Need to administer bute; top-dressed feed with the powder and horse thinks we added sewage instead. Would normally get some paste but it’s incredibly $$$ right now… thinking of tablets instead. What are your best hacks to turn a tablet into a treat??
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We’ve used the cherry flavored Bute powder. If you only have plain Bute tabs, you could crush and mix it with any flavored drink powder packet, or a sweet liquid (apple juice, gatorade). Or mix it with a stronger flavor like maple syrup or molasses. Maybe dilute the syrup with a little water and drizzle over horse’s feed.
Grind up the bute tablets with a pill crusher (or just use the powder you already have), mix with applesauce, down the hatch with a dosing syringe. Bute tastes terrible, even the flavored stuff, so most horses won’t eat it. It’s not worth fighting trying to hide it IMO.
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I’m with skipollo on this. Life is better with a dosing syringe! Other experiments tend to waste a lot of feed, unless you are one of the few lucky ones.
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I crush up the pills to fine powder and add to a cup with a little warm water. Then I add molasses and suck it up into a 5 or 6 mm? syringe. Crazy horse thinks this is a huge treat and I have to make sure she doesn’t chew up the syringe when dosing her. It may take 2 or 3 doses to get it all but she LOVES it. She won’t eat bute mixed with feed even if I crush the pills and add molasses to the mixture. Go figure.
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Another vote for the powder and a dosing syringe. I have orange flavor and while he still hates it, it’s the only way I can get bute in him. I think he objects to the syringe more than the taste this way.
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This. Did it for decades and always worked like a charm.
Shove the bute tab into a fig Newton.
Give a plain Newton, then Newton with the medication, follow that with another plain Newton. Has worked for me for several different horses (and many different medications).
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I’ve also had good results with molasses.
I make up some Yummy Pie with powdered or crushed bute. Sweet feed or a favorite feed with just enough at the bottom of the bucket to work for the pie, molasses, slices of apple, a few bites of carrot. And the bute. Pile on the molasses. Stir thoroughly. This is the “Pie”.
If horse still insists that a wonderful pie has been ruined and can’t be eaten, try some strategic pie serving. Part of the pie should have no bute. Horse will start eating that, then gradually eat up all of it.
This has worked for me!
The dosing plunger method has also worked. Get it between the gums and teeth as far back as possible. A horse resigned to the process seems to find it easier to tolerate it if they are swallowing it mainly on the back of the tongue where there is less taste sensitivity.
Studies tell us that horse taste and human taste are at least somewhat similar, although the species prefer different textures. If you put a tiny dot of bute on your tongue it doesn’t taste like anything at first – but quickly develops a powerfully sour taste that is hard to get rid of. Honestly, it’s like a nose gradually realizing that a skunk just let go. “Oh no - can’t do it, this has to stop!” 
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Standlee makes “pill pockets” for horses. They are basically hollowed out hay cubes with some extra flavor. I have not tried them.
https://www.standleeforage.com/products/horse-pill-carriers/
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My Poison Detector TB would eat the mint flavored bute powder out of my hand.
Maybe the mint was strong enough to cover the after taste?
He was on 1g daily for the last 3yrs of his 27.
I got it from a compounding pharmacy in KY.
Vet faxed a script, I paid & was shipped the powder in 100g jars.
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Oooh good one! This is exactly what I was hoping for, to avoid the mess of sticky stuff & a syringe if possible. Thank you!
I also do Fig Pilltons. For the suspicious, I find most medications go into an acceptable-tasting solution if ground up and administered in blue Powerade. Not red. Don’t ask me why. Just blue.
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100% this.
My mustang mare, who refuses nothing else, refuses bute after the first day. It’s nasty.
Standlee pill pockets, as someone else mentioned, are great. Or you can get a balling gun (I think they are called) and it allows you to put it toward the back of their mouth to dispense the tablets.
I’m thankful my horse usually is not picky at all. I can put a couple small treats in my hand, along with a tablet of bute/previcox, and he will eat the handful of treats right up. Likewise, he will eat tablets in his feed just fine.
Fig Newtons! Give them a few “empty” Fig Newtons first so they get a taste of it. All my herd loves Fig Newtons. I make it a point to buy a package every few months or so just to give to them as a treat, so that when/if it comes time for medication they suspect nothing.
It has actually become a bit of a barn joke at this point… we have a few horses that will do anything for a “figgy”, so when we are swapping off chores or picking up a chore for one another we say “I’ll give you two figgies if you do this for me…” 
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unsweetened apple sauce. you could mix into a syringe and make a paste.
I have one horse, had another, who both eat the pills out of my hand in a small handful of hay pellets. I’ve SO GLAD I’ve not had to deal with these hoops! So don’t discount that right off the bat.
The DuMor Alfalfa/Bermuda pellets are relatively large, but also pretty soft (despite their size) and many of the little chunks are a similar size to 1/2 or 1/4 of a bute tablet. The hay pellets have some light fortification, but most importantly have a little molasses.
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Goes to show ya, every horse is different! I’ve never owned a horse who would even sniff a Fig Newton, let alone eat one
Amen!
But…
They make apple newtons 
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