<Deep sigh> Ideas for medicating -- definite "outside the box" thinking required

Have you tried a dosing syringe? It often will allow you to get it further in the mouth, and more accurately. You can get long and/or plastic tips as well.

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=487A8E94-F6A4-441A-A2EA-348B93077098

This might not work in the winter, and isn’t ideal for a foundered horse, but what about some fresh green grass for a minute after the dose?

Not sure how this would work with horses, but when a kid or adult in my care had to receive an awful tasting med, I’d use a (tasty) strong flavored blocking substance first. Think a strong mouthwash or liquor like crème de menthe (adults only). It’s hard for taste buds to pick up anything for a few minutes after stuff like that. With a kid, a mouthwash rinse and then meds helped. Soda might do the same thing, sugar free of course. Maybe a ginger beer (not the ginger ale that’s popular).

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I’m sorry, but clearly it is NOT the best pain med for her if you can’t get it into her. I think your vet may need a CTJ about this. Allowing the horse to remain in pain because of stubbornness about trying other, more palatable drugs is cruel and will delay healing.

FWIW, Previcox worked really, really well after the initial few bute days for my mare when she foundered and it is somewhat easier on the guts than Bute for long term use.

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I’ve been using these for years and love them. However, nasty tasting stuff is still nasty :frowning: My extremely compliant horse is super fine with innocuous-tasting things like Sucralfate but definitely gets pissy after a few days of SMZs. Without a balling gun, I don’t think there’s be a way to get anything back far enough the horse couldn’t taste it, sadly :frowning:

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I feel like I can get enough velocity with this thing that I can basically get it to the back of the throat if I needed to.

That said, the stars have to align with horse cooperation in order to do that.

More often then not, the said velocity is when I’m rinsing the thing out and it hits the sink and ricochets, straight into my face. :rofl:

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BTDT many, many times. :smiley:

The velocity thing is a thing for sure, but I definitely see the compliance rate go down for nasty stuff compared to not nasty stuff so I’m sure there is some tasting of meds involved.

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There is some new research that indicates that pregabalin may be effective at managing pain in horses. It comes in capsules. I really don’t know much about it other than that New Bolton Center was insistent on sending me home with a large (and expensive bottle) of it that I have not needed (yet). Just another potential option.

This thread makes me soooo thankful I have a small pony. A chain over the nose and a loud voice saying whooaaa to get whatever I am squirting in his mouth does the trick for me. I am sorry you are going thru all this OP. I really think a heart to heart with your vet is needed. Over her continuing pain, and long term as well. A horse being on bute for 8months screams ulcers as a given. I cannot believe they do not want you to do an ulcergard or something with it. Let alone a different pain med. Equioxx, or previcox as I have ordered it before since the dog version has been cheaper for me, is so easy to put in your palm with a handful of senior to get down the hatch.

You might ask your vet about drugs with transdermal or rectal administration options.
Banamine is now available transdermal for cattle and might be an off label option for you. This is something a good vet should work with you on- they know medication is only effective if the horse will actually take it. I’ve been in your shoes, when I talked to my vet they prescribed equioxx instead as a ‘not as good but better than nothing at all’ sort of thing.

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I dissolve SMZs with warm water and put about 3 of the soft peppermints in there to dissolve, too. Horses are like, “Eeewwww…ohhhh….hmmmm, okay, not so bad!”

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I’m very empathetic. I have one that I’ve tried everything to get him to eats supplements and he, too, has similar behavior. I don’t have trouble w injectable banamine given by mouth. Our very laminitic horse did well in Woof Wear Medical Boots. He was crippled in any other boot, shoe, or pad. In those boots, he needed no pain medication. Valley Vet and Big Dee’s carry them. I give mine Resvantage, which is a capsule, for his IR. The only way I could give them is to core a small piece of apple and insert the capsule. I feed a small bite of apple, the treated one, and then another small bite. Otherwise, they would roll out of his mouth. I hope something here is helpful.

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Agreed, it is nasty (have gotten it on my hands, then touched hand to mouth :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:), but under the tongue avoids tastebuds that aren’t present there & is absorbed quickly.

I too would like to live where any med had to be so infrequently administered as to be an Event :smirk:
I was doing the banamine 2X daily for 2 weeks, then down to 1X for a week, then 1/2 the dose 1X for another week.
Even more fun was the ointment for a scratched cornea on the 16H horse that had to go in 2X daily :persevere:

@carman_liz Your pony is better behaved than my mini :roll_eyes:, I had to put all 34" & 250# of him in a headlock to get the meds in.

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It sounds horrible tbh, but he has gotten a chain across his gums once or twice to hold him still. Mostly when he was younger and only when absolutely necessary. Now I think the chain over the nose is enough of a reminder of what could be, that he gives in easier. Mini’s are their own species and brand of wild in my experience though!

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Someone on here referred to them as Condensed Evil.
My 2¢ says the Cuteness Factor leads people to let them get away with crap we’d CTJ a horse or pony for even thinking :sunglasses:

Ctj?

I just ask for Uniprim any more. Apparently it’s delicious enough I don’t even need to mix it in - just sprinkle on top of a small soaked alfalfa pellet snack or use something injectable if appropriate. I mean, my horse happily put up with months and months and months of Sucralfate. If she gets pissy about the taste of SMZs, I’ma a find a different way whenever possible :slight_smile:

Which makes me think about this song about the merits of chewing tobacco versus cocaine, “Chewed a tin a day … near the end he liked it sprinkled on his food.” LoL

But yes, pills are not bad. The premixed liquid stuff - nothing I can do to make that delicious, sadly.

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Come To Jeebus :wink:

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2DogsFarm: I wonder if Wickliffe’s flavoring agents are different from those used at Wedgewood? If the firocoxib doesn’t work for whatever reason, will check into liquid Banamine under the tongue.

Amberly – That’s one I had not heard before. I will try something fizzy!

endlessclimb – I have used a dosing syringe with the long tip. Believe it or not, when we had green grass (that was a long time ago in northern CO), she would NOT try it after being medicated. She just stands there, staring at me and drooling.

frugalannie – great ideas. So far, I’ve been able to get her to try anything once, but after the medicated product arrives, she is resistant. Will have to think of something that coats her mouth that isn’t too awful. Maybe she would like creme de menthe.

sascha – I got the go ahead to try firocoxib last night (with vet via text). Fingers crossed that it works.

awaywego – thanks for that tip. I like to know what is new and available. I found out about the acetaminophen by hanging out on the Horse & Hound boards.

Shelbytwohorse – GMTA – I was actually considering rectal administration. Didn’t know there was a transdermal patch for cattle for anything. That’s interesting.

NaturallyHappy – Haven’t tried the Woof Wears yet. I bought Clouds and then sprang for the wonderfully inexpensive (lol) Soft Rides with several different inserts. I have tried a combination of carriers with no meds, then meds, then no meds and she starts to refuse them because she knows they are all a trick to poison her.

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Fingers x’d for successful medicating and pain control!

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OP - I have been down your road with bute on an old horse of mine. Tried literally everything under the sun. One day someone put a bute pill in with his feed (early stages of the war). He rejected food and pill. All was removed and just food added. He rejected that too because he could still smell the bute apparently. Feed bucket then scrubbed and all was well. Every once in a while something would sort of work once. Then he figured it out.
Fortunately my problem was not as severe as yours, and equioxx was the solution.

I have no additional ideas, but hope you can find a solution.

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