I’ve got two horses needed daily medication. One is easy (you can put it in anything and he’ll eat it). The other, if she smells meds, will weld her own jaws shut.
Neither med can be heated above 200F so it has to be either a low temp cooking recipe or a “refigerator” or room temp recipe. Both meds are powder.
Any help would be appreciated.
G.
Won’t the difficult one be able to smell meds in a treat? I would mix meds with applesauce or molasses in a syringe to make sure she gets it, and then whatever treats afterwards.
Applesauce is key. Technique is key. I no longer need to use the sauce for my horse. She will allow me to dose her with anything because there is always a mint or piece of liquorice afterwards, but I always keep some sauce in my first-aid box to help out fellow boarders or BO.
The one thing I have which makes it even easier is what I think is a 50cc goat feeding syringe and nozzle. The syringe is nylon so it won’t break even if you screw up and it gets chopped. The nozzle is metal, about 6" long and has a bulbous end so there is no possibility of discomfort from scraping the mouth or tongue.
Dose horse with about 20cc of plain applesauce until horse twigs that what they thought was going to be awful is actually delicious. For those really adverse to dosing, this could take a couple of attempts over a couple of days. For the really resistant ones, you will know you’re good to go when they start looking for the syringe instead of ducking away when they see it.
Add meds to next syringe of applesauce and dose. (Stir in syringe with tiny whisk or chopstick if powder and add water if sauce and powder mix is too thick), dose horse
Quickly dose again with plain applesauce, if necessary, repeatedly until horse is over the shock of being bamboozled lol
Offer high value treat like a mint or piece of liquourice
I absolutely swear that if you follow this method you can turn just about any horse into one that you can walk up to anywhere and dose with no halter and no fuss. Fairly quickly you should be able to eliminate steps 1 and 2. Eventually the post meds treat can replace the need to flavour the meds at all. It’s a small pain in the ass to start with but the results last for ever. Also, I do believe the type of syringe is helpful. If you can’t get a goat feeder thingy, at least cut the tip off a plastic syringe, and then take sand paper to the end and the edges so you’re not sticking something in their mouth that can scrape. You’re already insulting the taste buds, don’t add injury too 
Normally I mix oats and molasses(or light corn syrup) with either flour/powdered sugar/a powdered medication until it reaches a little drier than a normal oatmeal cookie dough. No true recipe I just kind of wing it until it seems right. Then I bake until I can pick it up without it sticking to me.
When I need to add a medication for my picky mare I bake at a lower tempature for longer. Works just as well. I also add either crushed peppermints or peppermint extract to cover up any smell or taste of the medicine.
Good luck.
Poop. I typed out a response and it was not approved. No links. This time I will try with links. If that works I will type the dang thing out again .
https://www.enasco.com/p/Sheep-Goat-Nylon-Syringe%2BC15819?searchText=syringes
These are The Best Syringes Ever for oral dosing horses. I currently have the 50cc ones, but that 100cc one is on my list of would like to haves.
https://www.enasco.com/p/Ardes-Plastic-Syringe%2BC15633?searchText=syringes
If you go this way, call Nasco to see if they have this one with the feeding nozzle included. If they don’t, you’ll need one to make it truly useful.
https://www.enasco.com/p/Feeding-Nozzle-for-Sheep-Goat-Nylon-Syringe%2BC24809?searchText=syringes
If this goes through, I will take a few minutes to retype my previous how to make giving oral meds super easy and almost fun manual .
Apparently Fig Newtons are excellent treats for giving meds. I haven’t tried it, but have heard a lot of people on here swear by them. You could open one up and make the powder stick to the sticky stuff inside.
When I had to get sneaky with meds for my gelding, I would crush the pills, mix with a small amount of molasses and/or applesauce and hide it inside an already baked muffin or other baked good. No need to actually bake/heat anything. I’ve also made molasses/oat balls and mixed crushed pills in those.
Could you mix meds with some banana and oats, molasses, let harden in a cool place? In small balls. Try a couple? See if that works? Have mixed with Karo syrup instead of molasses.
My latest and greatest is ground up captain crunch with meds mixed in. Then mix with enough applesauce and molasses to hold it together.
Try something with Karo syrup. The stuff sticks to their tongues and they can’t spit it out.
@sascha You made me LOL :lol:
But I use a mthod similar to yours with a 60cc dosing syringe, tip cut completely off & hole widened to allow thicker concoctions of poison/applesauce to pass through.
Like this:
https://www.healthykin.com/p-3395-mo…c-syringe.aspx
If tablets, I put those in the syringe first, add some warm water (with a finger over the opening on the business end, then put the plunger in & shake to dissolve.
Add applesauce - I get the little 6-packs, they seem to last forever - shake again to mix.
Stick in mouth by the bars, tip upward & try to tap palate (triggers a swallow reflex) & squirt,
The after-treat is generally refused by my now-insulted horses, but they may take it later < after making a series of You Tried to KILL Me! faces. :rolleyes:
Tim Bits, or donut holes to you who do not live in Tim Horton country! Give a real one, give one with pill hidden inside, give a real one etc. Of course this only works with a horse who will eat them- my med averse mare only like mints, apples and carrots tho she has been known to share a granola bar.
I have worked for years with worming syringes of molasses, apple sauce etc which she happily takes but she smells meds a mile away.
My method to medicating is to mix up whatever mixture you need to give in a dosing syringe, stand on right side of horse, put your left hand in mouth on the bars with your thumb under the jaw to open mouth, this stabilises head and prevents them throwing it around around. Dose with right hand, push head up so spitting is not possible.
Mare was on meds for 2 months twice daily last year. This technique saved a lot of wear and tear and misery for us both. She still backs into the corner when she sees a syringe tho!
My pleasure
I will say that the goat feeding nozzle makes a world of difference. Buggers don’t even have to open their jaws. Muahahaa.
I’m currently dosing an older horse who needs oral antibiotics. She’s at the stage where everything goes ok, but she still won’t take a treat afterwards yet lol. Treats before I dose anyone (I’m also medicating my own horse at the moment) are fine, but if I dose my horse and then try to give old horse a treat, “NO! I CAN SMELL SOMETHING ON YOUR HANDS!!! … but that mint LOOKS delicious … BUT I CAN’T TAKE IT BECAUSE I CAN SMELL SOMETHING!!!” and then she takes her meds just fine and continues to refuse treats. She will be over that by the end of the bottle 
I’ve spent a lot of years working for vets, being a foaling manager and being the horse care manager for a very large farm- aka I’ve done a LOT of meds. For things that can be dissolved like SMZs or bute- dissolve in a cup of warm water and then add pancake syrup or molasses. Dose syringe in the mouth or pour over grain. If there’s an IR issue- Ukele makes sugar free flavorings that work very well (and come with a nice, non-messy pump). For a small pill like Prascend- a small nick in a carrot or apple slice works great. Or I know some people like fig newtons but my horses won’t eat them. For a large amount of pills that won’t dissolve, a grinding them in a coffee grinder, then sprinkling it over something sticky like molasses and adding some oatmeal or wheat bran and rolling it all together seems to do the trick (I use a paper plate for this)
That is my mare lol. Gets all bent out of shape after the syringe and refuses treats. Clearly I’m trying to kill her! :lol:
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