting hence add the sweetness.
 
I buy a bag of dodson and horrell sensitive, which I soak and use like sugar beet to mix with the drugs. Mine is a fatty which is why I don't use sugar beet, but sure that would probably work the same. This is the only thing that seems to work on a long term basis with my girl, she will eat with apple juice one day, then turn her nose up the next, same with jam and other sweet things. Good luck with getting yours to eat them, one of those things you wish you could explain to them how it will make them feel better! X
 
thank you everyone for the suggestions! tonight i tried molasses mixed with the antibiotics, then chopped carrots and apples, then some mix, and then some cherry flavored chaff (the mollichaff showshine one i think it's called?) all mixed together and he ate it all :D :D lets just hope he will eat it again tomorrow night!!
 
im giving my mare meds 3 times a day by syringe. it was difficult at first and i had it go out the side of her mouth a few times but if you practice a few times it becomes much easier. Just do it exactly as you would normally give a wormer and aim towards the back of their mouth.
 
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