The one I cared for was crippled in Soft Rides. I’m not sure why the WW boots work so well, but I’ve put two rehab horses in them and they’ve done quite well. One we put in them was sounder in the boot without bute than on bute w no boot on. The vet was bumfuzzled.
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@twelvegates, if you go with creme de menthe, be sure to get the white version, not the green one or there will be green staining EVERYTHING. And since you, being a conscientious horse owner, would want to be sure the elixir was tasty, you don’t want green lips giving you away.(jk)
I might peruse the baking aisle at the grocery store to see if there are any interesting flavor concentrates. A couple of drops with no meds for a day or two then with meds following, and change the flavor the next day so that no specific flavor becomes associated with the med. But it sounds like your horse has it all figured out no matter what you do!
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Apologies if I missed it upthread, but have you tried mixing the powder with sugar free Jello powder?
Ditto that for sugar free candy flavoring (I swear the banana kind overpowers everything. You can smell it in a ziplock bag across the room).
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2tempe – Fingers crossed that firocoxib is the solution for my mare as well.
NaturallyHappy – I’ll definitely check on the WW boots.
frugalannie – Thanks for the creme de menthe tips. I’m hoping that the firocoxib does the trick, but your ideas are great!
BootsandCoffee – I forgot to add that to my list of tries and fails. I did, however, only try the cherry flavor, so maybe I should give some others a shot. I’ll check out the sugar free candy flavoring as well.
Amberly – I’ve thought about that as well, but never acted on it. I use the vapo rub on tails when I’ve got a young one that decides it’s time to munch on someone else’s tail. Maybe putting in in her nose will do the trick with the medications.
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My younger horse is currently on Gastroguard, misoprostal and Sucralfate with the fasting before and between each drug. Misoprostal makes him drool big gobs of slimy saliva. Interestingly enough I found that using less water to dissolve the powder almost eliminated the drool.
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I hope you have success with your young one. I try to use as little water as possible as well. My mare is an Olympian level drooler. I should get a video to post here.
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I admittedly haven’t read all the replies, but have you and your vet looked in to arquel?
Meclofenamate for horse: Uses, Dosage & Side Effects (wedgewoodpharmacy.com)
It’s rather out of fashion at the moment but it works well on foot pain and was significantly easier to get into them than bute. I thought I remembered a tiny pill but looks like right now it’s only compounded. Worth a shot, but more expensive than bute.
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If you decide you want to try acetaminophen, ask your vet for a prescription for a big bottle for it and get it from your local pharmacy. Then look for a GoodRx coupon for it. It ends up being quite cheap this way - way cheaper than OTC generic. Or at least it did for me.
The pharmacist always grumbled about this for some reason, but small price to pay.
Unfortunately, it still doesn’t taste good, so you’d still need to deal with that. Unless you just tried to use a baling gun to get the tablets in her.
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I was unaware of that medication. Thank you.
Yes – acetaminophen is nasty-tasting stuff. The mare certainly didn’t like it any better than the Bute, although her pain improved when she was on Bute + acetaminophen. Fortunately, adding the acetaminophen didn’t double the drooling time.
Wedgewood priced some powdered/flavored acetaminophen for me, but it was quite expensive.
I just started her on some firocoxib four days ago, and so far, she has eaten the tiny pill hidden in a small handful of sweet feed, without any difficulties, but I haven’t seen good pain relief yet. Am hoping I see some within 10 days.
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The bute is not helping her. What you really need is the ECIR group. Metabolic laminitis cannot be helped with bute. Please. Go to the ECIR group and they can help you. Get her diet tightened up and that is what will relieve her pain. Dr. Kellon has been studying laminitis in IR/EMS and PPID horses forever. Google her. She is literally the authority on it. My vet almost killed my horse with bute and Thyro-L. I found her/this group and STOPPED his pain, saved his life, and I have my partner back. We have over 4,000 solo riding/endurance miles together.
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LSMarnell – I have belonged to the ECIR group for many years, as this mare was diagnosed with EMS and Cushings in 2017, at age 7. The mare has always been (even BEFORE the laminitis started) on the emergency ECIR diet – the hay is less than 8% NSC, she receives 1.5% of her body weight in daily hay, and the hay is appropriately balanced with one of their suggested products. Even Dr. Kellon agrees that pain relief is necessary when everything else doesn’t work. I’m glad that their information and diet worked for your horse.
ETA: On the day that she started acting footy, I had the vet out to draw blood for multiple labs. Although the idea of icing immediately after first symptoms is considered outdated, the vet didn’t think it would hurt, and she was iced for 5 days, five times per day. Her blood work, with the exception of low thyroid, was perfect (insulin, glucose, ACTH, triglycerides) and her blood chemistry was within normal limits. Kidney and liver functioning was absolutely normal. I had the farrier out on the day after onset and he applied glue-on clogs made specifically for laminitic horses. This one is a real head-scratcher.
I’m sorry I haven’t read every suggestion here, but I also have one that refuses to swallow when things taste bad, drooling for hours.
What I’ve found is that I can dose her and force her to swallow immediately if I make her move off SHARPLY directly after the dose. Is there any chance at all that your mare is sound enough to trot off? It’s honestly been a game changer for us.
Yet, you said you fed her sweet feed to get her to eat bute?
It is a head scratcher, but are you SURE the diet is tight?
All of this is sugar. Even a little bit.
She could be sensitive to even the smallest amounts of sugar.
This horse cannot have any sugar. None of this is acceptable for a PPID/EMS horse, and no, you are not following ECIR protocol.
Eta: Icing does nothing for metabolic laminitis.
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Ok this might be too simple but can you give her the syringe after she eats and not before? This actually solved the noneating issue for us. I would mix with just water so the med doesn’t stick around too long in the mouth.
I appreciate your concern and I don’t think I’m communicating effectively.
Everything has been done under a vet’s supervision, and none of these efforts was successful in terms of the horse consuming the adulterated food or, after syringing, eating her food at all for many hours. Each of these attempts happened once, and the horse didn’t eat the food as soon as she smelled it. Syringing with additives, including sugars, happened early during this experience and resulted in the excessive drooling (1 tsp added to water and medication), so I discontinued the additives. Monthly, sometimes biweekly, laboratory testing shows normal insulin and glucose and ACTH.
My vet, my former vet, and the vets at CSU believe that she may have some type of immunodeficiency issue that has caused her laminitis, but this is just a working theory. They do not believe that this is a metabolic laminitis. In fact, she has become a “horse of interest” for them, and they are following her labs.
I have syringed after she’s eaten (in fact, that was my go-to for many months), but I’m concerned that she eats nothing for 4-5 hours afterwards, and I don’t want ulcers on top of everything. She doesn’t have ulcers now and the vets involved in her care prefer that I give her Bute with her food.
But that may all be in the past, depending on how she reacts to firocoxib. Today will be day 6 and I’m supposed to see results in 7-10 days. So far, she seems very slightly better each day since I substituted the firocoxib for the Bute.
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I will try that! Thank you!
I used to have to give monkeys meds as part of my job and they can be the most suspicious, picky and stubborn creatures on earth!
Peanut butter, bananas, honey and jelly were all good at masking flavor/smell and being sticky is a plus.
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Thanks PintoPony!
