Teach him to accept the dose. It’s no worse than a needle.
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When you have tried adding it to his feed; did you soak it down with water? Even with added sweets to feed my guy won’t eat meds on feed unless it’s soaked with water. He’s a sucker for a bran mash.
I have a ho
My horse had a very serious tick disease and had a cath with Tetracycline for two weeks , this was done at vet clinic and yes his neck got very sore.We had to move it as he wouldn’t put his neck down to eat. He can’t get injections in that vein anymore, have to use other side of the neck . He was a very sick horse with huge swollen legs now this was about ten years ago so I don’t know if treatment options have changed. BTW he is now 25 .
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I can’t remember which drug they gave him. doxy or tetra.
If they were administering it via IV catheter, it wasn’t doxycycline.
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Unfortunately, it is not that easy…Nothing is with him. It took a year for me to be able to bridle him with out taking it a apart. He is ultra-sensitive about his mouth.
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Wedgewood makes Doxy in a mint form. Medi-Mints it is called. They arrive tomorrow. I am hoping and praying this is the answer.
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He just walked away from his feed tub, unfortunately it doesn’t work for him…
With my old guy, his poison detector would go into overdrive when you put the teeny weeny doxy pills in his grain. He would rather starve than touch anything that had been poisoned with them. And, once you did that, you never knew when he was going to eat again. It could turn him off grain for several days.
I would mash them up, mix them with peanut butter or apple sauce or molasses and stuff them in his mouth with an old worming syringe. Peanut butter is harder to spit out than applesauce. Definitely make sure his mouth is empty of all things food-related before doing this. And my guy was no peach about any kind of stuff stuck into his mouth. Luckily I’m tall, because I had to give it to him while his 17hh self’s head was as far up in the air as he could get it.
If it is in powder form, put the dose in an oral syringe and fill with apple-sauce and molasses, shake until a good consistency (I kept a metal straw down at horses, to stir it in). Dose orally, then follow up with a dose of applesauce. You could even try yogurt, but you’d need a fridge. Make sure the “solution” is not too watery/runny.
For especially difficult horses, you can make a slurry - mix ginger snaps, a little bit of water, and apple-sauce… way more time consuming, but a thick paste that carries powder very well and is extremely palatable to horses.
No, being rude or not accepting an oral dose is not acceptable. Either put him in a rope halter, or a chain, and have someone help you. If you dose him with a dummy dose of apple-sauce first, you will get him compliant in no time.
For pills, split them into Fig Newtons, rinse/repeat.
I do not top-dress antibiotics or medications anymore. If a horse has to have them, I dose them with an oral syringe. It guarantees that they eat them, whereas if you top-dress there is no guarantee the horse eats their medication, and it also can get wasted/lost because most horses are fairly messy!
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That is easily fixed.
If you need to treat the Lyme, you really don’t have much of an option, especially if he won’t eat the mints either. He needs to accept it via syringe.
(My boy Red also will not eat medication in powder form. The last time he cut his leg up, I had to give him powder antibiotics 2xday for 2 weeks. Put it in the syringe with cinnamon-flavored applesauce each time and got it done.)
I don’t mean any offense, but I’ve honestly never heard of anyone taking a YEAR to get a horse reasonable about being head shy (or mouth shy, or whatever the case may be). Doesn’t mean he’s not sensitive but perhaps you are going about it the wrong way if it took that long.
Do you have a trainer who can help you? Someone who is experienced with ground handling?
Of course, you’re in a push-comes-shove situation where he needs his medication now and you don’t really have time to do training. I agree with Beowulf that you need to do what you need to do. Use a chain leadrope if necessary. But if you can put a bit in his mouth, you can stick a syringe in his mouth.
(My same said boy Red was a butt the first time he cut up his leg. I needed my BO to stand at his head and twist his neck skin when he wouldn’t stand still for me to bandage his back leg. None of us were real happy with the situation but he needed to stand still; period. Same concept of a lip twitch but without the lip twitch. He figured out pretty quick that his neck didn’t hurt if he just stood there nicely. I understand it’s not quite the same thing, but still an example of undesirable behavior that didn’t have time for training.)
I’ve used this drenching gun on a horse that needed oral meds and wouldn’t take them any other way.
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30E07F8A-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5
The medication does have to be made into a slurry to use this, but it works quite well.
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The Medi Mints work. Hopefully issue resolved!!
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