Alright, my horse has been on Prascend for a few weeks now. He has started to refuse his apple or carrot with the pill hidden inside. Today I broke the apple into little bits and put it in his grain today. He just refused it. Tried the pill in a handful of grain,no good.
Any ideas? I hate to start adding it to molasses and squirting it down his mouth but that will be my next step,I guess. Any other tips?
I put my boy’s pill in a syringe. He was eating it in his grain, but gave me so much trouble with eating his feed that I just started using the syringe. He is eating again, and I do plan to put the pill (he gets half) in his grain again. It is important that he not get the pill in his first mouthful or he will spit it out.
What else does he like to eat? What about wrapping it in a bit of Fruit Roll Up or Fruit Snax? Or coating it in Coconut oil?
I wonder if the key is to sometimes give him the treat with no pill hidden, so he doesn’t make a firm association?
Or have more “Special” food to give right after the pill so he is motivated to swallow the pill quickly to get to the other food?
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We have to keep switching around with our pony. Now he gets it in a hand full of alfalfa. It’s the only time he gets alfalfa so he eats it.
When he stops this one I’ll try fruit roll ups.
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Fruit roll ups sounds like a good trick. What are they and where do I get them??
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[QUOTE=CHT;8347453]
What else does he like to eat? What about wrapping it in a bit of Fruit Roll Up or Fruit Snax? Or coating it in Coconut oil?
I wonder if the key is to sometimes give him the treat with no pill hidden, so he doesn’t make a firm association?
Or have more “Special” food to give right after the pill so he is motivated to swallow the pill quickly to get to the other food?[/QUOTE]Good question about what he likes. He did eat the carrots and apples at first.mi only had him a few weeks before he was started on Prascend. I will go to the store and get some yummy fig newtons and other treats tomorrow. He’s not in a special diet yet. He actually is quite skinny.
I’ve tried giving more treats without medicine but now he’s refusing all treats.
[QUOTE=Doctracy;8347488]
Good question about what he likes. He did eat the carrots and apples at first.mi only had him a few weeks before he was started on Prascend. I will go to the store and get some yummy fig newtons and other treats tomorrow. He’s not in a special diet yet. He actually is quite skinny.
I’ve tried giving more treats without medicine but now he’s refusing all treats.[/QUOTE]
Horses can have PPID and still be skinny.
The disease still affects them. I am curious on how you have your horse on Prascend (I am assuming from your vet) yet the vet does not have your horse on a detailed diet.
…And one of the side effects of Prascend is loss of appetite. May explain why he’s refusing any treats.
Your horse sounds like mine! Does he live with other horses? What happens if you feed the other horses some carrots, will he eat them then? My horse refused carrots after about six months of giving her pills in them. BUT she will eat a non pill stuffed carrot if she sees me feed carrots to other horses. I don’t know if it’s resource guarding, or that she’s just so damn smart that she knows I won’t feed the other horses pills. LOL I tried the fig newtons…and that worked for maybe two months. I now make my own horse treats to stuff pills into. I try and change up the flavors to keep her guessing. I’ve also used dried figs and dates. She was gobbling those up, until something happened with the dates. She won’t eat those anymore. I wish I could do the syringe method, but I can’t get to the barn every day…and she won’t let anyone catch her but me. sigh She’s a boarding nightmare! lol Good luck!
[QUOTE=beau159;8347525]
Horses can have PPID and still be skinny.
The disease still affects them. I am curious on how you have your horse on Prascend (I am assuming from your vet) yet the vet does not have your horse on a detailed diet.
…And one of the side effects of Prascend is loss of appetite. May explain why he’s refusing any treats.[/QUOTE]
He has lost his appetite. In fact,was instructed to decrease to 1/2 tab daily if needed,which I’m starting just today.
He has Cushings but doesn’t have IR. He is on a low starch diet,small amount alfalfa,but not too strict on the treats.
He was showing loss of top line,weight loss and mild case of laminitis,which improved very quickly,in less than a week from the Prascend.
He’s a skinny 18 year old TB.
My other two are fatties (so everyone is low carbs,except for half an apple daily.( 23 year old paint and 4 year old mixed large pony).
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[QUOTE=fatprincesspony;8347557]
Your horse sounds like mine! Does he live with other horses? What happens if you feed the other horses some carrots, will he eat them then? My horse refused carrots after about six months of giving her pills in them. BUT she will eat a non pill stuffed carrot if she sees me feed carrots to other horses. I don’t know if it’s resource guarding, or that she’s just so damn smart that she knows I won’t feed the other horses pills. LOL I tried the fig newtons…and that worked for maybe two months. I now make my own horse treats to stuff pills into. I try and change up the flavors to keep her guessing. I’ve also used dried figs and dates. She was gobbling those up, until something happened with the dates. She won’t eat those anymore. I wish I could do the syringe method, but I can’t get to the barn every day…and she won’t let anyone catch her but me. sigh She’s a boarding nightmare! lol Good luck![/QUOTE]
I’ve been trying to make him jealous,feeding the pony treats right in his face, I do believe the medicine is decreasing his appetite, except for his alfalfa. I’ll give the figs or dates a try. Great idea!
You can put it in a syringe with some water and give it that way.
Also, alfalfa is usually lower in nsc’s than grass (although I don’t know what you have in North Carolina). It’s actually my preferred hay for IR horses so I wouldn’t shy away from it unless it gives him diarrhea. The extra calories and protein may be very helpful for him.
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[QUOTE=Wonders12;8347645]
You can put it in a syringe with some water and give it that way. [/QUOTE]
That’s what I do, let it dissolve in the water, then just shake it up and squirt it over the feed. Both of mine eat it just fine.
When you feed treats with the pill in them, feed one small one without, then the one with the pill, then a few more chaser ones without.
If you only feed the treat with the pill, that doesn’t last long.
My 17 year old horse on Prascend went for a while to stay with someone else while I had surgery and in that time they may not have followed instructions to the letter and he came back not eating his fig newtons with the pill any more.
I finally got him back on them, but now use feed cubes.
I get a smaller one, that I drill a hole in and drop the pill in and then fill the rest of the hole with one pellet of senior feed.
I give that and then other such cubes without the pill and some handful of senior feed and he has not refused anything for months now.
He is out to pasture and if I have to use a syringe and he doesn’t like, he will quit coming up to the barn, I will have to confine him, so don’t want to go there yet.
At first, I was putting the pill in a handful of grain and after a few times he was eating the grain and sorting the pill out, was all I had left in my hand.
I would tell him he had to eat it and he did, surprised me.
After a while, he would not eat the grain at all, that is when we went to fig newtons.
We use vary several different methods:
Fig Newtons
Jellys - like larger gumdrops. The licorice ones seem to hide the taste better
Grinding it up with a ground up peppermint and wetting grain
When one stops working we switch to another and add the original treat without pills so he becomes less suspicious of it.
I use fig newtons. My gelding seems to have a preference for strawberry. But, he’s super picky regarding the freshness of the fig newtons 
I have to make sure to re-seal the bag very carefully, keep it inside a ziplock bag, and even then he will sometimes start refusing them about halfway through the package, which necessitates a trip to the store for fresh fig newtons
These work really well, and he has never turned them down, but I don’t always get around to ordering them. They come in a regular size and a mini size, which is perfect for the Prascend:
Pill Camo. … it’s made just for situations like this and works well. It also comes in different flavors so that if they catch on to one, you can switch it up! I haven’t had a horse get too savvy yet. They also get pieces of Pill Camo as regular treats, so they don’t have a clue when they get their pill. Also, Prascend is small, so it’s reasonably easy to sneak in. I give it before breakfast in a Pill Camo.
Everyone is giving you really good advice. I’ve made the whole pill-giving routine as fun for my horse as possible from the first day. I give him some of his favorite treats, then a handful of “special” grain that is far tastier than his normal grain with the pill mixed in and then right away give him some more of his favorite treats. I feed all of this out of my hands so it seems really “special” to him and really try to make it into a fun game. The idea is to get him so excited about the whole thing that he eats fast and doesn’t really pay attention to the pill. He also gets his favorite treats at other times so not just when he’s getting medicine.
All that being said, the medicine might be causing your horse to lose his appetite, which would make feeding him anything difficult. You might have to use a syringe temporarily.
Thought I’d chime in here to say I used fruit roll ups tucked in a piece of apple. The stickiness seems to make it harder to spit out.
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I use Sisters’ Horse treats for both of ours. I put a little indent into them with a flat head screwdriver, and pop the tablet(s) in those. We use the low sugar version, which are Granny Smith apples and carrots somehow bound together into a mini-muffin, but they have more than one option. All of our horses love the treats, and they freeze really well, so can be bought in bulk via Sisters’ direction (Alberta Canada). Even my super fussy diva of an Appaloosa likes those treats. He spits out apples and only likes very fresh carrots.
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I think this thread is from 2015? Good advice for anyone currently looking for it though. 
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