My goofy Morgan needs to be on Tri-Hist granules for the rest of this summer. He’s not really a fussy eater but he’s sharp at detecting meds in his food. He gets 4 cups of Equine Senior, hay and at least 12 hours on pasture each day. I’ve tried adding applesauce, fruit baby food, apple chunks, soft drinks, fruit juice and gator aid to his food/meds mix with no luck. He fights having the meds mixed in liquid ( water, juice, soda) and squirted in his mouth. I’d found threads and Googled items that suggested great ways to get horses to eat pills like hiding them inside fig newtons, hollowed out apples, wrapped in soft horse treats but it seems unlikely these will work with a tablespoon of granules.
Any ideas?
Thank you.
If you can, I would up the senior for a few days while he gets use to the flavor of the tri-hist. Also, soak the senior for 20 minutes or so, so it expands and the meds mix in well.
Just going through this ourselves! Tried all kinds of tricks, some that people swore all horses go for, but he didn’t like. Finally settled on mixing the powder with a few handfuls of lmf low nsc feed, a few of his regular horse cookies, and just a little water. I figured since he knows the cookies by smell and likes them, he just kept eating it because it was there. Before this we tried applesauce, Apple chunks, molasses, packets of Apple cinnamon oatmeal, crushed peppermint, etc etc etc.
We also had better luck giving the meds mid day, around mealtimes he was too focused on getting his meal.
Can you crush the granules? Pharmacies sell pill crushers, might make it easier to hide it. When it looked like ours was leaving some of the med in his bucket, I just would add another couple handfuls of the feed and a cookie, mix it up, and he’d eat it no problem.
How about gel capsules?
http://livestockconcepts.com/en/orals/557-gelatin-capsules-1-4oz-1-2oz-1oz-and-15oz.html
As an aside, the thread title could only be taken innocently on a horse board !
I use a syringe or old worming tube. Mix in some sugar free syrup and feed it like a wormer. This way you know it all got inside the horse. I have one mare that is so fussy and suspicious of any feed change that she will refuse to eat if even a carrot or apple is added that she is not accustomed to having daily.
my advice would be to hide the medication in pieces of Banana… Usually horses love Bananas and dont really taste the medication.
What flavor treats does your horse normally like best? You can get flavor extract for almost any flavor and just overpower everything with it–a spoonful of something sticky (honey/syrup), 2-5 drops of flavor extract (it’s strong), and your medicine, mix it first and then choose your delivery… Oral syringe, drizzled over normal grain, or mix in about 1/8th cup of oats/oatmeal/grain for a medicine treat you can give by hand.
For oral syringes, I have the happiest horse if it’s a paste and a good flavor. Liquid has never worked well for me, too squirty, too drippy. I don’t try to shoot it down their throat (I would gag on this, too), just get it smeared onto their tongue so it’s hard to spit it all out and then follow up with a treat so they swallow. I do about 1/4 of a full size dewormer tube at a time, so multiple smear-treat-wait a minute for swallowing if I have more than that. (Yes, my horse is spoiled, but we’re all happy at the end of it, which we weren’t the other way. He still thinks dewormer tastes funny, but no longer thinks I’m trying to choke him with it.)
One of mine used to hate any powdered meds. I would mix them with applesauce, let it sit in the house for about 30 minutes to lose the grainy texture, then mix with a small amount of feed and toss some plain feed on top. Once he ate that, I would give him the rest of his feed.
Granules work in bananas and fig newtons. Just slice about 3/4 of the way through, pour in the granules, and smush back together.
