suggestions for giving medication

[2miniB]

I’m really stumped on how to get my mare to take her pergolide pill. Hiding the pill in a little handful of Chaffhaye was working really, really well. But she’s been very difficult about it over the past month or so. I tried to hide it in some dried peppermint, but she’s not taking that either. Ditto for a grape or some fenugreek.

The problem is she’s extremely IR and unusually sensitive to sugar. I know this really limits my options on treats to hide stuff in. Whatever it is, it must be extremely low in sugar and starch. After all, this is the horse that couldn’t handle a 1/4 cup soaked and rinsed beet pulp.

I’m giving compounded pergolide capsules. Would they dissolve in water? I already have to syringe feed her minerals, so I could just pop the pergolide in and let it dissolve. Though I have to be very careful, since I’m allergic to pergolide. Prascend is prohibitively expensive, which is why I’m using the compounded version.

She’s alert, happy and active, even with the sporadic pergolide dosing. Her teeth are in great shape per the vet in April. She only had 3 stronglyes in her last fecal (April). Normally I wouldn’t treat for that low a count, but I decided to give her a dose of ivermectin to see if maybe that’d help get her interested in taking her pill again. But it didn’t work. She’s ~26 years old and shed out normally this year like normal. Though she didn’t grow any winter coat at all this past year.

I’d really appreciate any suggestions, since I don’t want to go through another bout of laminitis with her.

Is there any benefit to pergolide if its not given regularly?

[sid]

I would switch to the tablet form. I’ve never had a horse avoid it.

If you don’t want to do that and keep the capsules, you can safely give a beet pulp mash (get the beet pulp with no molasses) and just dump the contents in it after soaking it in hot water and letting it sit for 10 mins or so.

It will seem like a grain meal, is appropriate for IR horses…and she’s likely to gobble it all up.

[AKB]

I give the Prascend tablet in a piece of hollowed out carrot. My oldster was spitting out the compounded liquid. Not only are the tablets more stable/more likely to maintain effectiveness, but they are easier to administer to my old guy.

[Rondar]

The Equine Cushings and IR Yahoo group gave the suggestion of peanuts in the shell as a low sugar treat for IR horses. Both my horses, the IR one and the healthy one, love them. My mini horse will usually eat her Prascend tablet broken in two with her meal of about 1/5 cup of pellets, but if I find one piece uneaten, I hide it inside a peanut shell.

[cayuse]

Can she have a tiny piece of apple? My Cushing’s/IR pony got his pergolide capsule “stuck” into an apple slice. It was the only “treat” he got and he scarfed it down every time. If you wait a minute or two the capsule starts to dissolve a bit into the apple making it less likely that they spit it out.

[merrygoround]

BM splits Pracend in 1/2, places in feed. Gone. Feed is 1/2 lb of Low Starch.

[newhorsemommy]

I also use the tablet and feed it inside a Fig Newton. You could even break the Fig Newton in half to reduce the sugar.

They make sugar-free Fig Newtons, but they might contain some weird artificial sweetener.

Another option would be the “mini” pill camo made by Nicker Bait. It’s a soft horse cookie with a raisin paste center to hide pills. It has sugar, but the mini cookie is about the size of a small strawberry, so I would think the amount of sugar would be pretty negligible.

http://www.nickerbait.com/

[2miniB]

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

I’m a bit reluctant to use a piece of apple or carrot. I had her on 1/4 cup beet pulp twice a day to carry her minerals, but I couldn’t get any weight off her. I’d think that 1/4 cup beet pulp soaked and rinsed would have less or the same amount of sugar as those treats.

She’s gotten very good at figuring out there’s a pill in the treat, and she refuses the treat when there’s a pill. If I offer a handful of Chaffhaye with her pill in it…no go. I offer Chaffhaye and no pill…yum!

She gets 2 cups of timothy cubes once a day to keep her busy while the minis eat. I can’t hide the pill in that, since she’ll just eat all around it.

I wish I could try peanuts, but I’m allergic.

[sascha]

Hang on, 1/2 cup rinsed beet pulp 2x day made it impossible for her to lose weight?

Um, how about cut something else down, or tie her while the minis eat, or any number of any other options and use something that was working for you - the beet pulp.

What else besides the timothy cubes does she eat? Is she on pasture? Hay? Chaffhaye? A combination of those possibilities?

At any rate, subtract some calories elsewhere from her diet and add back in the beet pulp as carrier for her meds.

[sid]

Do you soak the timothy cubes to rid it of carbs?

I’d be hesitant t to use carrots or apple either if your horse is severely IR. 1/4 plain beet pulp (molasses free) should not be a problem.

I have had several IR horses, one extremely severe. Plain beet pulp was never a problem for him.

[2miniB]

She weight tapes at 747lbs and lives in a dry lot with 2 minis (250 and 300lbs each). They get 25-30lbs of tested low NSC hay total every 24 hours (fill slow feeders twice daily).

If I soak the timothy cubes she won’t eat them. She only eats them dry. They’re the Ontario Dehy Timothy Balance Cubes, so I’m pretty sure they’re low enough in NSC for her without soaking.

Five years ago, she was getting 2% of her ideal body weight (730lbs) in tested low NSC hay every day, 1/4 cup beet pulp twice a day and her supplements. Living in a dry lot. And I could not get weight off her. She weight taped at over 900lbs (and she’s only 13.3hh). I was giving molasses free plain beet pulp shreds…soaked and rinsed.

I ultimately stopped feeding the beet pulp because she quit eating it. Then I went to TC Safe Starch (some weight loss but not enough). And now the timothy cubes.

Today, she’s in the same living situation, getting hay from the same producer, and 2 cups of timothy cubes. And she’s pretty close to her ideal weight. I really don’t understand it myself…how she’s be better off with 2 cups of timothy cubes vs 1/2 cup beet pulp every day.

She hasn’t touched pasture for 5 years. Once she diagnosed IR, I stopped pasturing her. She’s out in a dry lot w/ run in 24/7.

When she’d take it, I was using maybe 1/8 cup Chaffhaye to hide her pill in.

She is extremely IR and her leptin is sky high, even with diet and lifestyle changes and weight loss. Her leptin was a little over 10 5 years ago when she was over 900lbs and on low NSC hay and beet pulp. Today her leptin is a little over 9.

[sid]

I’m confused,maybe I didn’t read close enough. Is your mare a horse or a mini? You said she is in with minis, but I’m not sure if she is a horse or a mini.

If she’s a horse then she’s likely scarfing down their rations.

If she’s a mini, I’ve never know one to be over 700 lbs…well, I hope I never do.

BTW, soaking hay for 10 minutes is not enough to reduce the carbs/sugar.

[newhorsemommy]

Here’s a sugar free horse cookie with a soft center for hiding pills. It does have Stevia.

http://barnbites.com/ProductDescriptions.html

[gumtree]

I always find it amusing the lengths and time people go to over meds. IMO every barn should have an inexpensive coffee grinder. Though the meds in it take the powder mix with water, throw in a “flavor” to help the “medicine go down” put in a dosing syringe and be done with it.

[Laurierace]

I have a coffee grinder but the prascend is like literally the size of half a tic tac, that is not possible to grind. I have been hiding it in stud muffins but he is on to me and now won’t even eat them without the pill in it. Today I took a handful of small peppermint treats and put the pill inside the handful, it took three tries but he finally ate it.mmluckily he is not IR.

[ladipus]

I give my extremely IR senior pony his Previcoxx in a Studmuffin Slim(half the sugar) or a German horse muffin treat…vet said 1-2 per day isn’t going to throw him off…I’ve also had great results feeding Progressive Nutritions Proadd Ultimate mixed with a handful of Triple Crown Senior…I’m able to put in his ground up Metformin& Isoxsuprine , along with his Thyroid med, Heiro, Remission, and MSM …that’s a lot of supplements and meds in a very tiny amount of feed…the Heiro really helps campground the taste of all the other stuff really well! …another thing you could try is Uckeles GUT powder is very tasty and is good at hiding other stuff
also…I feed a low sugar Timothy that I get from Heidel Hollow farm…I don’t mess around with soaking -my pony would t eat it that way …he’s doing so well -complete turn around after a good 3 months on this strict regimen…he’s now back out in his pasture with his buddies!

What meds is she on? My pony lost a considerable amount of weight -mainly in part from the thyroid medication (it’s a granule) and the Metformin …also the ProAdd Ultimate is very concentrated and high in Protein…the higher the protein -the better it helps lower and regulate insulin per Dr Frank Riley-creator of Heiro

[sascha]

Build a creep feeding area for the minis. Some sort of divider where they can get in to eat their rations, but your mare can’t get in to steal extras off their supply.

Feed the mare her weighed quantity somewhere away from the minis’ feeding area. If necessary, tie her hay net up too high for the little guys to get into.

Go back to feeding your beet pulp with the pill.

I would be fairly substantial amounts of money that if you do this, she’ll be fine, because dollars to doughnuts, she’s been stealing off their rations.

[2miniB]

She’s a 700+ lb large pony and she lives with 2 minis.

I divide the run in into 3 areas at feeding time. She goes into her pen, and the minis go into their own separate pens. They each get an individual feed bucket, and they don’t get released until everyone is done.

The rest of the time, I have 4 slow feeders set up, so they can all find hay if they want to eat. Ironically, the minis spend more time eating than she does.

The last time she had beet pulp was 3 years ago. I had to stop it since she wasn’t loosing weight, and she stopped eating it. I tried to re-introduce it, and she now refuses to eat it.

She’s on pergolide, which she’s supposed to get every day. I haven’t been able to get it in her regularly over the past month, but I haven’t noticed any outward issues with her not getting it regularly.

My whole issue with grinding pergolide (or prascend) is that I’m really allergic to the stuff. I was giving her the powder at first, and I got huge rashes on my arms…even though I wore gloves and had long sleeves on. And it just got worse. I really don’t want to have a big allergic reaction to her medication.

[Calamber]

I used to care for one WB mare and 5 donkeys, 4 of them had to have Prascend, the pill dissolves so easily that I put ithem in a small syringe, sucked up a couple ccs of water, shook and stuck in their mouth. The mare would take in feed until she would not and then I would just stick it in a bit of succulent fresh grass which will work as long as there is fresh grass.

[Showbizz]

[QUOTE=merrygoround;8182093]
BM splits Pracend in 1/2, places in feed. Gone. Feed is 1/2 lb of Low Starch.[/QUOTE]

This is what I do. My picky pony has no idea she’s eating her meds.