Hydroxizine

[colorfan]

The + temps last week brought on the spring allergies the mare has. I have hydroxyzine from last year, powdered form. I have been able to get her to eat it in the past mixed in with her beet pulp etcetera, but for now I am looking for a quicker way to admin.

I was thinking of using a worming paste syringe and shoot the paste into her mouth but what to make the paste out of? Apple sauce…seems like it would be too thin and just run out her mouth
Another thought I have is to mix it in honey and use a spatula, or my finger, to get it into her mouth. honey would be so sticky and in -15 temps a hard clean up.
Open to ideas.
I can mix it in her food, just means I have to stay with her until she is finished then turn her out.

[trubandloki]

@colorfan

The + temps last week brought on the spring allergies the mare has. I have hydroxyzine from last year, powdered form. I have been able to get her to eat it in the past mixed in with her beet pulp etcetera, but for now I am looking for a quicker way to admin.

I was thinking of using a worming paste syringe and shoot the paste into her mouth but what to make the paste out of? Apple sauce…seems like it would be too thin and just run out her mouth
Another thought I have is to mix it in honey and use a spatula, or my finger, to get it into her mouth. honey would be so sticky and in -15 temps a hard clean up.
Open to ideas.
I can mix it in her food, just means I have to stay with her until she is finished then turn her out.

Probably the easiest solution, if you know she will eat it in food, is to mix it in a small amount of food so she will just gobble it down and you can walk away.

Apple sauce in a syringe works great, but yes, you have to make sure they swallow it.

If it was pills I would suggest fig newtons.

[Simkie]

Are you looking to dose orally because she’s not interested in eating, or just for ease?

If they’ll eat it, that’s often just easier. Mix with a high value handful of grain, or with one of those single serve apple sauce cups. Pancake syrup (regular or sugar free) or coffee syrups (same thing) can make anything more exciting.

If she won’t eat it herself, my go to is one of these dosing syringes (they come in different sizes) and adding enough peppermint coffee syrup & water to make a paste of the drug.

The longer tip of the dosing syringe really gets to the back of the mouth, and the peppermint flavor covers bitter meds well.

[RedHorses]

If she’s good about syringes, then with something palatable like applesauce as a carrier she will quickly learn that it is tasty and she won’t spit it out. A 60cc cather tip syringe works well. The caveat is to not squirt it in too quickly. I can squirt water out of my 60cc syringe and have it go 25’. Imagine that hitting the back of your horse’s mouth - no wonder they’re spitting it out!

I have been giving my senior 1-3 syringes a day for years. I can still walk up to him in the field and give him his meds without a halter, and without him walking away between syringes. I do have a hand under his chin to keep his nose up (lower jaw parallel to the ground so gravity doesn’t pull it down his throat) but he usually lifts his head off my hand and I’m basically blocking the drop until I hear him swallow.

I have Hydroxyzine capsules that I open up to put in a syringe with 45cc of RespiFree. He’s slower to swallow than if it’s uncontaminated RespiFree as the Hydroxyzine has an unpleasant taste, but he does swallow.

[luvmyhackney]

I mix with water/applesauce/sugar free pancake syrup for my ponies cushings meds. Bet it would work for the allergy meds.

You just add enough ingredients to get the consistency right.

[colorfan]

@Simkie

The longer tip of the dosing syringe really gets to the back of the mouth, and the peppermint flavor covers bitter meds well.

I will order a dosing syringe, great idea.

@RedHorses

The caveat is to not squirt it in too quickly

Good tip!,

@luvmyhackney

water/applesauce/sugar free pancake syrup

I will play around with applesauce and syrups, thank you all for your ideas.

[Critter]

Applesauce works great! When I have to do bute, I mix the powder with a tbsp of applesauce and syringe it in. My one mare who hated wormers (ie - first time I went to deworm her, I got body slammed into the water buckets)…will stand quietly for stuff mixed in applesauce. It’s not as thin/runny as you think it will be.

[colorfan]

Do you use a regular syringe? Maybe I could cut the tip off the syringe. I think it will be too thick to push through a syringe. Tomorrow when I go to town I will get some applesauce.

[colorfan]

Tonight I mixed a couple tablespoons of pancake syrup and the Hydroxyzine an syringed it in. The syrup seemed just thick enough to stop it from running out like water.
The trick will be if she accepts it tomorrow. lol

[Critter]

I use a regular needle tip 20cc syringe (no needle obviously!) that I broke the tip off of and took a pair off scissors to widen the hole. The hole is only so large that I can easily block it off with my finger tip so when I add the meds I can block it from coming out.

[oldernewbie]

When my horse was on hydroxyzine I bought it in pill form and just put it in with his feed. 10 of those plus 10 zyrtecs, 2x a day. He ate it without missing a beat. Guess he’s just a big chow hound!

I will probably never be able to use the fig newton trick again - tried it once with bute and he could smell the bute a mile away. Would not eat the plain fig newtons after that. I ended up giving them to the kids at the barn (minus the bute of course

[colorfan]

My vet appointment has finally arrived. Any suggestions on what to ask about regarding this mare’s swollen, weepy eyes?
The hydroxyzine may or may not have helped. The first week I didn’t notice any improvement, there is definite improvement now, but I don’t know if that is the hydroxyzine (how long does it take to work) or just the natural course, whatever bothered her is less somehow.
She has a history of allergies every spring, her feed does not change.

[LCDR]

If you are shopping for disposable plastic dosing syringes, they are frequently referred to as “catheter tip syringes.”

[Christa_P]

I keep empty dewormer syringes for dosing meds.

[RedHorses]

Antihistamines take effect relatively quickly (hours, not days). They do have a longer useful life when taken daily, but if you didn’t see anything in the first couple of days I’d guess there’s something else that’s making her feel better in week two.

[RhythmNCruise]

Tis the season for the sensitive ones to have swollen, weepy eyes. My gelding is going through that right now. I’ve used hydroxizine in the past with pretty good results for that issue, but as suffers from anihidrosis in the dead of summer, I try to avoid it now. He wears a fly mask 24/7 and I’ve just started him on spirulina from Mad Barn (as in…started yesterday). I’m hoping that the spirulina is the trick that helps him not be so itchy, weepy, and wheezy this spring and summer.

I would say that in your horse’s case, the hydroxizine probably IS helping. My horse’s eye discharge was the first thing I’d notice a difference in when I was giving him hydroxyzine. They’d clear up and I’d try to stop and his eyes would be right back to runny/crusty.

[colorfan]

@RhythmNCruise

I’ve just started him on spirulina from Mad Barn

I started with spirulina last spring, can’t say I noticed a difference. But ymmv. Good luck

[Shelbytwohorse]

The Fig Newton thing is brilliant! Definitely going to give that a try!