22 capsules of Minocycline 2xd

[danacat]

This is for one of my horses that tested positive for Lyme. A real PIA to break open caps, empty them out, mix with water and molasses and put in a syringe to give by mouth. So…

…since the capsules are on the smaller side I’m wondering if I could just put some (or all) in his feed and he’d slurp them right up without even realizing it ??

Part of my forage based feed is soaked beet pulp + Cool Stance, and I’m hoping the moisture will soften the capsule coatings enough to keep them from breaking open and releasing the bitter powder inside.

Anyone tried this? Success / failure ?

Probably wishfull thinking on my part that something so easy would work.

[syreino]

That’s exactly how I fed them to my very picky mare that typically won’t eat ANY meds in her food. But she had no problems with Minocycline capsules, however, she only needed 15 capsules. At the time, she was also getting soaked beet pulp. Good luck with your horse.

[JB]

My mare ate them right up in a pretty small meal size - 1/2lb ration balancer, a bit of soaked beet pulp, and a cup or so of dry alfalfa pellets. I used the dry alf pellets because they made it easier for her to not care whether her dropped food was alfalfa or a capsule. She did that for 60 days.

Her son HATED them, so I had to open 26 of the twice a day for thankfully ONLY 10 days because it was for something else

So give it a try, it’s worth wasting a dose or 3 to find out what will get him to eat it right in his food for 60 days

[OverandOnward]

I’ve done that with antihistamine capsules for a horse with skin allergies. Lots of whole (small) capsules in the feed.

Recommend adding something sweet and some liquid to make a bit of a slurry out of it. Helps melt the capsules. Stir robustly to help break open the capsules.

Have found intact capsules on the bottom of the feed tub. Horses are truly gifted at sorting out little bits of stuff they want or don’t want, when eating. But those can be recycled into a yummy treat slurry and offered again.

If you have an electric mixer for medications, you might try dumping the capsules in there. I don’t know how that would work as I haven’t tried that yet, myself.

[OverandOnward]

@JB

so I had to open 26 of the twice a day

This is truly love & devotion.

[MorganMaresVT]

@OverandOnward

If you have an electric mixer for medications, you might try dumping the capsules in there. I don’t know how that would work as I haven’t tried that yet, myself.

When I was doing a similar protocol for a mare with anaplasmosis last year, I tried to buzz them up in a coffee grinder but it couldn’t get the capsules ground fine enough to fit through the opening of the syringe. I ended up opening them each (25 2x daily) by hand to mix with her apple juice to syringe in. I tried them direct in her feed before I went with syringing, but she wouldn’t eat them. She had a horrible appetite (and a 106*F fever) the first few days though, so she really wasn’t eating much of anything willingly.

It was quite a contrast to one of my other mares who got 100 pills of doxy 2x daily for Lyme treatment and ate them like Skittles I’m sure she would have happily eaten the capsules too, unlike the other mare.

[trubandloki]

Shove them into fig newtons. That has worked for me for lots of various meds.

[danacat]

Great to hear that putting the caps directly in the feed can work. I try that first. Thanks guys!

As an aside: When I had Lyme myself many years ago, the only thing that got me better after more than a year of various treaments (laundry list) I read an article written by a pioneer lyme literate doctor from Long Island NY, who said that pulsing antibiotcs is the way to go. A certain amount of days on the antibiotic and a certain amount of days off the antibiotic. Number of days depends on the half life of the antibiotic. In simple terms: the pulsing encourages the spiros that sense the antibiotic threat (during the on time) and go into hiding, to come back out during the off time – then you zap them again.

Minocycline’s half life suggests that 4 days on and 5 days off (rinse and repeat) until my 30 days worth of pills, 1320 of them, are gone. I’ll retest my horse at that point and see where we are. His OSPF is 3265 = low, but I don’t know how definitive these multiplex lyme tests really are.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

My guy ate up the capsules in his feed too.

[JB]

@OverandOnward

This is truly love & devotion.

my fingers disagreed If it had been for Lyme I would have absolutely gotten a compounded powder. But, I had all the capsules since my mare was in the middle of Lyme treatment and I knew it wasn’t forever, so it was doable lol

In hindsight, given that I found he’d eat bitter trazadone dissolved and mixed in his feed (but NOT as whole pills) I would have tried that, instead of syringing it, so at least getting it into him might have been easier on him.

[MorganMaresVT]

@trubandloki

Shove them into fig newtons. That has worked for me for lots of various meds.

I love the fig newton trick too, but these capsules are big. You could maybe fit 4?5? of them in one fig newton, and they are give in the 20-30 per dose range. That’s a lot of fig newtons!

[trubandloki]

@MorganMaresVT

@trubandloki

Shove them into fig newtons. That has worked for me for lots of various meds.

I love the fig newton trick too, but these capsules are big. You could maybe fit 4?5? of them in one fig newton, and they are give in the 20-30 per dose range. That’s a lot of fig newtons!

Yes, but if it gets the meds in it is worth it.

[danacat]

OMG – he slurped up all 22 capsules in his regular feed like they weren’t even there! My life just got soooooo much easier. Hope he keeps it up.

[JB]

YAY!!! I know the relief!

[NaturallyHappy]

@danacat, that is really intriguing. Thanks for sharing it.

[Larbear]

Yeh that’s what I did. Thankfully I was able to get away with spreading them on top of his soaked feed and then put a thin layer of the soaked feed on top. If he left one or dropped one I sandwiched it between 2 horse cookies.

[Larbear]

@JB

Her son HATED them, so I had to open 26 of the twice a day for thankfully ONLY 10 days because it was for something else

Yeh, my old man was pretty fussy so I had to open 22 capsules 2 twice a day and syringe in. Thankfully it was for anaplasmosis and not Lyme so wasn’t too long. He was good about syringing thankfully.

[danacat]

Well, he’s still eating them in his feed. A miracle! Occasionally he dribbles one onto the ground and I just toss it back in his tub. I told my vet that this is working and she was amazed! So far so good!

[Atlas_Shrugged]

Curious what the Trazadone was for?

[JB]

Stall rest. He had a mass first biopsied, then 2 weeks later removed, from the back of his foot, so there was a lot of wrapping, stall rest, a strict requirement for zero moisture on the foot, etc, and it proceeded to rain most of that first month LOL