Hiding Pills

[MsM]

My horse will be on medication for a while. The good news is that you can feed him a handful of grain and pills and he will eat them right up. The bad news is that he is a slob about eating and slings his grain around, so just putting the pills in his grain will result in some being flung out (He needs to eat 20 little pills)

The BO would like to avoid having to stand and hand feed him. She needs to put the hay in the turnouts while the horses eat their morning grain. Horse is only getting a very small amount of CarbGard (pelleted). So I am trying to think of some kind of homemade “cookie” I can make that is soft enough to squish ten or so pills into each and store them. At this time of year, liquid solutions are problematic especially since the grain room is unheated and there is much more winter left!

I have used some commercial soft treats but have only found small ones that wont hold much. Ideas? Recipes?

[Simkie]

How big are the pills? Fig newtons are popular for stuff like this. Or stud muffins.

[MsM]

They are small, but he needs 20 of them. Oh Fig Newtons might work!

[Bluey]

@MsM

They are small, but he needs 20 of them. Oh Fig Newtons might work!

If Fig Newtons may work, break them in little pieces and stick a few in some of the pieces and having others without pills seems to work best.

My horse prefers the apple cinnamon flavor ones.

[VTMorgan06]

The Pill Camo treats come in a larger size that might be able to accommodate 20 small pills. Fruit roll ups also work well for concealing medications.

[Amy3996]

If your horse will eat them, Oatmeal Cream Pie cookies. I had to give my horse 20 Zyrtec tabs at a time and this made it quick and easy. Break the cookie in half, 10 pills in one half and 10 in the other, just shoved into the cream filling. I just bought a couple boxes at Walmart - cheaper than the horse pill pockets for that many pills.

[SLedbetter]

Rice Crispy Treats?

[PREconvert]

@Simkie

How big are the pills? Fig newtons are popular for stuff like this. Or stud muffins.

Simkie and Bluey are suggesting the gold standard of pill hiding. The gooey inside holds onto the pill so picky horse can’t separate the pills from the filling. Poke them in there with a toothpick so they are really buried in there. I don’t think there’s any pills that can ruin a fig newton especially the apple cinnamon one that hides any medicinal smells. And easy to find and cheap - any 7-11 has them in little snack packs. One for horsey, one for you. Just don’t mix up which one got the pills!

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Simkie

How big are the pills? Fig newtons are popular for stuff like this. Or stud muffins.

Love the idea of Fig Newtons. Never occurred to me to use a human cookie to hide pills. Definitely going to try this the next time I have to give pills to a horse/pony.

[Bluey]

Remember to train them to those treats first, make them regular treats so smart horses don’t figure those treats only happen when there is stuff hidden in there.

When you use those, give some more than those with the pills, so smart horses don’t catch on that they are getting them because there is something in there.
Chase the sneaky pieces with pills with perfectly innocent ones that are just oh so good and don’t hide anything to worry with.

Don’t need to feed those treats all the time, just enough to keep the horse interested in them when they do happen, a real treat.

[TCA_Arabians]

You can also try mashing the pills and adding water. You can use a syringe made for that purpose or a baster to shoot it down their throat. You can also put the crushed pills into a bran mash.

[trubandloki]

Another vote for fig newtons! They work amazing!

[MsM]

Thanks for all the ideas! Fortunately he is a piggy so getting him to eat stuff is rarely a problem. The difficulty has been making sure whoever is feeding can make sure he eats the pills without them having to hand feed.

I found he does like fig newtons (well generic ones). I sliced one open like a sandwich and could fit 10 pills in a cookie. So I have two loaded cookies in a baggie ready to go for each feeding.

In the cold there is no way to prepare dissolved pills ahead of time and store in the unheated barn. I also thought of using applesauce, but, again cant prepare that ahead of time. For right now, he is eating two cookies each feeding!

[4LeafCloverFarm]

I have successfully used applesauce for my pony that can smell powdered bute a mile away. Tried the apple flavored bute, the alfalfa flavored bute and another flavor I don’t remember now - nope, nope and nope… wouldn’t touch his feed. Smother the bute powder in applesauce, and away it went. I always keep some on-hand. That and a jar of molasses, which is also good to bind powdered meds (for those that have a bit of sugar of course).

[Simkie]

I’ve also hollowed out carrots and topped with vanilla frosting. Lot of work, but pretty effective once the other stuff stops working.

[JB]

Since he will happily eat these (I assume it’s ranitidine?) in his food, and he only gets a small bit of food anyway, what about a feed bag?