Does anyone have experience with any of these, particularly feeding in a boarding barn? I need to feed 4tsp of powder.
a day.
Brands: Standlee Horse Pill Carrier, German Horse Muffin, Smartpak’s Pill Camo, Dimples Horse Treats. Others?
TIA
Haven’t tried the Standlee or German muffins, but of these I think the Dimples are the best choice for a powder, they are shaped so there is a little cup in the middle the powder can go in. Pill camo won’t work, they are great but meant to put pills in as the name implies, I can’t see how they would accommodate a powder.
Good luck!
1 Like
I found the German Horse Treats to be stiff enough that it would be really difficult to hide powder in them.
1 Like
For powder, I take some or all of the grain ration in a feed pan, add the powder and a splash of oil, and stir. I’ll mix the servings and bag up a week’s worth at a time. It’ll be a lot cheaper than 2-4 dimples per day.
1 Like
Theresak, I totally agree. I prefer a little beet pup, myself. My horse gets pelleted hay for grain and the powder does not stick, so I soak the pellets. The bottom line, however, is that the barn staff can’t do this, which means I will need to go to to the barn every day. I live a half an hour from the barn and this gets old. I am trying to come up with a plan for an odd day off or, you know, the possibility of me getting sick. I also need to find something simple so there’s no confusion.
1 Like
Pill camo has a mushy center that’s great for hiding pills but there’s no way to get powder in it. I don’t know how people disguise medication in a German horse muffin, they’re so hard. I use dimples for getting previcox and prascend into my horse, and I’m sure it would work for powder too, but the treats do crumble. If you make it and feed it to the horse you will be fine, but if you’re making a bunch and leaving them for the barn staff to feed I would be afraid they would dry out and crumble.
1 Like
It probably would take several because of the amount you have but you could probably cut open a Fig Newton and put the powder in the gooey center and then close it back up like a sandwich.
2 Likes
Standlee and the German will be too hard. The dimples are great and soft for bute, would probably work with the powder, maybe if a dab of molasses were added to help keep it sticky in the treat. When you squeeze the treat to cover the bute, it kind of crumbles and softens as it forms. Powder may be a bit dusty if dry.
Majesty’s Pill Ease are also another that I’ve used successfully.
1 Like
Can you use a Fruit Roll Up? Open it up (keep the plastic liner on it) dump the powder in and then either roll it up or fold it into sort of a packet? I like Fig Newtons for pills (4 SMZs per cookie), but it would be tougher with powder.
4 Likes
Are the horses fed in feeders or individual buckets? Our horses get powered supplements with a little liquid top dressing. One takes his with a splash of Red Cell and the other prefers apple sauce If you bought little individual serving apple sauce containers, could the people feeding just dump that on the grain as a top dressing and stir in the powder? I’m sure it depends on how many they have to feed and if it’s just too much.
1 Like
that fruit roll up idea is genius. I also prefer fig newtons for pills but have found that if you need to use the german muffins, nuke em for a few seconds in the microwave and they will soften right up. still not as easy as fig newtons tho!
for powder i usually try to make a tasty wet mash. if you can use a little sugar, the peppermint syrup for lattes works pretty well, as well as the tried and true of oil, jello, molasses, apple sauce etc.
How willing is your horse to eat it if it is not totally hidden?
Can you just add a bunch of crushed peppermints to it and pour it into their feed bin? That would be easy for you to have the barn staff do if it would work.
I use squeezy buns. I board , and need to leave pills in containers at stable, to be dispensed daily. They are individually wrapped. Unwrap the amount of nuggets I want to use … I microwave for 25 seconds to soften them up/ Break in half. Put pills in the middle, and squish the two halfs together , to mold over the pills…Place into an individual supplement container …to take to the stable.
I just use a carrot, hollow out the middle with a hoof pick and put the pill in. Much cheaper than the treats and because they are a bit wet the meds stick to it. But that much powder is a lot.
Theres no way to ask the barn staff to pour a bit of water in his grain so it will stick?
Sorry to post so much. I thought of another idea.
I used this product with a powder once. It worked well for me.
It too is a powder so it will be the same theory as the peppermint crumbles, you will have to baggie things for the barn to give it.
Pala-Tech Mask-R-Aid Grandules
2 Likes
Theresak, Do you have problems with the mix going bad? with these packets be good for a week in the hot muggy summer? I might try.
Thanks for the ideas. I tried the Standlee product and I don’t think it will work. It would take a lot of them.Waiting on the dimples. Will also try the fig newtons.
I do a week’s worth at a time with corn oil and it doesn’t go bad. I keep the jug of corn oil in a cooler tack room, but the bags of each day’s meals are out in the barn.
1 Like
Hi,
I tried the fig newton, just pushed in the pergolide and the little arthritis pill into the soft area of strawberry fig newtons…put them in a glad- ware container for the stable feeders to dump in his feed. Within a week, he figured out there was pergolide in there!, and refused to eat it. I even handed him a fig newton without anything in it, and his head turned!
I have tried several commercial pill pockets…the same thing !! Works for a few days, but he discovers the pill! Will even leave his food in the bucket.
HELP!
In a boarding stable , about 20 other horses. 40 minutes away from me. I need to make it easy for the stable help to give supplements.
Horse has to get in his pergolide.
Can they taste or smell it??, a mile away??
I will try the Mask R Aid granules…next…sigh
I do the dimples for a powdered sup I use. Instead of squishing it closed, I break off a piece of another treat and press it gently into the dimple. They usually crumble if you try to pinch them closed. I leave them at the barn with instructions to give one in AM grain, has worked great so far.
1 Like
